I wouldn't think to write about my accountant on Yelp, but I was surprised to see some of the ratings on Yelp for Intertax and thought I'd put in my two cents, my guess is that in however long Intertax has been around (I think more than 10 years?) there have been three disgruntled customers who have felt inclined to write about it online. Fair enough. I've been going to May for five years and I've always been really pleased with her work, and the work of her staff. She helped me with my tax returns each year, and is now taking care of my nanny tax paperwork. I tried understanding it and it was a total pain, so I'm glad she's taking care of it for me. Overall, I've been really satisfied with Intertax's work, and I'll be seeing May for my 2011 income tax return. read more

We were recommended third-hand by one of my employers agencies to Intertax because they specialized in tax returns for non-residents (they don't). When we first visited to get our return done, we went with our fistful of paperwork to talk to an accountant at Intertax. There were a couple of what I thought were fairly minor misunderstandings and she rattled off a few questions and wrote down some notes based on what we said. I was a little uneasy about how filppantly she approached some issues but I figured that the US tax system was complex and that she knew what she was doing. We get a letter in the mail not long after with a copy of our return for us to post off to the IRS. I checked over it, and a large portion of the form was filled out incorrectly. They had somehow managed to get my first name and surname the wrong way around (even through I'd double-checked to ensure it was correct at the time of filing); they had listed myself and my wife as not being married, got a ton of the numbers wrong and a bunch of other basic details totally incorrect. I took some time off work to get to their office in time and went to their office to get things corrected. I had a highlighted list of corrections and the staff there took my form, ran into the back room and hurriedly re-prepared the form. At one stage, they misplaced it, and spend the next ten minutes looking for it in and around the giant mounds of paperwork that was everywhere. I checked over the numbers and as far as I could tell it was acceptable; they took the forms and they said that they'd mail it. A few weeks later I get an angry letter from the IRS with highlighted copy of my form listing all the points that had been filled out incorrectly. They had still incorrectly filled out some of the (not particularly complicated) deductions and had even managed to not submit the W2 with the return. That was one mistake too many for us and really not cool. San Francisco has treated us very, very well. Nearly everyone I've interacted with is friendly, helpful and competent, so I'm not handing out this one-star review lightly. I took the return instead to Liberty Tax service in Laurel Heights - those guys are awesome. read more

Since we lived in a foreign country and was not able to report taxes many years due to some special corporation situations. After returning to the U.S., we interviewed a few accountants. Some did not have the knowledge to answer the questions and some others thought our case was too complicated. The firm did a great job of walking us all through it.  The people are knowledgeable and reliable.  We're so grateful for her help. read more

I am one of those do-it-myself guys. I do my own 1040s & CA540 with M/S Excel sheet that I designed. At the tax time, I have the exact feeling how & what rate the Federal and State government taking out of my income. However, when I have to manage a complex and convoluted tax problems, I know it is time to seek for professional helps. My friend strongly recommended Intertax to me although it is almost 50-minute drive for me. As a long time reader of Yelp for dinning, I can't but also seek the advice from Yelp. The reviews on the Yelp was surprisingly not nice! To make the long story short, I went with Intertax with my tax problem. I have a very good experience with Intertax. Could it because I had try to do it myself first and understand the complexity a CPA has to work with? Intertax really knows the tax requirement and correct many of the misconception in me. We did most of our communication via e-mails so the distance is not a problem at all. The package provide to me, over 150 pages, to submit to the IRS is nice and neat. The fee is very reasonable. I will still work on my own 1040s. But when the problem gets beyond that, I will definitely seek Intertax for help without any hesitation. read more

Want an audit from the IRS? Try Intertax. That's right folks. I'm here to warn you guys about this company and May Ho. We had our tax prepared by her for the year 2004, 2005 and 2006. The IRS audited us for the 2005 claim because they had some information that did not match what they had on hand. We got in contact with our CPA, which was May Ho, and she wanted $100 to send the corresponding worksheets which she never gave a copy to us. We got audited again but this time it was for the student loan interest paid and I think that's too much. Not only did we pay a lot for her to prepare our taxes but she wants to milk us for more money for something that could have taken me about 10 minutes to do had she included everything in our copy of the tax package. Update: It turns out that she somehow included the interest paid for the entire student loan instead of the 1098-E form for 2005 which should not have happened. We paid a lot of money for someone to make the same mistake I could have made. In retrospect I should probably have done my own taxes. This person really did a sloppy job and I can't wait to see if I get audited again next year. Never will I go back or recommend this tax preparer again. read more

I really did not want to write this review but after this year I will not be going back. First off, I'm not sure why I didn't qualify for certain tax refunds. Did May not do a good enough job? I don't know and I don't want to ponder about it. What really irritated me was when I walked in to review after May had done my taxes, she didn't seem to know what was going on. As she was guiding me through what she filled out, she would come across certain parts on the form and say "why didn't I put this down" or "why didn't I write something here." There were times when she seemed confused as to why she wrote or didn't write certain things or claim certain items. To say the least that did not give me any confidence in her work. read more

May rules! My parents had some complicated international tax issues, and she did a great job of walking us all through it. May is super knowledgeable about this stuff and has great attention to detail. We're so grateful for her help. read more

Over several years, I have had a wonderful experience with May Ho and Intertax. I went to May with a substantial tax problem that neither I nor several other CPAs could fix (let alone understand conceptually). After a period of research into the matter, May addressed and quickly resolved my complex tax issue, and then handled the cumbersome process of dealing with refiling my prior year returns. Her professionalism and experience impressed me. I will continue to have the people at Intertax handle my complex tax matters for me, and I have absolute confidence in May and her staff. The best expression of my high confidence is that I have referred her to my family for the handling of pending tax matters involving the interplay of Chinese and US tax matters. read more

I was surprised to see the comments and ratings for Intertax too. More than 90% of the clients were very satisfied. But they did not post their comments. And the last 3% of clients who were mad because of some unknown reasons did post their unfair comments. (This is very common on Web rating.) I think that we should say something about it. The accountants have been helping us on tax things for years and they are extremely thoughtful and helpful. The key accountant May, who has published many books, are indeed an expert in the International tax area. She has been giving speeches and providing proper advice to people. read more

I used Intertax for the first for the first time this year. It found it difficult to find an accountant in SF who was able to prepare a US tax return that included foreign tax income. I had lived 8 months of the year in UK and was paid in GBP prior to moving back to US. May and her staff were able to prepare a very complex tax return in 3 weeks. I found Intertax to be very organized and they allowed me to review my return and ask questions before the final submission. The overall experience was very good and much better than I had expected. I was also very surprised to see the negative reviews. I've had bad experiences with my US and CA tax returns being prepared by other accounting firms in US and UK. Intertax has been the best exprience I've had thus far and would recommend using them for anyone who has foreign based income. read more

I have been working with Intertax for the past three years and find them to be one of the best accounting and tax group. They are very efficient, help you understand the tax laws every year, provide a quick answer throughout the year, provide updates as law changes and exteremly relaiable with the tax completion. They are also using the latest technology for tax return to make it all green and easy to track. I highly recommend Intertax and May Ho to all who are looking for a professional, relialble, and connected source of tax work. Regards, Homayoun read more

We are totally disappointed and ripped off by this company and May Ho. We heard about it from an acquaintance, so I first called them and ask for a quote. She said that she can give us a quote if we come to her office in San Francisco. So we took a trip to the city for a quote. She talked to us for about 10 min since our case is really quite simple, but besides the quote she gave us, there is also a $150 dollar charge for that short conversation for which we could get a quote. Both she and her secretary didn't mention or warn us about this charge to us over the phone or at the beginning of the conversation. We feel so disappointed and ripped off, especially after we took all the hassles to go to the city. read more

I read other reviews and I am writing this after I already sat down with May Ho about my situation, but I am glad I read the other few reviews because I have not sign off on what she was preparing for me and I did not pay her for what I think is over priced quote. So I had some stock sales proceeds that I did not file for previous years and franchised tax board already garnished my wages for 2004 tax year and I recently just got a notice for needing to pay a few thousands to IRS for 2007. Ok my situation is more complex then the other reviews but what really needs to be done is an amended file to both state and federal for 04 and 07 and also some math work to deal with capital gain and loss and may be carry it over to the other years. May spoke to my mother first and when I first saw her she did the same note book writing down stuff and really did not seem to fully explain the simple questions I had, but just sort of have that mysterious look on her face. I knew her quote was way on the hi side but my mother convinced me to just get it done because I was running of of time and I was in a hurry to deal with this and May promised to have it prepared in 3 days. I sign some paper work to allow her to prepare my tax and there were some additional documents she said she needed but I told her I am not sure if I can get a copy, then she told me that is ok and she can get it from what ever was filed to the IRS from the stock companies. So next day I get a phone call from someone name Ms. Zhong asking me about information on my wife. I asked her if she has the right number and name, well it was me they were looking for but I am NOT even married and never have been married WTF?. Ms. Zhong simply apologized and may be is was a mistake. About 2 hours later I get another call from the same Ms. Zhong and now she is asking about a interest form from 2006. I told her I talked to May the night before saying I mostly likely can not get it and may said she can get it herself. About 7 pm I get another call from Zhong and now she is saying my original 2006 Calif. return is missing the second page and was wondering if I can fax it in. It may be missing but I was wondering why would it take 3 phone calls to ask questions when one phone call can just taker care of it. The biggest issue is they don't even know I am single when I and my mother both told her I am a simple single guy with no kids and real property from the beginning. I just thought for the amount of money she wanted the service was really bad if not incompetent from day one. Well then I signed on here and saw other negative reviews about the same note book and can not figure out if a person is single or married stunt she pulled with me I knew this is B.S. I am just glad the IRS did not see what she was preparing for me because I am already in deep doo doo the last thing I need is get ripped off the make it worse. read more