Dears,

I am finding that a Eiken based Finanz, Tax-return filing agency every year increases the number of hours they put and thus raise the invoice value even when not a single income element has increased since last 5 years. I always attach soft copies of every details from Bank, dividend, 3rd pillar etc and compile doctor expenses myself in an xl sheet. They started with 2 hours of job but this year put that to 4 hrs. The time to answers my basic email enquiry like refund expected are anyways added on top (30min each). After 5yrs of engagement, I didn't this year specifically ask them before on how many hours they would put.

Does anyone know if me as a customer have any rights to contest such unilateral charges. Is there a body whom I can approach for unfair trade practices ?

Regards
Sanjay

Why not fill in your tax return yourself? If nothing changes as you state there is no point in engaging a firm.
FWIW I found them very helpful & amazing value the only time I used them.

Have you asked them why the charged hours are increasing?

I did ask them but received an indifferent answer that the filing was too complex. For reasons of continuity, I went with them again but I sense now that its reaching a point of unfair trade practice and would like to contest it.

You are right that such returns can be filed easily but I avoided to make small mistakes and wanted to stay fully compliant. Now this is proving to be more heartburn with a feeling of being cheated when one would expect that the agency uses last year's e-templates and rather should have reduced their time spent.

I worked with an independent tax advisor. I completed the online assessment and then went over it in person. It took about 30 minutes.

They charged 100 CHF, seems fair. what did this company actually charge you?

They started 1st year at 350 CHF and then went on increasing. This is the 5th year, at 750 CHF to which they then added 3 emails replies to me @ 70 CHF each.

I would suggest to refrain from such heave phrases like "unfair trade practice" and "cheating".

Generally, one's tax situations grows in complexity as time passes e.g. buying a house, more securities in custody account to name just two. But if you feel its cut-n-paste of previous years, then I agree with FMF, do your own return, its not complicated. Don't live under the illusion that Tax office looks at professionally done returns any better than personally done one.

Unless you have really complex tax affairs thats way too much. A joint married couple return, 2 salaries, foreign property, non-CHF mortgages, various offsets and some side income and we never paid more than CHF200 per year.

Many thanks for sharing your experience. And I firmly believe that mine should have been a cake walk with no side income, no mortgage, no rentals and a single income. Almost all supporting documents are std, coming through UBS, SWICA, Equateplus and my employer hence this feeling of dis-satisfaction.

Thanks and I agree, didn't use those terms with the agency and have again politely requested to reconsider the invoice. Infact there were 2 other Basel-based agencies who have a much transparent way of invoicing as they upfront state what all they will consider under which category, like a domain and 25 supporting documents would cost ~300CHF.

Holy shit - they must love people like you.

Seriously - do it yourself - it's not difficult, you don't even have to work out the sums, just provide all the info needed and the tax office will send you an adjusted bill (or refund if lucky).

They even correct obvious errors.

That is called fraud. 700 CHf to complete a tax return.

Go to a big accountancy firm & the bill could easily exceed 2k for a simple tax return.

Thanks and good to know. My only apprehension has been the terminologies the tax office uses for which German translation is difficult to find..

This is what I feel too and has been my reason of frustration. Are there any state governances where such complaints can be filed, after I have paid under protest..?

It is not called fraud. If you want to be taken seriously try to make a factual contribution.

No. Switzerland is a country founded on liberalism and the principle of "Selber schuld" (Ooops, your bad.) It assumes that the people are educated, informed, and capable of making profund decisions.

No there is no agency that can protect people from themselves. You are an adult and we have to assume that you are capable of acting in your own best interests.... you continued the business relationship for five years rather than seeking an alternative tax agent that was your choice.

Fully agree with you Markalex. Spoke thereafter to many and also with plethora of other tax-agencies to confirm this fact. The Intl level agencies are paid by the companies for expatriates during the first few years so they do charge ~2k (myself been there)

I think it all depends how complex your situation is. I pay someone to do my own tax return(>2k). I dont earn mega-bucks but it is complex (multiple countries, sources of income, possible off-sets) usually the tax preparers pay for themselves in what they save vs what I can spot myself.

By contrast I do the tax returns for both of my adult children (one country, one source of income, simple Vaudois deductions) on line in Vaud, and find it relatively simple.

Thanks to this thread I now know what I should charge each of them