Borderline scam, unethical “No Refund” policy for zero work performed. Stay away!
I engaged HTJ.TAX for U.S. tax return preparation and paid their upfront engagement fee, only to later confirm that I no longer needed the filings and asked to terminate the engagement before any work began.
Despite the fact that zero work had been done, zero meetings or consultations had taken place, and zero drafts or calculations performed, they categorically refused to refund anything, hiding behind a blanket “we do not issue refunds” clause in their engagement letter.
For a professional firm dealing with complex cross‑border tax issues, this approach feels less like a legitimate retainer and more like holding unearned money hostage. They had every opportunity to do the fair and reasonable thing once it was clear no services had been rendered, and instead chose to stand on one line of boilerplate, never warning the client of this ridiculous 'no refund' policy and hiding the clause within the longwinded and confusing contract. Based on this experience, I would not recommend HTJ.TAX to anyone who expects basic fairness, transparency, and good‑faith conduct from a tax advisor.
After I threatened to escalate the matter, the firm's founder, Derren Hayden Joseph, offered a partial refund, and wanted to retain $5,000 USD from the original fee, because apparently the 9 emails he sent me (most of which were 1-2 lines of text), cost him $5,000 in billable hours. In other words, he's charging me $555 USD per email sent. This preposterous price inflation and client management leaves me speechless.
Stay away and hire another tax advisor.