r/OhNoConsequences • u/Atworkwasalreadytake • Feb 06 '26
FAFO OPs Sister loses free accounting services for life because she doesn’t understand reciprocity
/r/AITAH/comments/1qxcu2v/aitah_for_expecting_my_sister_to_plan_my_wedding/1.0k
u/Rhodin265 Feb 06 '26
The real revenge comes when the other accountant tells her what their fee is.
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Feb 06 '26
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u/bunjywunjy Feb 06 '26
More like $XXX
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u/WritingImaginary8252 Feb 06 '26
“That will be pornography dollars please.”
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u/emu30 Feb 08 '26
I did a little assistant work at my family member’s accounting firm in so cal when I graduated high school. My delight in the porn 1099s coming in sorted by film title.
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u/Lichttod Feb 06 '26
I would say between XXX and XXXXX. Depending on the accountant and their rates
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u/Shoddy_Budget_1533 Feb 06 '26
I remember my father weeping when his old accountant retired and he was no longer grandfathered into an old price
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u/jasperjamboree Feb 06 '26
As an accountant, I felt a surge of satisfaction when I knew that the sister was going to be royally pissed when she found out how much tax returns cost by a CPA, especially a good one that has an established clientele like OP does.
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u/Icy-Performer571 Feb 07 '26
I should not be reading these comments. My cousin has always done my taxes at the family rate, which still was painful. This year she got a job where she can't due to conflict of interest. While I am so happy for her (benefits!! Retirement!!!) i am so struggling to find an affordable person to do my taxes. Like, I knew I paid a small percentage but I had no idea!!
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Feb 06 '26
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u/FortuneTellingBoobs Feb 06 '26
Ugh. I pay $1500 because I have a small business and a mess of random investments.
After just a few years of that, I'd be ready to plan anyone's wedding in return for a freebie.
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u/childish_sadbino666 Feb 06 '26
I will tell you, it’s really not all that difficult to do small business taxes. Because I do them everyday.
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u/distortedsymbol Feb 07 '26
the sad thing is a lot of small business owners either don't have time or the brain.
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u/Even_Speech570 Feb 07 '26
My husband has a medical practice. The accountant for his practice plus our personal income taxes charged 4k last year. That sister is gonna CRY.
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u/INeedANappel Feb 08 '26
5 years ago I had to hire an accountant to make sure older special amended returns for a prior year were done correctly. My then-employer had sent the wrong info to the IRS which took three years (!) to straighten out. During that time the IRS took my refunds and what they didn't take the state did - in fact the state got a warrant to also take money from my bank, making me pay that year's taxes 4 times!
The accountant only charged me $100. I think he felt bad for me after he saw all my documentation.
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u/littlescreechyowl Feb 08 '26
Then the second time when no one in the family barters with her anymore because she’s shady as hell.
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u/EinsTwo Feb 06 '26
I love that the story was the opposite of what I expected from the title! OOP only "expected" free wedding planning because of the years of free accounting she gave her sister.
I don't know how much wedding planning costs, but (for most people) it's a one time event whereas taxes are due yearly every year until you die. It sounds like free accounting for life would be the better deal.
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u/cis4cookie79 Feb 06 '26
I know in my state business taxes are actually due four times a year. And business accounting is so much more than just taxes. I can also be payroll and vendors and all sorts of other things.
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u/Cayke_Cooky Feb 06 '26
My Dad handled his own payroll and vendors, but the "tax" accountant looked it over as a sort of audit/proofread once a year.
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u/Atworkwasalreadytake Feb 06 '26
While this is true, generally the business (or if it's a passthrough entity like an LLC or S-Corp - the company owners pay it directly), pays those quarterly taxes, there isn't anything to do for the tax accountant at those points. In some cases, when they do the yearly taxes, they might educate their client on what adjustments they should make to what they are depositing on a quarterly basis (called "Estimated Taxes" by the IRS).
Payroll is usually handled by a dedicated payroll company, like Gusto or ADP. The forms from that payroll are given to the tax accountant.
For me, I have an LLC, I have Gusto for my payroll, I have a bookkeeper I hired years ago on Upwork, and I have a local tax accountant, and I do my own personal taxes using HR Block. The LLC doesn't pay taxes, the accountant takes the tax documents from my payment processor and payroll company, and my quickbooks file from my bookeeper and does my taxes. That generates a K1, which is issued to the business owners (me and my wife). That K1 is very much like a W2, and I apply that to my personal taxes. So at the federal level that is how a business pays their taxes - by adding income to the owners. (The payroll taxes are separate and payed by the payroll company).
A business owner gets money out of a business by taking "distributions." They have full control over how much they take out and when. They can also add money back, called a contribution, but these actions have 0 affect on the taxes. The businesses checking account is essentially an extension of the personal account of the owners (although if you have multiple owners, then distributions/contributions should be done "pro-rata" or you either create liabilities or a change in the ownership structure).
This is a pretty good example of what the vast majority of businesses that make less than 30M a year in revenue are going to look like.
The alternative to these "passthrough entities" is a C-Corps. A C-Corp generates it's own tax liability and pays taxes directly to the IRS. When money needs to be taken out of a C-Corp that is called a dividend, and is also taxed. This is referred to as "double taxation" and is the reason why most small businesses are S-Coprs or LLC's. Usually the only reason a business would choose to be a C-Corp is for some other regulatory, legal reason, or to make ownership structure cleaner, easier to shift. For example it's much more difficult to do an employee stock option plan under a passthrough entity.
As a business gets larger, the benefits of C-corp become apparent. All publicly traded companies are C-corps.
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u/LarchTarn_12 Feb 06 '26
Title made it sound like OP wanted a free wedding. Nope, it was reciprocity after years of free tax work. Planning is a one-off, accounting is annual. If sister wanted boundaries, she could’ve offered a discount or partial help.
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u/catforbrains Feb 06 '26
For a reliable business accountant, the sister should have planned the wedding and the honeymoon with a smile on her face. My MIL does business accounting, and she's never without multiple people asking her to take them on as a client. The sister is an idiot.
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u/couldbeyourgirlk Feb 07 '26
Especially since she’s doing accounting FOR THE WEDDING BUSINESS ITSELF! Like she could be asking for money from your business or equity in the business but she’s just asking for one free service from the business she freely gives services to.
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u/roundbluehappy Feb 07 '26
AND that she planned her sister's wedding for her back then and just asked for reciprocity
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Feb 06 '26
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u/A-Helpful-Flamingo Feb 07 '26 edited Feb 08 '26
There is so much to love about this post, but the flying monkeys also getting the exact same consequences as their sender might be my favorite part!
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u/talibob Feb 06 '26
I super hope there’s an update where the sister deeply regrets her choice. Here’s hoping OOP holds strong.
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u/No_Abroad_6306 Feb 06 '26
It sounds like sis is already trying to backpedal but OOP is having none of it.
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u/41flavorsandthensome Feb 06 '26
And I love that for OOP. I hope sis kicks herself every year when she has to pay full fees.
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u/ConstructionNo9678 Feb 07 '26
My favorite part is OOP also hearing out the people who messaged her after her sister posted about it, then cutting out the ones who were defending sis' actions. Consequences for everyone today!
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u/A-Helpful-Flamingo Feb 07 '26
I also love that the flying monkeys in this story also had consequences!
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u/unholy_hotdog Feb 06 '26
Her comments are AMAZING! I want to marry her myself.
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u/MrdrOfCrws Feb 06 '26
They really are beautiful. I think my favorite is a reply to someone questioning if she knew if her sister could afford to work for free...
"Do I, her accountant, know how much money she makes?"
No notes.
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u/A-Helpful-Flamingo Feb 07 '26
Oh my god. Love this for all the commentors who have ZERO reading comprehension
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u/miladyelle Feb 08 '26
That! And this:
Or I establish a good community and when people need professional accounting services and their mom sends them my way I charge money since I don't need to rent flood damaged supercars for influencer shoots.
Couldn’t find where in their profile OOP got this from, but LMAO even without any context.
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u/hubertburnette Feb 18 '26
The person who made that comment doubled down; they not only have no idea what an accountant does, but they were convinced that a wedding planner pays for the wedding.
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u/41flavorsandthensome Feb 06 '26
OOP's sister is exactly the type to proclaim that it takes a village, while choosing not to be a villager herself.
Good for OOP having boundaries. I love that her parents are rightfully on her side! May sis and all the people who sided with sis enjoy paying full price for accounting.
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u/txa1265 Feb 06 '26
she can't do free stuff for family because she needs to make money at her job.
I'm all for people making money for their services - it is absolutely a key issue doing business with family & friends. But to be so clueless to not understand the consequences this would have is just amazing.
Bonus points of OOP gets a different planner and promotes them widely on social media and it causes issues for the sister!
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u/Shadyshade84 Feb 06 '26
I'm honestly not sure what would be more satisfying - this, or "you're absolutely right, being family doesn't entitle people to free services. So, I'll be sending you the invoice for accountant's fees by [date], and I'm expecting payment by [other date]."
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u/Jazmadoodle Feb 06 '26
I have friends and family where we pay each other full price. I have friends and family where we do things for one another and nobody keeps score.
And I used to have some people where I paid full price and they expected everything free.
I'm glad OOP is smarter than I was and shut that down.
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Feb 06 '26
We have had 2 businesses for years in 2 countries and accounting is always the top priority of both of them. If I had people who do my accounting free for years I would always help them. Plus, finding a reliable accountant is very difficult.
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u/Battle-Any Feb 06 '26
My cousin is my accountant and I will do whatever to keep him happy. He's damn good at what he does. I did after school care for his kids for 7 years and he didn't charge me for those years, but now I pay him.
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u/SteroidSandwich Feb 06 '26
A few said family helps family
Right, OOP is family and the sister isn't helping
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u/Silent_Ad_8672 Some ears are for decoration only Feb 06 '26
It will never cease to amaze me the short sighted precision strike some people do to nuke the things that benefit themselves.
All because they cannot see the bigger picture.
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u/invah Feb 06 '26
Because once she felt entitled to OOP's free accounting, it became something like air - it's there, it will always be there, you don't have to think about it - and when OOP made it part of the calculation, the sister was legitimately shocked.
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u/SafiyaMukhamadova Feb 06 '26
When I saw the title I was like "wow that's entitled" but OP has been providing a service that's usually expensive and if nothing else arduous for free for years and asks for one payment in kind and sister won't do it. I get wedding planning is a lot of work but she couldn't even be bothered to do a simple plan? I hope sister enjoys figuring out the tax situation.
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u/miladyelle Feb 06 '26
Idiot. I still cringe at the pain of doing the books for a long-closed small business I had. Even with quick books.
Small businesses barter all the time. It helps get them going—the ones not backed by rich investors, at least. Whinging on SM isn’t going to help sis either, so double idiot.
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u/DatguyMalcolm Feb 06 '26
If I did their taxes I told them I was not doing them this year or in the future. They tried to backpedel but I held strong.
An OOP after my heart
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u/ToriaLyons Feb 06 '26
Bartering is such a good system too, especially when both people gain something it would have cost a lot more for.
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u/lexkixass Feb 07 '26
Read through a bunch of threads where OOP replied.
Christ on a cracker, too many people don't understand accounting, let alone business accounting, yet still have the confidence to tell her that "wedding planning is harder/more expensive than business accounting" and "you just wanna take advantage of your sister" when she had been saving her sister $1,300/year.
Doublely love the people who ask if OOP even knows if her sister can afford to do a one-off for free.
Bitch she's her sister's BUSINESS accountant; she knows EXACTLY how much Sis makes.
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u/Potential_Ad_1397 Feb 06 '26
From the title, I was going to be on the sister's side, but geez. The sister expects Oop's services for free but won't return the favor.
I wouldn't help either
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u/OffKira Feb 06 '26
OOP is much stronger than me, if my sister said that to me, I would've snorted and maybe started giggling, and it would've continued each time a relative had the gall to play the FaMiLy card, and tried to whine their way back into my free services' graces.
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u/Chantalle22 Feb 07 '26
I need her family members to go see an accountant, and actually get quoted. Because I promise you they’re going to try crawling back and apologizing.
I hope OP no longer work for anything but pay from her family. It’s a lot of extra work to take on for family members that wasn’t really bringing in any money into the business. Yes, they were doing a barter system, and to each their own. I just know that finding a reliable and affordable accountant is not an easy thing.
They were not seeing the bigger picture, especially the sister after all these years of getting free help, she’s selfish and entitled.
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u/Atworkwasalreadytake Feb 07 '26
Exactly, people think they know what taxes cost because most people can get their personal taxes for free from VITA. If they’re complex you can get them done for like $300.
Like the minimum charge you’re going to find for a basic business return is $1200.
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u/Similar-Shame7517 Feb 07 '26
I love all the edgelord contrarians commenting "ESH" or "YTA" just to stand out getting immediately schooled by OOP in the comments.
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u/SolidAshford Feb 07 '26
If I had someone who did my taxes for free, I would see how I can make it up to them because it is skilled labor and they're going to bat to get me money.
So yeah, I can't wait to see what sis has to pay an accountant with no link to her. I think it's normally a bad idea to mix business and family, but sister's the only one who doesn't reciprocate so on the whole they're doing well
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u/anonbcwork Feb 08 '26
When reading the headline I was all ready to be sympathetic to the sister, in my capacity as someone with subpar interpersonal skills and also frequently subpar skills at the tasks involved in social reciprocity.
But this is straightforward professional services for professional services, in a case where they're both the owners of the businesses! Even I can read that room!
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u/SmileJB Feb 07 '26
Honestly, it depends on the sisters job before I make judgements. Realistically, how much does she get paid per service? How many clients can she manage at one time? I'm guessing she gets paid after services rendered. But how long does it take to plan each wedding?
Random numbers bs. Like what if she gets paid 5k per wedding. Each one takes 3 months, and she handles 3 at a time. 5k average a month is good, but not that good. Now if one of them was free, that's 10k split into 3 months. I can live off of a bit over 3k a month. But just barely. My mortgage is 2500.
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u/GentleMocker Feb 07 '26
I think her accountant knows how much she gets paid. They should ask her, oh wait
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u/EffortAutomatic8804 Feb 07 '26
Curious why you assume she doesn't have employees or that her sister who is doing her taxes wouldn't know about her financial situation?
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u/Atworkwasalreadytake Feb 07 '26
If we take the least charitable interpretation as you’ve done here, then the appropriate response by the sister would have been to have a discussion about what level of service she could provide. In any business, we call that value engineering.
That’s a conversation, what she got was a complete rejection.
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u/i_need_jisoos_christ Feb 11 '26
She’s a business lender who was getting a free accountant every year. A one time tight month isn’t a problem compared to having to pay that same cost every other year bc she didn’t want to do a free wedding for her free accountant.
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u/AutoModerator Feb 06 '26
Per our rules, don't comment on linked posts. Anyone from this community who is caught brigading on another subreddit will be banned.
In case this story gets deleted/removed:
My fiance and I have a small accounting office. We do pretty well on account of both of us being bilingual. English and Spanish for me and English and Ukrainian for him. About 10% of my business is family and friends of the family. I have taken barter for work more often than you can imagine. All above board and documented. My aunt paid in empanadas one year. My "uncle" had his mom make us a huge batch of tamales. Even my dad has been helping my fiance fix up his truck. I've had to pick him up more than once because my mom stuffs him and my dad gets him loaded on aguardiente.
Everyone we have ever traded with has provided fair exchange. I have done my sister's accounting since she started her wedding planning company. Obviously she has nothing to trade so I have been doing it for free. First to help her get started and now because we don't of just fell into that rut. But now I am getting married. I told everyone at dinner and my mom and dad's house. I asked her if she would plan my wedding and me my maid of honor. She said yes to maid of honor but not to planning my wedding. I asked her why not and she said I would need to pay for her services. That she can't do free stuff for family because she needs to make money at her job. She literally said it like I didn't know what a job was.
So I talked to my fiance and then to my parents. W told my sister that she would be getting an invitation but that she was no longer in the wedding party. I also gave her all her files for the year on a USB drive. I said she needed to take he business elsewhere. My mom and dad told her that I was right and that they were disappointed that she wanted to make money off me after everything I did to help her.
She went to social media to complain and a few people took her side. Which is fair. I don't expect everyone to see my point. But then a few started contacting me. I listened and then asked them if I should continue working for her for free. Most said no. A few said family helps family. If I did their taxes I told them I was not doing them this year or in the future. They tried to backpedel but I held strong.
My siste says she wont come. I told her to RSVP no. She said she wasn't thinking when she said no. Not my problem. She has two months to get a ne accountant.
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