The tax preparer assigned to my account had no idea what they were doing. How does someone doing business taxes not know about the QBI deduction? Had I blindly accepted their work I would have overpaid my taxes by $8000!
Ended up doing my taxes elsewhere. I cannot trust their tax preparers.
I do like the allocation guides but it does not make the cost worth it.
Response from HeardApr 22, 2024
We're sorry to hear about your experience with the tax preparer in question, Tammy. We investigated when you first raised this concern with us and confirmed your tax preparer had indeed missed the QBI deduction when preparing your taxes.
This is unacceptable and when we learned of this error, we audited other work done by the individual to help ensure it didn't pose a broader risk to our clients. We found your experience was an isolated one and was due to a clerical error rather than unfamiliarity with QBI.
This error still should not have occurred and we'll be looking at ways we can continue to minimize the risk of clerical errors in the future.
BE
Betsy
Don't do it
Don't do it. I stuck with them for over 2 years hoping it would get better but it did not. They are an absolute mess and if you get your taxes done, on time, without mistakes, you are one of the lucky ones. Terrible at communication and made finances/taxes way more stressful.
Response from HeardApr 22, 2024
We're sorry to hear you didn't have the experience we want for our clients, Betsy. The majority of our clients receive their taxes done on time and without error. Like most companies that provide tax and accounting services, we do however have some clients who do run into trouble each year.
Whenever one of our clients has a disappointing tax experience, we use this as an opportunity to review how we work. We take each summer to implement the learnings from the prior tax year and each year we've iterated on our tax processes to provide a better experience than the year before.
For tax year 2023, this included a massive update to the tax portal within Heard and we also partnered with Taxfyle for tax preparation. The response to these changes has been very positive, which makes your experience particularly disappointing.
We're sorry you don't feel the experience improved this year. We're always committed to working with our clients who experience trouble to ensure that their concerns are addressed.
Please reach out if you haven't already and we'd be glad to work with you individually to ensure we investigate what went wrong for your tax experience this year.
JP
Jason P.
Run!!! Garbage company.
The company claims to provide expert help for therapists, but that could not be further from the truth. The assistance you actually receive is minimal and not from qualified experts. They outsource tax services to a company that has no idea what they are doing with business tax returns. We had to argue with our tax preparer about things that were clearly written on the tax forms. If the tax preparer can’t read the form how are they considered experts on taxes for therapy practices? The entire thing is a giant bait and switch, aka a scam.
Response from HeardApr 11, 2024
We were sorry to hear about your tax experience when you first raised this with us, Jason. We've been committed to working with you directly to remedy the problem and to ensure your experience is not one our other members have.
The company we use for tax preparation, Taxfyle, is a trusted partner with credentialed and accredited tax preparers. The issue you experienced was not typical and once we became aware of the issue, we worked with Taxfyle to ensure it would not happen again.
We'll continue to work with you to address your individual concerns, but we assure you the experience you had is not reflective of what is expected when using Heard for tax preparation.
AS
Anuhea S.
I would give them 0 stars if I could
I would give them 0 stars if I could. I invested into Heard for 1 year and it was the most horrible experience! They overpromised in terms of the tax services, and face-to-face they actually provide. They pushed me to incorporate from an LLC to an SCORP prematurely and gave incorrect information about how to do so resulting in back and forth letters and phone calls to the IRS alllllllllll year and the issues still arenʻt fixed. This resulted in many other issues with payroll compliance, State compliance, banking, etc. I was contacted by a dozen different Heard employees throughout the year, none of which seem to actually communicate with one another regarding customer needs, care, and status, because I had to type out my situation over and over and over again for each and every one! Such a waste of my time, energy, and money. Not to mention, I ended up paying over $2,000 to have a real Tax professional clean up all their mess!
Response from HeardMar 1, 2024
We're very sorry your experience with Heard was disappointing, Anuhea. S Corp election is often a source of anxiety and frustration as the additional overhead can be more trouble than it's worth, especially if tax benefits are lower than expected.
For this reason, we try to make sure therapists understand not just the potential benefits, but also the potential risks and the realities of what being an S Corp means. We explore this with our clients before election so that they're making an informed decision.
In cases where we don't have hard data on income and expenses to use to provide estimates, we provide general advice to help therapists make a decision based on their profit goals but warn about the risks.
The goal is to ensure that therapists are able to make an informed decision about whether to elect. At no time do we want therapists to feel pressured to elect as an S Corp and often warn against electing when we don't think it's recommended. It's an important decision to make.
When a therapist decides to move forward with election, we work with them to ensure that the information we have is correct as we draft the paperwork and share that paperwork for review throughout the process to help catch situations where the data we've been provided is inaccurate.
We have processes in place to help protect against electing using incorrect data and we're constantly improving those processes to help reduce the risk of elections getting rejected or stuck in limbo and to help ensure that issues with elections are caught earlier.
We just released a massive update to our S Corp election process for 2024 for example that incorporates additional checks to reduce the risk of invalid EINs being used and other common errors.
Though we're sorry your election experience wasn't smooth, we do believe that it was atypical due to unique circumstances outside of our control.
DS
Dr. Stephanie Steele-Wren, P.
1 star is being generous
1 star is being generous, honestly. Heard claims they filed my 2553 as an s-corp earlier this year. After being on hold 2 hours with the IRS in October (after I realized I never received a CP216 letter, trusting they did what they said they did) the IRS agent confirmed it was never received. I’ve now been operating illegally as an s-corp this year, paying myself as a W-2 employee. When I told Heard support what was going on they gave me the generic let me share this inquiry with a tax specialist. I also emailed the original staff member who supposedly filed the form- no response from her. They came back saying the original fax in February failed and they never resent the fax, so the form was not filed. So, they refiled the 2553 form in October without doing it correctly, which I gave them information on what exactly they needed to submit as reasonable cause for why the 2553 form was not filed by the March deadline, but they fully disregarded me and said "don't worry, we have so much experience with this". Of course the IRS did not approve my business as an s-corp for 2023, which I just got notice of yesterday. I have reached out to Heard and nothing but crickets today. This is an extremely time sensitive issue and I’m going to guess they just try to dodge this even though I have them in writing stating this is their initial error. They’ve really screwed me and my practice for this year now, who knows how much more tax I will owe and penalties and I am now finding a new accountant and tax preparer who actually knows what they’re doing. Yet, Heard won't answer me on how to cancel my subscription with them. I also want to mention I am 7 months pregnant and their negligence is causing undue stress and is going to prevent me from taking my intended maternity leave with my first child because I am self employed and will likely have a hefty tax bill to try and make up for now.
Response from HeardDec 6, 2023
Hi Dr. Steele-Wren, we were sorry to hear the IRS rejected the late election and have been actively working to address this matter as discussed in the update we shared with you yesterday. Given the severity of the issue here, we're committed to finding a solution as promised in our most recent conversation. We have not and will not dodge this issue. As for cancellation, we've processed that already and will be providing the usual offboarding package containing your books and other key information that you can take to your next accountant to help make for as smooth a transition as possible.
MI
Michael
Incompetent
Do not do business with this company. I lost count of their bookkeeping errors and the number of times I had to recategorize transactions myself. When they did my taxes it took five drafts from the beginning to completion of the return. Each draft I caught errors that would have cost me thousands of dollars in overpaid taxes. Customer service is terrible. I had to repeat my requests for corrections to multiple people. After complaining numerous times, I finally spoke with the CEO, who at first validated all of my complaints, but then only offered a partial refund. Very disappointing.
Response from HeardNov 28, 2023
We're sorry to hear you were unhappy with your experience with Heard, Michael. Our tax preparers make sure we are minimizing risk by complying with all relevant tax guidance and regulations when identifying legitimate business deductions. That said, deductions aren't always black and white and there is sometimes a need to discuss your circumstances and whether a deduction applies.
In cases where a therapist believes additional deductions might be possible, we discuss those possibilities and if the deductions are defensible we will revise the draft. When those deductions are risky or impermissible, we explain why and that guidance helps clients lower their audit risk.
That discussion and revision process is a healthy part of the tax preparation process, and our goal is to be responsive to feedback like this during the review process. We're sorry that this part of the process didn't work as effectively for you as you would have liked.
DL
Dr. L.
I am beyond frustrated with this…
I am beyond frustrated with this company. I have been with this company for two years and tax season has been a nightmare for both 2021 and 2022. I gave this company the benefit of the doubt and trusted they would make the changes that they promised after the 2021 tax season. This was a mistake. My 2022 taxes are still not complete. I have communicated and shared with them since the summer that my numbers were wildly inaccurate due to duplicates. My books are still inaccurate and now they are saying that due to technical issues they cannot fix the errors, which is obviously needed for taxes. But to make matters worse, they refuse to give me a phone number so that I can speak to a manager or the lead cpa. The fact that there are no phone numbers listed is done intentionally. This is totally unacceptable and I can’t imagine running a company like this. This company has taken my money monthly but here I am with inaccurate bookkeeping and taxes that are incomplete.
Response from HeardOct 10, 2023
Hi Dr. Little-Harrison, we're very sorry to hear you felt we missed the mark again with your 2022 tax filing. While there were issues with transactions in your books which took extra time to sort through, those issues were resolved and we were able to prepare and file your tax return.
You're right that there have been some growing pains in 2021 and 2022 for some of our customers when it comes to tax preparation. Though the experience is generally seamless for the vast majority of therapists using our service, we cannot deny that some of our customers have run into trouble.
Each year, we review what went well and what went wrong and we prepare an action plan for how to improve the next year. As part of our preparations for the next tax filing season, we are fundamentally revisiting how we handle tax preparation and we're committed to making the process seamless for all of our customers. We do believe we've made great strides over the last two years and we're committed to continuously improving the experience for the therapists who rely on us. We appreciate your feedback.
AN
AnnieB.
Rough time but its getting better
I began this process hopeful then went into having a rough time getting ahold of the people who could help me. After requesting to speak to a manager a few times I was able to and since then the process has improved a lot. I will update once I get all filed for 2022.
Update : 10/16/23
Taxes are still not complete.over$3000spent on heard and now I will have to pay tax penalties and late fees. Hours and hours spent meeting with assistants at heard to get this done on time and still not done. A horrific nightmare. Beyond stressful.
Response from HeardSep 15, 2023
We're sorry to hear you've had a terrible time. We're sympathetic about your unique circumstances and understand this made it difficult to complete the tax questionnaires and surveys, and participate in the normal tax preparation process. We know one of our managers has been working with you to help make sure your concerns are addressed, but if you're still feeling uncertain, please do reach back out to let us know as we want to make sure you feel supported as we work to wrap up your taxes before your filing deadline.
