D & M Tax Service, Inc. 115 Cumberland Road Bedford, PA My husband is a self-employed truck driver since April of 2004. We needed an accountant-bookkeeping service and contacted D & M Tax Service, Inc. to do this for us. I was told that they would do everything accurately for us and that we wouldn't need to worry about anything because I explained to them the problems we had with Jackson Hewitt doing our tax forms for us when we weren't self-employed. (Jackson Hewitts' mistake cost us money in penalties). And knowing that there was lots more to be done now, I wanted professionals handling this. I should of seen this coming in March 2004. I got the phone call that our taxes were finished I was also informed that we owed D & M Tax Service $520.00 in fees. I asked her to explain to me why I owed so much. She told me that I owed for bookkeeping services and tax preparation fees. Again I wanted to know what bookkeeping fees that I owed her because I had only received one bill from them all year long for $100 and I had paid that. She wanted me to produce proof that I paid that money and I reminded her that since her company was doing my bookkeeping for me, they should of seen the receipt from their own company in the bundle of receipts that I took for them to book. Well in the end they deducted the $100 because they had made a mistake in their own books and were sorry that they did not send me any bills for bookkeeping but I still owed the $420 that had to be paid before I could collect my taxes. Well okay so if we break this amount down it would be $100 a quarter and then $120 for tax prep. We paid it. After that incident, I should of known better to take anything back to them. But like an idiot, I trusted them and continued to let them do our bookkeeping. I finally get a bill for bookkeeping services in September 2005 for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd quarters of 2005 for $100 a quarter. That adds up to $300. I paid that bill and tucked the receipt into the other receipts that needed to be booked. And in December I hauled them all into their office to be booked. In December I get another bill from them for $150 for Jan-March of 2006 that has highlighted on it that I don't need to pay it until March of 2006!!! I still never received a bill for the 4th quarter of 2005. The other day I called them to see if our taxes were finished and was called later and told that they were finished and that we owed them $420!!! Again, I asked them to break this down for me because I had paid every bill that I received from them. The woman told me that according to their records I had not paid them at all in 2005. I told her she had better look at the books she is keeping for me and she should see in there that I did pay them. Nothing would do her until I produced check numbers with the amounts that I did pay them $300. That would bring the $420. down to $120. Right? And when I pay the 4th quarter booking fees (which are supposed to be $100) that would bring that amount down to $20 I owe them for tax preparation fees, right? Wrong! They still claimed that I owed them $195. $100 for the 4th quarter and then $95 tax preparation fees. I was not going to argue with them anymore, I just wanted my taxes and the rest of my receipts and find someone else to do 2006 for us. Well when I got my taxes they figured that I owe $6000 in taxes!!! I brought them home and started to look at our deductions and they seemed way too low. I called them and started asking questions and the woman I was talking too didn't know anything about deductions. (yes, she works in a tax office) A while later I get a call from the head honcho, Diane. She began the conversation very defensively saying that I was calling in to her office saying that she didn't do her job. I told her that I was merely asking questions and since she is my accountant and I am paying her that I should be allowed to call and ask questions. Well needless to say the conversation went down hill from there. I told her that I wanted our books that she has been keeping and she told me that those were "HER" books and that I did not pay for them. They are written in pencil and if there would be an audit she would need them for three years. I told her in three years that I want those records destroyed because they might be her books but the information in her books is ours. She told me in three years she wouldn't even remember my name. I assured her in three years I would remember her name. When I asked her why she didn't deduct anything for our internet service she laughed at me and asked what a truck driver needed internet for. I explained to her that we do online banking, bill paying, directions, phone numbers for plants and check the tripak. She told me she never seen a receipt for internet service. I told her that I put a receipt in for every month and I even highlighted it and noted in the margin what it was for...she hung up on me. And before she hung up on me she told me that I was yelling at her...hmmm...I WONDER WHY!!! I called them about 2 months ago and told them that I would like a monthly accounting of roughly what we made monthly. I was told that I could do that on my own and that they did not have time to do that. But I could check back with them in 3 months or so. This is what they should of been doing all along since I was paying them to do our bookkeeping quarterly. And since they are our accountants they should of did a quarterly report for us and estimated our taxes...after all wasn't I paying $100 a quarter for this?? Well since then I got all of our receipts out and I am creating my own books that are written in PEN. I took 2 years of Accounting in high school and even I know that you do not do your books in pencil. I found a bunch of fuel receipts and started to sort them out by month (which should of been done by them) and added each month up twice. And so far I have found $3000 difference from what they have come up with. We are getting our taxes redone and from now on I am doing our own bookkeeping. I am also planning to go through 2004 and see what all they have missed there also. And another mistake that I know they have made is on the cell phone deduction. They have that we spent $2257 for cell phones. Well our cell phone bill averages about $165 a month. That times 12 = $1980. Now lets add activation fees and the cost of the cell phones themselves which totaled around $500 and that comes to $2480. Which is 223 difference from their total. Let's throw in the internet deduction which they didn't bother to add up. 17.50 x 12 = $210.00. I wouldn't recommend D & M Tax Service to anyone. These people are totally incompetent, rude and lazy. When you go in their office if the overwhelming cloud of cigarette smoke doesn't knock you over than the offensive signs they have hanging up sure will. Diane is completely out of touch with the tax laws and she has no idea what she is doing. Her attitude is terribly unprofessional and just plain inhuman. She hires people who never seem to know anything when you call them and they never call you to question a receipt or possible deduction. When our taxes are redone and if the difference is a large amount (which I am pretty confident that it will be) we are planning to give them one chance to make it right with us. I would like to at least get the cost of tax preparation for this year back if not the full amount that we paid them all year long. Considering that I am having to redo everything they have done and find all of their mistakes, I think that would be pretty fair. If they refuse, I am going to the Better Business Bureau and then I am going to our state representivies office. If I still can find no one to help me it will be time to hire a lawyer to recover our costs. At this point I really don't care if we pay more for a lawyer than what we paid them because as you all know...the cost of a lawyer for business purposes IS TAX DEDUCTIBLE!!!