I always do my taxes myself using Cash app or Turbotax. In 2023 our MAGI got too high without realizing it and overcontributed to Roth IRAs which I had to do recategorizations, did some other things I probably shouldn't of, and needed to be corrected. We decided to go the professional route. So I found a place right down the street from me that does full service income tax, tax preparation, financial advising, etc. I had them do my taxes this year because it got a little too complicated for us, wanting to make sure it was done correctly, and to also ask our tax questions we had concerning over contributions, recharacterization, tax implications, backdoor Roths, etc in Vanguard. I would have rather asked you fine folks at r/personalfinance but my wife didn't want to trust the advice of random people on the internet. :) This place we found has wonderful reviews on google and people really like them. It advertises that the owner has been in the news on Kiplinger, WSJ, U.S. News, Marketwatch, etc. The secretary at the place told me they can certainly review what we did in Vanguard and answer all our questions while completing our taxes in a week. There was a $350 deposit for a basic return, in which she told me it sounded like mine would only be $350 because I didn't have rental income, business expenses, etc.
Last night we had a zoom call with this person to go over our taxes and to answer our questions about what we did/should do with Vanguard and I got very upset. She refused to answer any tax questions we had with what we did with Vanguard; instead, telling us to call Vanguard. Well Vanguard does not give tax advice and this was the main reason we came to this place. We tried calling Vanguard and asking but they wouldn't answer us giving the standard response of "ask a tax professional." If this wasn't bad enough, the charge of $350 was now an additional $500 because there were a few form 8606 forms she had to do to make our traditional IRAs non deductible (which we wanted to do in order to do a backdoor and correct a recharacterization). Should I be upset that she charged me an extra $500 simply because we have to file a few 8606 forms in additional to the standard forms? That seemed like BS to me. How are forms 8606 an extra $500?? She had no intention of giving me the tax advice we came to them for except telling me to ask Vanguard. Oh and she also tried to upsell wealth management that would "guarantee a 7% return" in an annuity. And some kind of "daily" tax loss harvesting account they can do. Do I have any recourse to complain and try to get out of the extra fees for form 8606? Feeling like leaving a bad google review which would be this place's first bad review. Or am I just venting and this is how these places are?
original posted by ravens40 to r/personalfinance on Wed, 28 Feb 2024 13:26:49 GMT.