MFFA Belastingadvies | Tax Advice - Amsterdam

Renske Schuitmaker

*[I edited the review to include my response to the firm's response, see below] I usually never write such reviews, but I feel compelled to do so to warn people for this office. DON't take their services, or if you will or already have, make sure to get a good insurance for legal support as a backup, as in my experience these people charge you unfairly. Their rates are very high (similar to that of a senior lawyer or consultant), yet the quality they deliver is low. I had a very basic question, to which they first gave a wrong advise during our call, and later retracted on this. The extra time this took they charged including many extra hours of research, even though this was very basic knowledge they should have had at hand (my lawyer and a befriended tax expert all said so). Especially given the senior rates they ask. When I addressed this with them directly they dismissed my argument and told me forcefully to make the full payment. I then proceeded to get a lawyer, it was very clear I had a strong case (to which the lawyer agreed) as their bill was not in line with the service requested and quality delivered. I had everything black on white. Only after taking these steps, the firm suddenly was willing to revise the bill and we settled on a substantially lower amount (I still think I paid way too much for what I got, but this is also a learning experience for me). I was lucky that as a Dutch citizen with a semi legal background I understand my rights here in the Netherlands and also had access to legal support. As many of the customers of this firm are expats who do not have this, it seems they do get away with this often, as you can also read in some of the comments on this platform. Hence my motivation to write this message of warning here publicly.

What is also interesting to see in the other reviews written here is 1) apparently the office asks people explicitly for giving a review on this forum, but clearly they only ask people who had a good experience to cover the bad reviews (I for example never got asked this question by them), 2) whenever someone writes a critical review, the office writes a response almost always denying their argument or being derogatory, without acknowledging these people's experiences or admitting any form of error. Just note this for yourself.

* Response to the firm's response:
1. This is not the tax question I asked, if you go back into the e-mails you can see it, it's stated black on white.
2. Regardless, don't put in a comment publicly on google what people's tax questions are, this is private information. It's unprofessional to do so, please stop doing that.
3. I didn't send 1 e-mail. I asked repeatedly for you to reconsider the bill, with proper substantiation, you never even responded to the content.
4. the budgeted quotation to which I agreed was for a different tax question than the one you worked for in the end (we have this black on white), so it doens't apply.

Mathilde Do Chi

MFFA et en particulier Jeroen ont délivré un travail exceptionnel.
Jeroen a été très réactif et de très bons conseils pour créer mon entreprise néerlandaise.
Je recommande très fortement leurs services surtout leur rapidité, qualité, et écoute pour tout ce qui concerne la création et gestion d'entreprise et autres questions fiscales.

Tiernan Scully

Quality Tax Advisors worth every penny

As an expat in the Netherlands, setting up your own BV and navigating the tax system is daunting.

MFFA took care of all of it, on top of providing ongoing accountancy services required for the effective running of the business. Jeroen in particular was especially helpful, promptly answering all my questions, no matter how silly.

I recently required some business reports for an urgent matter. The team at MFFA managed to have them ready in less than 24 hours! Reliable and responsive. Highly recommend!

Maxime

Prima voor NL inkomstenbelastingaangifte af te handelen maar niet om ook UK aangiftes af te handelen (wat mijn specifieke vraag aan hen was). Doordat er tijdens het proces geen afstemming had plaatsgevonden met de UK adviseur resulteerde dat in een gedeeltelijke dubbele belastingheffing voor mij. Deze fout heb ik er zelf uit moeten halen. Wel hersteld maar tegen extra kosten van MFFA.

Chelsea Brady

We could not have had a more positive experience. Jeroen was incredibly helpful, responsive, and thorough from the start—even with small things and one-off questions, though we also went to MFFA for more involved tax work. I would absolutely recommend them to anyone!

Stefan Salim

I took a big step moving from California to the Netherlands. MFFA was a big help in setting up my business, getting my 30% ruling and taking care of what is needed for my accounting as well.
It is not a simple thing to understand Dutch business rules and regulations.
Jeroen was very effective and professional in getting things done and keeping me in the loop through the entire process.
Thank you so much Jeroen and everyone on the MFFA team who helped with my case.
Stefan S.Salim, MD,DC.

SIMONE MALLARDI

HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE-AVOID AT ANY COST

I received an invoice in November 2020 from MFFA which I considered INCORRECT, INFLATED and EXAGGERATED as it included services never required by me and, most importantly, never performed to me.

As a background, I requested a call to a tax advisor at MFFA in October 2020 to discuss if he could file the 2020 TAX RETURN for me, and to ask if he could advice me on other tax matter. We ultimately discussed scope of work and the call was not a consultation. The MFFA advisor, during a 40 min call, confirmed that he could perform both activities but gave no advice during the call, and there was no consultation during the call. To my surprise, the advisor invoiced for: 1h Call, 30min preparation for the Call, 15 min preparation for this call with a Senior Partner.

I challenged immediately the Invoice, noting that the call was not a “consultation” and asking why a Senior Partner was involved in this process without notifying this to me and what the advisor had to do to prepare for the call, given no consultation was provided to me during the call. I asked for evidence of items included in the invoice and how these services were performed and how, in their view, I received or benefitted from them.

As additional comment, I would like to point out that I challenge bills only when I consider them unfair with undue items. For example, on my prior experience with MFFA in 2019, I received a bill which was much higher than the one I received in October 2020, I considered the bill of 2019 correct as in line with what discussed, agreed and performed, and I paid entirely with no hesitation.

After my challenge to the bill received in November 2020, the MFFA advisor has passed the file to the Senior Partner, who never responded to my questions (I am sure he does not even know my fiscal situation or who I am) but he has only been threatening me to send the dossier to Debt Collector and start legal proceeding. At the end, the Senior Partner offered me an ARBITRARILY discount of EUR90 to settle the dispute.

I did not agree on an discount calculated arbitrarily. However, as gesture of goodwill and to solve AMICABLY the question, I decided to pay for the 45min call with the advisor (even if we discussed scope of work and received no consultation, and even if it was me doing the majority of the talk during the call - which is natural given I needed to explain what I needed from them). So, I paid the amount to MFFA.

Despite my payment, MFFA passed the file to Debt Collector Nova Incasso, which, since December 2020,  has been threatening to make the make extra payments, with additional collection costs (15% of Total Amount) and without taking into account my payment to MFFA.

AS MFFA never responded to me on what the advisor had done to prepare for the call, and why a Senior Partner was involved in this process, I asked the same questions to Nova Incasso. But Nova Incasso failed to answer to my simple questions and, instead, they have been pushing very hard on me and keep threatening me with court arguments, extra costs and fees.

My simple questions on items included in the bill remain unanswered and, as a result, I reiterate my challenge to the invoice received and I consider myself liable only for the service there is evidence, at least, that I received.

I have paid MFFA for their 45min fee + VAT to their account as this is the only time I do have evidence they dedicated to me. Again, this is a gesture of goodwill and to solve this amicably.

Overall, I am a very unsatisfied client of MFFA, considering how I have been treated by a Senior Partner, considering also the very low quality of the service received, and most importantly, considering the very poor and ultimately aggressive client relationship management (these are all personal opinions).

J.F. Beute

Zocht advies over implicaties van een emigratie naar Spanje. Het advies was duidelijk, maar voldeed niet helemaal aan mijn verwachting. Op de vraag omtrent de ziektekosten verzekering kon geen antwoord worden gegeven. Aangezien dit van directe invloed was op de datum van melding van de emigratie bij de gemeente was het advies incompleet. Naar mijn mening maakt deze verzekering deel uit van het financiële totaal plaatje.