You rely on your accountant to deal with important financial matters, whether they be for your business or your personal affairs. Mistakes on their part can have expensive consequences – and potentially even land you in trouble with HMRC.
Accountants are subject to professional codes of conduct which they must not breach. If you believe the service you received from your accountant was below a legally acceptable standard, you may be entitled to compensation. Most accountants will be insured against a claim, and we can help you bring one if you've been confronted with negligence in the last six years.
Do You Have a Claim?
The success of your professional negligence claim is dependent on the circumstances surrounding the event. Typical scenarios where you may have a case include those where an accountant has:
- Provided incorrect tax advice
- Missed an important deadline; for example an annual return
- Failed to advise properly
- Made an inaccurate valuation of business assets
- Missed fraudulent / wrongful activity when auditing accounts
There are many other situations in which action can be taken, and our friendly, knowledgeable specialists can quickly establish whether you have a potential claim depending on your individual circumstances. Get in touch with us today to discuss your options.
Case Study
During the preparation of annual returns, a retail company’s accountant discovered that the former accountancy firm who had prepared and filed accounts from the prior 10 years with HMRC had drastically overstated the company’s profits. The former accountants were embedded within the company’s financial operations, working within the company every month, and this is how the error had accumulated over a period of several years.
Upon discovering the error, the company had a legal duty to notify HMRC of the erroneous past years’ accounts and was obliged to make adjustments, not only in respect of the company but also with regard to the personal tax position of its directors. This was to be a costly and long-winded task. Further complications included the possibility that the company’s financial backers may lose confidence and withdraw, as might its bankers, once the true profits had been reported.
We were able to work with the company’s new accountants to demonstrate the errors in the last accounting period and were able to persuade the insurers for the negligent accountancy firm to reach a compromise to settle claims for a prior decade's worth of errors. The opposing party also met our client’s legal costs.
