Serbinski Accounting Firms - North York, Ontario

P M.

I rarely write reviews but this time I feel like I really have to and help others to avoid the same mistake. DO NOT USE this accountant! I blame myself on not conducting proper due diligence before signing the engagement agreement. They have a long history record of horribly treating their clients and in my case there was no exception unfortunately.
1) Unreasonable charge. Services that should be included in the base fee, according to the engagement letter, are charged as separate items on top of base fee. I paid $5000 USD for a filing, then initial consultation fee never got credited back.
2) Horrible communication and no expertise. They just do the basic work without even check the issues in the initial filing, which was very obvious. As a salaried employee, I go my tax payable went 10x more this year vs last year. Actually due to a fact they knew, that companies would have duplicate income reported following policies in different tax regions in the first year of relocation. They just didn’t think any further but then they said due to rework they need to charge me extra $2000 without any justification. So just for a tax filing this year, I paid $7000 USD!!! When I argue with them, Mark Serbinski threatened me to charge more. What an attitude to your client!
3) No accountability and spirit of fiduciary duty. What is most concerning to me is that they terminated my engagement unilaterally without any formal/informal notices. I only found it out when I loss the access to the sharefile platform which contains all my documents and tried to call them after weeks of no response to address my concerns, I was told by their front desk that I am removed from their client list. How ridiculous!!
4) I have no other choices but had to dispute the charge with my bank to protect myself but unfortunately it is not supported by the bank. So I did pay $7000 USD in total plus all the mental and physical damages I have experienced during the whole tax filing season. I literally had heart attacks when I saw the initial tax oweing amount and the bill they sent me.
At the end, I don’t have remedies but YOU DO! Stay away from this firm and Mark Serbinski!

Christine K.

My accountant was Doug, and I am really unhappy with the services I received (or more accurately, did not receive). Not only was the return filed incorrectly, which lead to me being double taxed heavily by the IRS, but after I submitted my payment for their services, and the mistake was discovered, they refused to help me fix it. I attempted at least 12 times to ask him to help me amend the return so I am not double taxed but he ignored every single attempt, as did Mark Serbinski. I even asked them to just confirm if they would be willing to help or not so I can find another accountant, and they ignored that email as well. I had already paid them over $3000 for their services, and now I have to pay $550 for another accountant to fix this return. WOULD NOT RECOMMEND.

Bryan W.

I spent $125 for a free consultation just to get someone to talk to me. Once we had our introduction call, I was told someone would get in touch with me and help me onboard as a new client. I worked with Doug Larmer many years before, and I was hoping to use his firm again. But, after waiting for months, I had to give up. I think they are just overwhelmed with demand and understaffed. As a result, I got lost in the fray, and now have to find an alternative provider.

James L.

My wife (Canadian) and I (American) worked with Mark Serbinski to straighten out filings related to a Canadian TFSA and a few other things, and I can't emphasize enough how positive our experience was. His clarity, professionalism, and accessibility made a confusing process simple and put our minds at ease during a stressful time. Easily a 10/10 experience and an invaluable level of expertise.

Rodrigo C.

I don't normally write reviews but I had such an awful experience that I feel compelled to share this so other people can make an informed decision.

They were unprofessional in almost every aspect I can think of.
1) They did work I didn't request and charged me for it before even informing me of the cost.
2) They gave me advice that seemed to directly contradict IRS guidelines
3) Long delays in responding to my emails: weeks when were less than a month away from the filing deadline
4) They ended up not reaching out to me nor responding to my last questions until after the deadline. I'd expressed that the forms had errors that we needed to fix, so I didn't get a complete tax return to file from them.
5) They actively discouraged me to ask questions or ask for updates. After 2 weeks of no updates or reply to my questions I asked whether they had time to work on my return and they sounded offended.
6) They refused to give me a refund and felt that their work had been complete and timely.

Aman G.

I asked them to complete my US return and review my CDN return. I made this clear multiple times (in the initial phone consult, in e-mail, when I actually *uploaded* my completed CDN return).

Instead, they redid my CDN return (without consulting with me, basically identical to what I already submitted), charged me hundreds of dollars, refused to address their misunderstanding, refused to reduce the charge and stopped responding to my concerns.

Used them once and never again - solid business plan!

Lulu L.

I wasn't going to do a review because I do not want to think about this company NEVER again in my whole life. There are so many wrong things that I do not even know where to start from, but if there could be any negative starts I'd have given them all the negative starts possible.

Here it goes...
This year I had to deal with cross border taxes, I contacted them because apparently they were going to solve all my problems, and they were the experts. BU*****T! This is how pissed off I am.

First, They will over charge your credit card without any notification, any invoice, they will charge you and then tell you that that charge was for the work being done.

Second, I you ask them for advice they will make you do all things possible so that they get to work on any tax return the IRS wants.

Third, if you email them showing some kind of concern because you are being charge without notice, and because you notice that they are doing something wrong.. They just will never reply back. They basically take your money, give you some papers, and you deal with the rest.

Fourth, I had to deal with at least 4 different people, all asking me the same questions over and over again. None of them knew my case, and they have no idea what needed to be done.

Fifth, I am self-employed, and The fines from IRS and CRA were so high that I actually went through all the papers they send for the tax return (they spend half your money on paper probably), US and Canadian, plus my corporation taxes, plus all the papers from IRS and CRA. I found out that they just did EVERYTHING wrong, my whole tax return was WRONG. Could you imagine my frustration?
I ended up having to go to another accountant, and this one will have to do all my tax return from the beginning to try to fix the mess, because it is a huge mess.

Finally, At the end of all the mess, I ended up paying them about 15% of my net income (before paying any taxes, about 15k), and then from what was left of the money I had to pay taxes plus all fines, because Serbinski Partners cannot deliver your tax return done ON TIME.
Basically, almost all the money I managed to safe throughout the year was gone.

This has been the worst professional I have ever dealt with.

Natalie F.

I think I just dogged the bullet with this firm (reading the bad experiences). First, their website literally takes your 125$ for their "complementary" first interview (first red flag). Then, when you try to make an appointment, that link does not work (second red flag) even though you paid 125$ for their "free" consultation. Third, I sent them a long email and got a copy-paste answer that clearly showed they did not read the email (third red flag). When I tried to answer the email, it bounced back. Stay away from them.