Alexander Thompson Arnold CPAs

This review is as fair and unbiased as I can make it. My experience at ATA CPA's revolves around the 2019 tax year.nnI run a very small business, and wanted to file my taxes with a CPA to ensure everything was done right, I have done this for several years and used a variety of CPA's, as I have moved a couple times since starting my business.nnThis review is negative, and the negativity is focused around the professionalism of how my paperwork and taxes were taken care of.nIssue #1:nnI contacted ATA around early March, and sat down with them to prepare my filing for 2019. I supplied an itemized expense list to my CPA for ever cost I incurred during the fiscal year. This is the same list/spreadsheet I have used for 6 years, nearly all expenses have been the same things since I started my business. The last 2 CPA's I have used have approved of this list, even with additions from them to increase my expense portfolio. Whenever I received my finalized return copy that was to be sent to the IRS, it had nearly half of my expenses marked off, reducing my total expenses by a few thousand dollars. I raised this concern to my CPA, and they said they would be happy to sit down and discuss these with me in office, for an hourly fee of over $100 per hour. Given that I know these were deductible in the past, and I am a very small business, I had to say no and bite the difference from year to year. This made me feel like ATA does not want to ensure you receive the maximum refund you are due, but that they want to ensure they receive the maximum amount out of your pocket that they can.nnIssue #2:nI provided my bank account information to ATA CPA's during my initial tax preparation meeting, a photo copy of my account and routing info was scanned into their system. Whenever I returned a few weeks later to return my authorization form so that they could file my taxes with the IRS, they told me that they didn't have my bank account information on file, and that I would need to run back in and provide it so that they could enter my direct deposit my information and I could receive my refund faster.nnIssue #3:nThree to four weeks pass and my refund hasn't deposited into my account. I assume that due to the current public health concerns, the IRS is taking longer to process. Then on 5/18, I receive an envelope from the US Treasury with a paper check for my refund inside. I am obviously concerned as I provided my account information to ATA two separate times, and they failed to enter it when filing my taxes. Again, evidence that they could not properly handle my information to file my taxes correctly. I am not a large business, I did not require special attention or provide specific instructions that could have caused a problem. Given that ATA is a large firm, I expected my taxes and banking information to be accurately filed because that is exactly what I paid them to do. This is the very reason I didn't file my own taxes.nnIssue #4:nI called ATA to discuss this concern with them. I spoke with the area manager for several minutes on the phone. He explained to me that they never entered my account information into the packet sent off to the IRS properly. I was given excuses including it was due to COVID-19, and that the usual packet processor was out that day due to child care issues. While these are problems that they faced during the processing of my return, I expected a large firm who charges hefty fees to be able to handle something as simple as this. I don't feel my expectations for a CPA to be able to file taxes correctly is too far reaching. At the end of the day, not much should have changed, as they already filed the information electronically. The manager that spoke to me admitted that it was there mess up, however he never offered any resolution to this problem, but kept returning to the ongoing virus as a cause.