collecting past due fees

ed mendlowitz, cpa, abv, pfs
author
ofimplementing fee increases

question: client didn’t pay his bills to me, doesn’t return my phone calls, and his secretary keeps sending me the tax notices he gets with notes of “when are you going to take care of them?”  i tell her that i need the client to call me before i can do any more work and she ignores this and keeps sending me the notices and other tax correspondence he gets. i don’t want to tell him i am dropping him because then i don’t think i’ll ever be paid.  every year he goes on extension and he usually pays me half of what he owes when he sends me his tax info, but the past due amount has really accumulated to about three year’s fees.  what should i do about getting paid?