Morrison & Associates

We were very disappointed with the services at Morrison and Associates. We hired them to do our business and personal taxes for 2014, and the experience was not a good one. We met with Bill in Feb, to discuss switching our tax services to them. To be fair, Bill was very nice, and he seems very knowledgeable, which is why we made the decision to switch, but things didn’t go well after the first meeting. Our corporate taxes were due on March 15^th, and they weren’t ready until the day before, and there were mistakes made, so we had to file an extension, costing extra money, and this is a tiny, tiny company with no payroll, so it is not as if our taxes are complex at all. During this process, I worked with a person there who did our business return, and as they were adjusting the journal entries in a different manner than we have done the last 8 years, I had questions. I could never get an answer that made sense, and multiple times, after doing my own research, I had to respond that what she was saying was wrong. She would check with Bill, and it turned out that she was wrong. The fact that I have to double check her answers does not give me confidence in having them manage our taxes.
After that, we waited for our personal returns, as well as the return for my daughter. Over the next month, I called 4 or 5 times, inquiring as to the status. Sometimes they thought they were almost done, sometimes they thought my daughter’s were done but not sure if they were filed, but they said Bill would know, but he is out, and they will call me back. The problem, no one ever called back. Our concern was that if we were going to owe a lot in taxes, I don’t want to find out on April 15^th I have to come up with a lot of money. Finally taxes were done on April 13^th, I went to pick them up, and not only did they have the automatic payment set up for my taxes, but estimated tax payments set for 2015 (which would pay way more than necessary). I had explained upfront, that I pay estimated taxes on my own, based on my earnings which vary. I reminded them of this and they said they would remove the automatic estimated payments. I also noted they were taking part of my state refund and using it to prepay my state taxes for 2015. I asked why would we do this, if I already get a refund every year, that just makes for a bigger refund? They had no answer, but said they would fix it so I received the entire refund Two days later I check my bank account and $ 2,100 was automatically paid for next years taxes. I called them. They said they made a mistake but oops, too late to undo it. I had to contact the bank to dispute the payment. A week later, I got my State refund… minus the prepayment for next years taxes… I guess they forgot to correct that too.
My final complaint came with my bill for services. Before switching, I asked what they charged, and while they said it varies, they gave me the base rates. I explained what I paid previously, and they gave me the impression it would be similar. Guess what? Double. and not just on a small personal return, this was $ 1400 vs $ 700 from my previous accounting firm. I understand not giving an exact quote, but when I tell you what I paid last year, and provide copies of my returns so you can see the work, I think you could mention that your services are likely to double for this amount of work. Maybe that is too much to expect. Still, considering our taxes took twice as long to be completed, and I could never get good answers on my questions from anyone other than Bill, and they didn’t return phone calls, does not make it a service worth twice as much. Premium price is Ok for premium service, but certainly not for bad service. I let the owner know we were disappointed in the services and why, I never heard back. Though recently an employee contacted me about filing payroll taxes. I explained, I have no employees, no payroll, never have and so I do not need to file.