Katherine H Feather Allied Tax Service Inc. Overcharged for Services - Failed to Follow California Evidence Code Limits on Charges San Diego California

Katherine H. Feather is a tax preparer and the custodian of records for Allied Tax Service Inc.  For several decades, the tax returns for our family trust have been prepared by Larry Simmering who is also a tax preparer at Allied Tax Service Inc.

Recently I was forced to sue the trustee of our family trust for misconduct.  During discovery before trial I served a subpoena on Katherine H Feather of Allied Tax Service Inc. asking that she produce copies of historic tax returns prepared for our family trust.

California Evidence Code Section 1563 limits the reasonable fees a custodian of records, such as Ms. Feather, may charge for production of business records in response to a subpoena.  Custodians may charge $24/hr plus 10 cents per page for standard reproduction, 20 cents per page if from microfilm, as well as reasonable costs for retrieval from a third party.  The Evidence Code also requires the custodian of records to provide the requesting party with a written statement itemizing those charges.

I served subpoena's on six other businesses during the discovery period. Four of these custodians of records charged a reasonable fee and provided the itemized statement required by Evidence Code Section 1563. The remaining two custodians of records did't charge me anything at all.

However, Ms. Feather refused to follow the California Evidence Code requirements. Initially, she attempted to charge me $57 per tax return because she thought that's what the IRS chages when a taxpayer requests a copy of their own tax return. I pointed out to Ms. Feather that she was looking at an old webpage, and that the IRS had since lowered it's price to $50 per tax return.  I explained the California Evidence Code Section 1563 requirements to Ms. Feather but she was unmoved, and would not lower her inflated price.  Ms. Feather would only amend her initial invoice to reflect the new charge of $50 per tax return, and a new total charge of $750.  Ms. Feather also failed to provide an itemized statement of costs as defined in the Evidence Code.

Time was running short before trial, and these tax returns would be extremely important evidence for my case.  I paid Ms. Feather the inflated price she demanded ($750) to get copies of fifteen (15) official tax returns from the archives of Allied Tax Service Inc.  Under Evidence Code Section 1563 my cost for these docments should have been closer to $200.

I feel that Katherine Feather took advantage of my urgent need for these docments for my legal case, and used the opportunity to overcharge me approximately $550.  I have asked Ms. Feather to return this overcharged amount to me. So far she has not agreed.

This post will be updated as new information becomes available.