KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Lenexa tax preparer disappeared, leaving his clients with incomplete tax returns just days before the filing deadline.
Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe said Wednesday his office received several complaints about Charles Allen and his company, CA Analytic LLC.
The complaints allege Allen’s business has “failed to provide tax preparation services to the consumers and failed to return their financial documents,” according to Howe.
Charles Allen’s CPA license was revoked in June 2023 and his clients say contact with him stopped this year after they handed over their documents.
Howe said his office is investigating and asks anyone who had business with Allen to contact his office.
KSHB 41 reporter Megan Abundis tried several times and several ways to contact Allen, but did not get a response.
Clients wedged urgent notes into the door frame at Allen’s Lenexa office.
A tenancy termination notice was posted Tuesday at his office after Allen had not paid rent in over a year.
“I’ve spent, I don’t know how many hours, calling different agencies, filing different complaints,” said Douglas Blattman, a client of Allen's.
Blattman had been a client of Allen’s for years.
He handed his 2023 tax information over and contact with Allen suddenly stopped.
Blattman's call record showed he tried to contact Allen at least 15 times with no response.
“It does concern you when you get down to the 11th hour and haven’t heard anything. I can understand their stress,” Howe said. “We’ve had some initial contact with him. Our goal is to get the consumers to a point where they are not at a disadvantage. I know from personal experience that the IRS is pretty unsympathetic for people's plights if they don’t file tax returns in a timely manner.”
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Howe said he's hoping his team can triage the situation, help make consumers whole and at least get their information back to them.
“The wheels of justice are spinning, but they don’t always move as fast as we like them to,” Blattman said as he waits to get his documents back from Allen.
With the hours to file his taxes counting down, Blattman was forced to file an extension.
“You kind of have to guess what you owe, so I just made that payment, which automatically creates an extension for you," he said. "And that’s the best advice I could give people at this point that are in this position."
The district attorney's office recently spoke to Allen.
Howe said Allen is in town and "we’re hoping with his cooperation we can minimize the problems people are experiencing."
But for Blattman, tax money was already handed over to multiple hands.
“It’s very difficult," he said. "I’m disabled, so I don’t have a lot of money and to take money from my bank account that I need for other things and give that to the government and wait for my taxes to be filed and wait till I get my information back is definitely a hardship for me."
Howe says Hall's clients should contact the consumer hotline if they have been unable to retrieve their financial documents from Allen's firm.
The hotline's phone number is 913-715-3003.
