Originally Posted by 503.Zed

She sounds like a piece of work. If she was willing to go down the price she knew she was overcharging. Our firm doesn't haggle on price because we know exactly how much it should cost and how much it will be everywhere else. As for the letter you sign, did it say you owed her the full amount no matter what? We have our clients sign an engagement letter which goes over the generalities of how all info you give to us is correct to your knowledge, wait time, we don't file until we have payment and signatures needed, etc.

Honestly my bet is she had something similar that required payment to file. We've had clients we prepare a return for where the invoice is anywhere from $500-$1000 and end up not liking the return and go somewhere else. It is what it is, sometimes you can't control that bit. From my understanding she shouldn't be able to hold your documents "hostage" but who knows, at least its settled. What I would do is have ask if she can send the proof of e-filing. There's two main software's tax firms use. Once a return is e-filed, it may take a day or so to be accepted by both the federal and state government. We don't send this to every client as it'd be a waste of time and we only contact them if there's an issue. If someone requests it, sure I'll send it to them.

Normally you'd be able to check the status of your return on the IRS website but it's an over trafficked mess right now that even if you enter all your correct info (SSN, refund amounts submitted, etc.) it will say they don't see you in their software. Tons of our clients have had this issue and its just the nature of COVID's effect on the IRS also. Best of luck to you and at least she's out of your hair now!