Fishman, Levine & Associates, PC, Inc.

Review: Fishman Levine was hired was an IRS enrolled agent and paid a retainer, to provide tax advice and prepare returns. The [redacted] has not provided any work product and is not returning phone calls or responding to emails.Desired Settlement: Seeing as how to date I have not seen any work product and Fishman Levine is not responding to repeated emails and phone calls I would like my retainer back and will find someone else who will actually complete the work.

Business

Response:

[redacted] retained my firm to prepare 15 years of tax returns for his brother and sister in law, and to resolve a tax lien and collections problem for them with the IRS. Because this job involved so many years of tax returns and required many hours of work, I took a $3000 retainer and made it clear to [redacted] that I would need another $6000 to complete the job. I also made it clear that I would need full cooperation from his brother and sister in law in terms of getting to me all of their their documents and records for the 15 years - bank statements, credit card statements, receipts, invoices and all other documents showing their income and expenses. I had one meeting with the family members, and I contacted the IRS on their behalf. I got some 1099 records from the IRS, but they were incomplete. For many of the 15 years, the IRS had nothing, and I relied on the family members to get the records to me. In spite of numerous phone calls and emails to [redacted] and his brother, I got little or no cooperation from them to be able to complete the tax returns. There was some discussion of getting the tax liens removed, but I made it clear that the returns had to be filed before I could work with the IRS to remove the liens, and in order to do the returns, I needed many additional documents from them. [redacted]'s brother apparently does not consider this to be a priority. There were no subsequent meetings after the first meeting. I tried to schedule more meetings, but they were cancelled or not attended by [redacted]'s brother and sister in law. They did not mail me any information. So I am stymied because of the clients' non-cooperation and stonewalling.The way to resolve this problem is for [redacted] to go to his brother's house, go through his records and provide me with everything I need to determine income and expenses for the 15 years. Then I will complete the returns and resolve the lien issue with the IRS. As far as the retainer goes, I did several hours of review of the problems and issues, I did phone consultations with the clients and sent many emails to [redacted] appealing to him to get his brother's cooperation, and I made phone calls to the IRS, so most of the retainer is used up by the time I have already spent on this matter. I am more than willing to do all of the 15 years of returns if I have cooperation from the client's relatives and they mail their statements, income and expense records to me to my business address at [redacted] before June *. I will then file the returns , commence work on the IRS collection matter and bill them for the work involved.[redacted]

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:

Allow me to start by covering what we agree on. When I first contacted [redacted] he did quote a fee of $9,000 with $3,000 retainer.He did have one meeting with my brother and sister in law which lasted about 2 hours. My brother has indeed been unresponsive and hasnot provided requested documentation.Now let me point out where we don't agree so much. 1. When I first talked to [redacted] I warned him that my brother was unlikely to be very cooperative and most likely did not have the requisite records. [redacted] advised me that, having been through this before with other clients while inconvenient, it would not be insurmountable and that he could work around that. He did not advise me that he needed my brothers full cooperation and 15 years of records. If he had I would not have engaged him as I knew that my brother would not be able to produce them. If in fact he did advise me of that requirement thenwhen he quickly found out he was not getting it, he should have advised me that he would not be able to complete the work and return the balance of the retainer.2. To date I have not seen a single piece of work product from [redacted], no contract, no returns, no copies of documents he claims to havereceived from the IRS (after repeated requests for said documents). By way of example, I have requested on at least 3 occasions by email and twiceby phone a copy of my brother's Tax Return Transcript. To date I have not seen a single piece of evidence that [redacted] has performed any work. I have not even received a receipt for the $3000 retainer.3. If my brother has been unresponsive with records and the IRS has no information to provide, as [redacted] claims, then what has he done to earn the $3000? Is he suggesting that he spent $3000 calling my brother and leaving messages? How much am I paying for him to not respond to my emailsand voice mails? In the first paragraph of his response [redacted] suggests that my brother, beyond the first meeting has been completely unresponsive,not returning calls and not attending meetings, knowing my brother I do not dispute this. However in the second paragraph of his response [redacted] suggestshe did phone consultations with the client (my brother). So when it comes to getting the work done my brother is not responsive, but when it comes to using up the retainer, my brother is responsive?For someone who is licensed to practice by the IRS this strikes me as a particularly curious way to run a business.[redacted]

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Sincerely,