Michael S. Febrey, CPA, understands tax law. But Mr. Febrey does not understand his ethical…read moreobligations to his clients.
In 2023, I moved from Washington, DC to Bethesda, Maryland. Normally, I self-prepare and self-file my own federal and state/local tax returns but because I moved mid-year from one jurisdiction to another, I thought it prudent to have a tax professional prepare and file my tax returns for tax year 2023 as I was not confident that I could accurately determine how much I owed to the District of Columbia and how much I owed to Maryland. In early 2024, I did some searching on the web and I was impressed with the enthusiastic Yelp.com reviews for Michael S. Febrey, Certified Public Accountant of Gaithersburg, Maryland. There were only three reviews for Mr. Febrey on Yelp.com (all from February 2011), but they were glowing. I hired Mr. Febrey and he prepared and filed the relevant 2023 tax forms for a relatively reasonable fee ($400). The payments I that I owed and my refunds occurred smoothly. In 2024, I was suitably impressed and grateful to Mr. Febrey.
Because I forgot to file a new tax withholding form with my employer until mid-2024, I hired Mr. Febrey again in early 2025 to file and prepare my tax forms for tax year 2024. In March of this year, I arrived at Mr. Febrey's office to review the tax filing forms. Mr. Febrey said there was one problem: for some reason, he was unable to complete an electronic filing and payment to the Comptroller of Maryland. Mr. Febrey assured me that he had made no errors and it was some kind of an IT-problem with the Comptroller of Maryland. Because my filing for the previous tax year was handled well by Mr. Febrey, I did not doubt him, and I paper filed and mailed my Maryland tax form and personal check to the Comptroller of Maryland on March 5, 2025. I owed Maryland $1,516.
The Comptroller of Maryland deposited the check on March 13, 2025. However, on April 30, 2025, the Comptroller of Maryland deducted another $1,516 dollars from my bank checking account. That same day, I called Mr. Febrey and explained the problem. Instead of Mr. Febrey saying "I'll contact the Comptroller of Maryland and solve this problem for you," Mr. Febrey simply gave me a contact phone number for the Comptroller of Maryland and suggested that I call the Comptroller's office myself saying that he would have to call the same phone number himself to solve the problem and that would require me to pay another $400 fee for his time.
I wasn't happy with Mr. Febrey's "solution," but anxious to have this matter resolved quickly I called the phone number that Mr. Febrey gave me to contact the Comptroller of Maryland: it was out-of-service.
I eventually found the correct taxpayer hotline phone number and I spoke to a Comptroller of Maryland employee who told me that an electronic payment had been arranged for the $1,516 as well as the deposited check for the same amount. I protested that neither I nor my accountant, Mr. Febrey had filed any electronic forms and I had filed a paper return and paid by personal check. The Comptroller of Maryland employee insisted there was an electronic filing and payment in addition to the paper filing and personal check. The employee said that a check from the Comptroller of Maryland in the amount of $1,516.00 would be sent to my address within four-to-six weeks.
I then called Mr. Febrey again. He insisted that he did not file an electronic return or on-line payment to the Comptroller of Maryland and that the employee must have lied to me. I asked Mr. Febrey to contact the Comptroller of Maryland and see if he could straighten out the situation but he refused unless I paid him another $400 fee. I protested that I saw no need to pay him more money to follow up the matter and that he had a professional responsibility to aid his client who had already paid the original fee.
The Comptroller of Maryland still has not returned the $1,516 overpayment to me. I have also attempted to contact Mr. Febrey again on June 3rd and June 4th and he has refused to take my calls or return my messages. I suspect this is because Mr. Febrey probably realizes that he succeeded after all in electronically filing and authorizing a payment to the Comptroller of Maryland and at the time he did not realize that he had done so. As a result, the Comptroller of Maryland charged me again for the same amount.
Even if Mr. Febrey is not responsible for the overpayment to the Comptroller of Maryland, he has refused to assist me in any meaningful way, which I consider to be a failure to live up to his responsibilities to his clients. If one hires Mr. Febrey to file his or her taxes and there is some kind of problem, do not expect him to come to your aid. At least, not without a second payment of Mr. Febrey's fee. Avoid Michael S. Febrey and find a Certified Public Accountant who won't abandon and ignore his or her clients.
