Smart Tax

This is the first time I have ever written a review, but I need to warn people from going through the stress this company has caused me. I opened a small business in 2009, I saw this company advertised has a business set up and book keeping specialist. I knew nothing about business and was pregnant at the time (6months). So I needed someone who could do a good job and advise me because in 3 months I would not be able to give as much attention to things.So we had set up payroll and for about a month things were great. However, I had my baby and when she was 3 weeks old I recived a call from some man I had never dealt with before. He informed me that the woman that had handled my account previously no longer worked for smart tax and that as he was going through my files that he noticed that my taxes(personal and business) were not filed. This meant a huge late fee,as my husband is a professional and he does not recieve deductions from his pay and has to pay all of his taxes at year end. I was upset, but they assured me that they will take care of things and offer me a discount of some sort to make up for the late fees. To this day I have not recieved any kind of discount or reinbursment. Despite this my company grew very quickly and I was even able to purchase a complementary business as a result. I reached out for advise on how I should organize my business, I got nothing but a blank stare.This sound strange but it is truly what happened. Through out the year I expected it to get better, but I stood by as the person handeling my account was fired, switched, or quit. I had a new employee what seemed like every 2 months. Growing frustrated with the endless mistakes that were made with my payroll account, errors in rate of pay, hours and at one point we found out that the health care portion of my employees share was never deducted, this meant I had been paying 100% coverage for my employees. When I asked what they would do about this, they told me that they could deduct it from the next pay cheque. Ridiculas, I was not going to do that to my staff, it was not their fault, so Smart tax cost me a years worth of 50% heath benifits.I was uninformed and had not recieved even one report during the year and a half I had hired Smart Tax. I was leading a company blind, had no information about what taxes a small business owed or how to even keep proper records for book keeping. I know that ultimatly it was my responsibility to learn these things, and I did ask many times if there were classes or if the staff could explanin things to me. This was never acknowleged. I ended up attending a Government sponsered class for small business owners which is were I realized how poorly my account with Smart Tax was handeled. I lost a great deal of time, sleep and money, not to mention that this was a time that I should have been enjoying a new born baby. Well so here I am, I am now with a new accountant, who has helped me out more in one hour then smart tax did in a year and a half. I held payment at the end of my business relationship to see if they would honor any discount that they promised me for the late filing. They refused to give my employees their T4's!
I contacted their head office, spoke to one man whom was quite helpful, and he said he would get the owner to call me, and dispite many attemps I have not had any contact with the owner. So I was stuck, I paid the money and gave my staff the T4's. You would think it would end here, but as I have requested that they send me my reports and previous information for my records and for the new accountant, they have been nothing but rude and unhelpful. At one point one of the accountants hung up on me. I have three kids, a busy business and a husband that works too many hours to count. We work hard and are fair people, but this has been terriable. I don't like these complaint reviews, as I am also at risk as a service business, but I never want anyone to be treated as I have been. I have spent 6months picking up the peices and sitting countless of hours with my new accountant, she is redoing all of my taxes that Smart Tax had done. More money that Smart tax has cost me!