Never sign hourly contract. I have been misled.
I had a very disappointing and frustrating experience with Tax Resolute.
I signed a contract with Jesmin at a rate of £300 per hour after being introduced to her by my accountant. It was clearly agreed that my accountant would handle the accounting side, while Jesmin would liaise with HMRC.
However, after the contract was signed, she outsourced the work to someone else (Craig), who was charging her £200 per hour, while I was still billed £300 per hour. Throughout the case, Jesmin herself did not meaningfully contribute. I paid for her expertise, not for work to be passed on to someone else without transparency.
Because the contract was hourly-based, I believe the hours were significantly overstated. For example, even WhatsApp messages I sent that were never responded to were billed in 1-minute increments. This is completely unreasonable.
I requested a detailed timesheet in December 2024 and continued to chase it multiple times, but it was only provided in May 2025—by which point the total had already reached 95 hours. This made it impossible to properly monitor or challenge the billing as the work progressed.
I am disputing around 50 of those hours as they are clearly inflated and unsupported by evidence. In fact, they themselves admitted errors and removed 14 hours that they could not justify. Despite this, they continue to claim the remaining hours are substantiated, which I strongly disagree with. Even my accountant was shocked by the number of billable hours.
It appears that because Jesmin has already paid the outsourced worker, she is now attempting to pass those costs onto me without sufficient evidence. She has even tried to recover money from him, and when that failed, is now pursuing me instead.
To make matters worse, during the initial call before signing the contract, I was told the work would take approximately 50–60 hours. Yet the final bill nearly doubled that estimate at 95 hours.
Additionally, they have attempted to charge me for accounting work, which is completely unacceptable, as this was always meant to be handled by my accountant. This was clearly agreed in the initial meeting between myself, my accountant, Jesmin, and Craig.
My advice to others: NEVER agree to an hourly contract without strict oversight. If you do, insist on frequent and transparent timesheets throughout the engagement.
Overall, I feel misled, overcharged, and extremely dissatisfied with the service. Jesmin did not personally handle my case as expected, and the billing practices lack transparency and credibility.
21 November 2025
Unprompted review