Accountants Claims Examples

Personal taxation – Failure to lodge tax returns led to client losing tax repayment and interest.

Personal taxation / pensions – Incorrect advice as regards pension payments and alleged concealment of commissions.

Accountancy – Lender sought reference for a business’s mortgage. The business failed and the subsequent property sale failed to cover the loan.

Trust – Two partners were Trustees of a family Trust. They delegated investment authority to a company that subsequently collapsed. They also failed to minimise tax.

Company tax – A firm, acting as accountants to a profitable company, introduced their client to a tax mitigation consultancy. Schemes of tax mitigation were embarked upon that proved to be fraudulent from a tax perspective.

Auditing – Failure to spot a serious fraud due to inadequate audit procedures. The cost exceeded the limit of indemnity of £1million.

Investment advice – Poor investment advice led to a serious loss to a Trust.

Accountancy – Confusion as to the role of an accountancy firm, whilst acting for the purchaser of a business. The purchaser thought that the accountancy firm was looking at the commercial viability of the acquisition. The firm thought that their instructions were limited to the preparation of cash flow forecasts based on given information for the purpose of raising finance.

Fraud – An employee of the firm stole clients’ money.

Insolvency – Failure to realise the full value of assets.