Arenas Professional Services

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2016/05/03) */ Contact Name and Title: [redacted] - Manager Contact Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXX Contact Email: [redacted] @arenasps.com First of all, we would like the client to know that we do take complaints very seriously and we will do our best to resolve this... issue. This particular client was being helped out by one of our first-year tax pros who is CTEC certifed and is in compliance with all state and federal guidelines to be able to prepare taxes. I do not agree with the "fraudulent return" term that the client is using. We are not in the business of doing anything fraudulent. Unfortunately, there was some miscommunication between the client and the tax pro. The tax pro believed that the client had two dependent children who qualified the client for the Earned Income Credit, when in reality only one of the children is considered to be qualified. The one who is qualified is his legitimate child while the other is not and therefore the EIC does not apply to the second child. This caused the preparer to believe that there would be an additional refund owed to the client for their 2014 Income Tax return, but as we later found out, this is not to be the case. The confusion lies in the client's original copy for 2014 which was prepared by another tax company who listed the second dependent as "Child" which is not a valid term. The "Child" relationship status was discontinued in tax year 2007, but for some reason it is still being used by other places. Therefore the client was not entitled to more refund and the Amended return which they paid $170 should not have been prepared or filed. So we will more than gladly refund the client the tax preparation fees for the 2014 Amended return of $170. As far as the 2015 Income Tax return, there have been no issues with that return that we have been made aware of. If there are, we are open year-round to help out our clients with any situation that may arise with their tax return. As far as we know, everything worked out fine with the 2015 tax return, and if not, we are more than happy to help them fill out any necessary forms that the IRS is requesting to ensure that the client receives refund amount owed. Since this is not the case, I don't see why we should refund tax preparation fees for 2015 in the amount of $125 for a service that was received. When it comes to the issue of client claiming that they did not receive copies of 2015 tax forms, it is our practice to give everyone copies of their tax return at the time the tax return is filed and all documents are signed. If client has lost or misplaced their copies, the option was given to them to come back in June when we would have their copies, or to go to the local IRS office and get a transcript. The reason we don't have the copies now, is because we had two office locations and we will not consolidate client files from all computers until then. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause the client, but this is how our we conduct our business, and this in no way goes against any federal or state laws.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/05/03) */
Contact Name and Title: [redacted] - Manager
Contact Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXX
Contact Email: [redacted]@arenasps.com
First of all, we would like the client to know that we do take complaints very seriously and we will do our best to resolve this...

issue. This particular client was being helped out by one of our first-year tax pros who is CTEC certifed and is in compliance with all state and federal guidelines to be able to prepare taxes. I do not agree with the "fraudulent return" term that the client is using. We are not in the business of doing anything fraudulent. Unfortunately, there was some miscommunication between the client and the tax pro. The tax pro believed that the client had two dependent children who qualified the client for the Earned Income Credit, when in reality only one of the children is considered to be qualified. The one who is qualified is his legitimate child while the other is not and therefore the EIC does not apply to the second child. This caused the preparer to believe that there would be an additional refund owed to the client for their 2014 Income Tax return, but as we later found out, this is not to be the case. The confusion lies in the client's original copy for 2014 which was prepared by another tax company who listed the second dependent as "Child" which is not a valid term. The "Child" relationship status was discontinued in tax year 2007, but for some reason it is still being used by other places. Therefore the client was not entitled to more refund and the Amended return which they paid $170 should not have been prepared or filed. So we will more than gladly refund the client the tax preparation fees for the 2014 Amended return of $170. As far as the 2015 Income Tax return, there have been no issues with that return that we have been made aware of. If there are, we are open year-round to help out our clients with any situation that may arise with their tax return. As far as we know, everything worked out fine with the 2015 tax return, and if not, we are more than happy to help them fill out any necessary forms that the IRS is requesting to ensure that the client receives refund amount owed. Since this is not the case, I don't see why we should refund tax preparation fees for 2015 in the amount of $125 for a service that was received. When it comes to the issue of client claiming that they did not receive copies of 2015 tax forms, it is our practice to give everyone copies of their tax return at the time the tax return is filed and all documents are signed. If client has lost or misplaced their copies, the option was given to them to come back in June when we would have their copies, or to go to the local IRS office and get a transcript. The reason we don't have the copies now, is because we had two office locations and we will not consolidate client files from all computers until then. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause the client, but this is how our we conduct our business, and this in no way goes against any federal or state laws.