My husband and I were referred to Larry three years ago by a real estate colleague. We had just returned from an overseas assignment. Larry asked to see our returns from the three years we were there, and then promised us over $100k he could get returned to us because of overpayments he said we made while there. The short story is that he proceeded to get us audited for all three years we lived overseas, which is still ongoing 2.5 years later and thousands and thousands of dollars out of pocket trying to fix it, not including the penalty the IRS is trying to attach to it. There is no refund, as Larry had promised us, only a horrible experience. When we were still clients Larry stopped returning our calls and avoided all communication with us. This went on for months before we finally pulled the plug with him. I have seen other reviews about the same thing happening to others. It has taken me a long time to write this but I hope we can help others avoid someone who has very poor business practices. read more

We had been referred to Larry from a friend who has used him for a few years. Our initial phone chat in January was great, Larry was friendly and seemed like a competent CPA. He said he could do our taxes for about $1500, which seemed a little steep but we agreed because we had just bought a home (and figured a CPA would be best to make sure we were filing correctly). This was our first experience with using a CPA. Larry had requested some documents from us, which we provided in mid-February. He said he would take a look and get back to us with any additional requests for documents. After radio silence, we reached back out in early March to check in and make sure nothing extra was needed, his response was "Will get back to you after our review." At the beginning of April, we reached back out to see if our taxes would be done by the filing deadline, or if we would need to file an extension. His response led us to believe he didn't even read the email, "I'll let you know if we need more info." We replied explicitly asking if he was going to be able to file our taxes, or if we needed to seek alternatives. He never replied. April 15th, we sent another email asking him to confirm that our taxes would be done by May 17th, this years filing deadline. He replied the next day, responding "yes it will. Just a crazy tax season this year with changes in the middle of the tax season!" Well, you can probably guess where this is going. We emailed him this morning (May 17th) as we had not heard anything for a month. He responded, "I am double checking, I misplaced the password for your W2s." I wish I was joking. He followed up about 15 minutes later with another email requesting 1098 and 1099 forms. I really wish I was joking. Needless to say, our confidence and trust in Larry was shattered. We hopped on TurboTax and filed our taxes in about 3 hours this morning, something Larry Pon, a Certified Public Accountant, couldn't accomplish over the course of 5 months. read more

Stay away. I worked with Larry for the past 3 years. For the first 2 he was great! Responsive, personable, returns were prepared on time and accurate. This year he has dropped the ball so many times I am flabbergasted. Even though we met back in February to consult on my returns this year, he didn't complete my returns by April 15. Even worse was the minimal communication I received about this - I had to repeatedly email him to even hear back. In the middle of August I still don't have prepared returns. So, I asked him to mail me my documents so I could prepare them myself using Turbotax. After several weeks of emailing back and forth, and a promise that he would mail them, I have not received anything yet. I'm not sure if I ever will. read more

This review is overdue. Larry has been my CPA for over 2 years. He helped me through my divorce and sort out my finance to come up with the best alternative for settlement. He also helps to "Consult" me recently with some business decisions about my property. What I love about Larry is that he has the passion of teaching his clients. He will never tell you "how" to manage your finance, but he will be there to "educate" you to make the best business decision. He is also always timely and available via emails. I you need a CPA, I will not hesitate to recommend Larry. read more

I've actually been really unhappy with the results I've gotten with him. I was charged for 6 hours of work and it seems like he did a lot less. The big problem, though, is that he repeatedly promised to contact me or have things ready and then didn't, for months on end. He would ignore my email, or promise to get in touch with me soon, and then he wouldn't get in touch with me. I didn't get my tax returns complete until I threatened to take my business elsewhere, and even then I got empty promises until I gave a deadline. When I finally did get my taxes back, they were very clear and professional and I'm very happy about that and that's why you see two stars instead of one. But it took so long and was so stressful! I felt like the amount of worry and stress I got trying to convince Larry to do his job, I could have just done it all myself and saved $1200. read more

Do not go to Larry for your taxes! Larry had been doing my taxes since 1997. He was amazing. Not only did he do a great job with my tax returns, he also provided excellent financial planning advice. He is a nice guy and I recommended him to all of my friends. Starting about 2010, he started being slow to deliver my completed returns. He was taking until the very last minute on April 15th. By the next year, he was taking until the final day on the extended deadline and so on. He was slow if at all to return calls; I told myself that he's busy because he is so good and popular. Starting 2014, it fell apart completely. He failed to deliver my return on April 15 and failed to deliver it on the extended filing date. I called about 2 weeks later, and it appeared he had forgotten about me completely. I began a system of begging for my tax return, and he still wasn't returning calls. I finally started sending emails asking what was the matter. Was he in the middle of a personal crisis of some sort? Divorce? Death in the family? Finally, I started demanding that he return my paperwork so that I could go to another accountant. By this time the IRS garnished my paycheck because they too had noticed I hadn't filed my return! Even his secretary started screening calls, as clearly she too was getting tired of the plethora of angry calls. Finally, finally, finally he prepared my tax return and I was able to pick it up. At this point, I have to question the quality of his work. But at least I had my 1040! I really want to ask: Larry what happened?!!!! read more

My husband used Larry for many years before we got married and I also had an accountant I liked, so when we got married, we agreed each of our accountants would prepare our business taxes (we're both self-employed) and then we'd have my accountant compile the two. Somehow this got translated to Larry that my husband wanted to file as married-filing-separately. I'm not sure if this was Larry's idea or he got the impression my husband wanted to do this, but either way it was bizarre to me that he thought this was a good idea. Filing with this status would have cost us hundreds of dollars in missed tax write-offs. Even if he did think my husband was suggesting this, I would expect him to advise against it. Obviously there was some confusion here, so I give him a little bit of slack, but when the time came to put our taxes together, we could not get anything out of Larry. He had all my husband's paperwork and was not returning calls or emails. April came and went and finally he told us he was filing an extension. Well and good, but my husband owed taxes, which would accrue interest and penalties until they were paid. Larry did not seem to think this was a problem and did not give us an estimated amount to pay on April 15 (which my accountant always does to avoid me piling up fees). I believe we finally got my husband's paperwork back in July. Larry had not actually prepared his taxes so we simply sent them to my accountant to finish. It cost us an arm and a leg, not to mention the interest on the tax that was owed in April, not to mention the aggravation. Larry is a likeable guy but I want an accountant who's MORE dependable than I am, not someone I have to hound to get things done. I was really taken aback at how our account was managed. read more

Do yourself a favor and don't ever do business with Larry Pon, you'll spare yourself a headache and save money. I would really like to have something nice to say about Larry, but his actions have revealed his character or lack thereof. Larry Pon is a liar, a cheat, a coward, and a fraud. Last year Larry was able to swiftly and successfully help me with an LLC tax issue for a sizeable fee. I was under the impression that he was the tax professional that I had been looking for to alleviate the burden of doing taxes and give me peace of mind for which I'm willing to pay extra and proceeded to have Larry take care of my family taxes for 2015. - We sent Larry all our tax documentation, mid-February. - I sent him an email late March to check on the status of my tax document and if he needed anything else, to which he once responded that he had everything he needed. - After that he pretty much went missing. He never returned emails or calls, and we had no idea if our taxes were filed or what we owed while he still had all the documentation. No peace of mind. - Late April way past the tax due date his secretary called up to notify me that an extension had been filed and that I could come pick up my tax forms mid-May. - I went to his office for our scheduled meeting basically to pick up my forms and go elsewhere, where he proceeded to lie and tell me that the tax extension was all in order and nothing to worry about, and proceeded to give absolutely no sound advice on our taxes at all. - I pay Larry his $700 fee. - 3 weeks later I get a note from the IRS saying that I owed the IRS a late fee for not filing taxes on Time. - Larry never filed for an extension. He lied. I know this because I talked to the IRS on 2 separate occasions and they verified that he never filed an extension. - Meanwhile Larry doesn't respond to any calls or emails his services have cost me $965 for peace of mind ($700 dollars for his fee and $265 IRS penalty charge). By the looks of the other comment on here, and what others have told me elsewhere I'm not the only one he screwed over. Those five star comments are undoubtedly paid for. read more

Larry has been my CPA for at least five years. He's been kind and patient, despite my chronic financial disorganization. I'm always late but he finds a way to accomodate me. For my 2009 taxes, he met me on a Saturday at 5pm. When I get my taxes, they are always correct and professionally packaged. My quarterly tax payments are calculated, and Larry sends me a reminder each quarter to be sure I make them on time. He's also been great about advising me on stock and tax issues outside of tax season. He's prompt about returning my calls. To address some reviews here, during tax season I don't think any CPA is going to be returning calls and emailing regularly. Larry's assistant always calls when my taxes are done and ready to pick up. I trust Larry will get them done by his commitment date. The last thing I want to mention is that Larry always remembers me and is looking to see what's changed in the year since we last spoke. I have doctors I see regularly who can't remember me or my history. I see Larry once a year during his busiest period and he's always on top of my financial status. read more

I've been working with Larry for over 10 years and cannot recommend him highly enough. He's given me excellent advice on real estate, my family estate, investing, and maximizing deductions. He's also very fast to respond by phone and email, even during tax time. read more

Larry is the worst CPA I've ever had the displeasure to encounter. I tried to give him no stars but the system will not let me...I'm just sick that I have to give him a star at all...I took my taxes to him in June and had a 2 hour consultation with him and my husband. My husband has been using him for a number of years. He wrote a lot of notes...a month later when I called him to see when I could pick them up, I got no return call. This began three months of calls from both of us that were NEVER EVER returned...NEVER...How can a professional person NEVER return one single call? I literally left dozens of voice mail. We got his assistant on the phone several times and she said she would be sure to have him call...we said based on the last few months we had no reason to believe that he would return the call. And Larry didn't let us down, he indeed did not call us back. So today my husband went to his office to confront him face to face...he says he'll have the work done by tomorrow...this remains to be seen...but rest assured that I'll let all of you know what happens. If anybody recommends this person as a reliable CPA...they are clearly not to be trusted because Larry is not to be trusted! UPDATE: Well...we got the taxes back and when he said he'd have them done...they're not quite what we wanted but at this point I just need to get the damn thing sent in. If you want to be seriously frustrated, worry a lot and have serious tension headaches then by all means go to Larry! read more

Larry was our accountant for more than 20 years and we sent many new clients his way. For some reason, in 2015 all of this came to an end when Larry could not seem to get our 2014 taxes done or even respond to my emails or phone calls. Finally on April 15th, he sent me an email, letting me know that he was filing an extension and to go to the IRS website and plunk down a chunk of money just to cover us in the event we would owe for the tax year. Having done so, I waited months, sent additional emails and finally let his assistant know that I would be stopping by the office that day to pick up my taxes (whether completed or not). I was genuinely concerned because this was so out of character for him but never received an explanation for his behavior. He did a rush job to get them done and as a result missed an amended W2 I sent in early March. Quite a surprise to find out from our new accountant that this was missed and that we now have to amend the return, pay additional taxes and of course, penalties. Assuming that Larry realized how badly he messed up, I expected he would not charge us. Imagine my surprise when I received a bill today from a collection agency for $600. His incompetence and arrogance apparently know no bounds. Others who we referred to Larry have now received the same treatment. Writing my first Yelp review ever, to steer others clear of this train wreck. read more

This guys only really cares about customers he's had for years it seems. He is unresponsive and doesn't care about following up with tax issues that crop up later. Glad I spent $700 for tax returns. Yeah that's right $200 for consult and $500 for the returns, which I also had to ask for numerous times. Don't bother with this guy. Rip off and doesn't know how to run a business or be a businessman. Too bad I can't give a negative 5 star review. Go waste someone else's time and money. I'd rather have a 5 year old do my taxes. read more

Those considering working with Mr. Pon might be best served by reviewing the following link (and the entire 18 pages): www.dca.ca.gov/cba/discipline/accusations/ac-2013-13.pdf The fact(s) speak for itself. read more

Larry's a very nice guy, and very knowledgable. Unfortunately, we had three significant issues with the returns he prepared for both our family and our small business. The first was an inadvertent hyphenation of my wife's last name (the name was correct on the return Larry prepared the year prior, so it's unclear where the 'correction' came from). In any event, it triggered a request for clarification from the IRS. Similarly, for a company return he prepared, he inadvertently changed the mailing address for the company on the (both state and federal) returns, which ended up being a much more significant issue as we ended up missing important communications from the FTB as a result. Finally, most importantly, a "glitch" as it was described in one of the company returns led to a very significant underreporting of general payments paid to the company partners for one year, and my multiple requests for attention and clarification on the return were literally ignored. All in all, he's a talented guy, but we were very disappointed with the quality of his work. read more

Larry is my trusted advisor when it comes to tax matters and even business strategy. He has been doing my taxes for almost a decade and has been doing my mother's taxes for longer than that. I'm always amazed at how he can gather all of my information, tweak the initial numbers and have me out the door in just under an hour. A few days later my copy of the state and federal returns are ready to pick up. Larry is probably on the conservative side and knows his stuff to the n'th degree. He is one of very few CPA's to pass the Tax Court exam, admitting him to practice before the Tax Court. Only 10% of those who take the test pass it. read more

He's responsive and a good CPA until the day he isn't and then you'll never hear from him again. That was my experience after having him prepare my personal return for 20 years and paying $500+ for the annual service. When he stopped returning calls and emails I honestly expected to hear he had been hit by a bus or was under investigation by the California Board of Accountancy. Very odd and unprofessional. I considered filing a complaint with the CBA, as another dropped client did in 2013, but just found another CPA and moved on. You'll never know when this will happen to you when you really need him. read more

Lary is great, I have used him for both my business and personal tax preparationfo almost 20 yrs! He is Professional, Diligent and Timely.

I've been a client of Larry's for something like 20 years & he's fantastic. He'll map out everything for you and make recomendations, but then it's up to you to follow through. If you forget, he's there to help. Especially in times of crisis. read more

My husband and I have used Larry's excellent accountancy skills for the past 10 years at least. When our financial planner recommended Larry to us, he took the trouble to go over our past returns, and found errors that saved us over $60,000. He is now helping our son file his taxes as well. We have found him to be very professional, knowledgeable and courteous in all our interactions. read more

Larry use to be one of the best of the best. Something happened. My wife and I were long term clients, then moved out of state. We kept Larry as our CPA remotely because we felt loyalty and gratitude to him. In 2008, everything went to hell. We provided our tax materials in early February, but the return was not done by April 15th, in fact it wasn't finished until June---after a pile of faxes, emails and phone calls went unanswered. When we questioned the return accuracy, we were told "it was right" and that was the end of it---despite our protests that there were errors. We had to have our taxes re-done locally, at half the cost, with twice the accuracy---same data provided to Larry. We saved thousands in actual tax payments clearing up Larry's mistakes. The kicker? Instead of calling his unsatisfied, long term clients to make amends, he sent us to one of the nastiest collection agencies in the country for non-payment on a return he screwed up big time. Are you kidding me? I am not sure what happened to Larry, but it makes me sad. As others have reported, a zero is not an option, but in this case the rating should be warranted. I was amazed to hear the same complaints on this review site by others. I was reluctant to speak up, but I dont want to see some one else questioning their own personal sanity in dealing with this firm. I am very, very sad. read more

I googled Larry to get his address to send a christmas card and thought to review him since I saw the last poster's comments. While I cannot comment on this person's experience, I had to add my own thoughts. I have been working with Larry since I was referred to him in 1999 when he helped sort out my mother's estate. At the time, Larry gave an estimate of how much it would cost. Well, anyone who has ever had to take care of an estate knows how complicated it can get and long drawn out. It took almost a year for us to settle everything, go through probate and disburse the estate. In the meantime, Larry helped us find an estate attorney and we had to meet several times with him and the other heirs. Towards the end, I asked Larry if he needed to revise his estimate to complete the returns because I thought it would probably be much higher since he had to do so much more for it. He refused to go above his original estimate! Since then, he has completed my returns every year. I have never had issues with late tax returns being completed on time and I don't ever recall a time he never returned a call, email or voicemail when we had a question. He's very much by the book, and advises against anything that may lead to an audit. That may be my only complaint, as I would love to get more deductions! I appreciate that he helps me and my husband plan for the following year and also reviews my investments (however small they are). He is a CFP as well as and I believe is currently going after his law degree. read more

I'm a new client of Larry Pon's. The first, last, and only time I've seen him was over a month and half ago. Since that time, I and my wife have repeatedly called, left voice mails, spoke with his assistance, and basically begged for a call back or some form of contact. Despite all of this, we have received NOTHING from Larry--not a return call, not an email or letter, no contact or correspondence whatsoever. And with just 2 weeks until the due date, I feel like my taxes are being held hostage by an unprofessional, incompetent, negligent amateur who can't even muster enough motivation to have his secretary make a frigging phone call. If you're thinking of using this guy, test the waters first. Call him sometime and count the weeks it takes him to get back to you...we're up to almost 4. UPDATE 4/4: So after almost a full month of our calls being ignored, we finally get our tax returns...my wife's seems okay, but mine seems wrong as I have never owed to the feds before. Larry's bill is large of course, but there is a questionable line item with no line item charges listed, just one big total. When my wife went to return them to Larry's office for e-filing, she actually saw him and tried to ask him about this charge. He dismissed her saying "we'll talk after tax season" and rudely walked away while she was trying to speak to him. If I had any doubts about Larry's unprofessionalism, he removed them all today. We canceled all future appointments with his office. Mr. Pon has made it quite clear that he is too preoccupied with other matters for our business and not at all above being rude and/or dismissive to customers. And after all this, he still has never returned a phone call or answered any of our questions. read more

And as an update, my 2009 tax return was finished and ready the day after my my meeting with Larry. It doesn't get any quicker than that! :-) read more

What else can I say? Larry, your amazing! I thank you for your dedication and hardwork! I would recommend you to anyone!

Have been a client for many years, and I have finally decided to end our dysfunctional relationship. It seems to me that the only way to get Larry's attention is to send angry voicemails and emails. I'm tired of having to beg my CPA for a status or a phone call, so we are finished. I don't know if this is acceptable to others, but here's what I had to deal with this year (2012)... We gathered all of our tax information for Larry by the end of January. We could not get a scheduled meeting with him until mid February. At that time, he gave us a 'first cut' of what our returns would look like, and it involved us owing almost $60,000 State and Federal. Of course, this is a huge number to plan for by April 15, so we were anxious to have Larry complete the returns so we would know the exact amount of our liability. So, we asked Larry to please complete the returns ASAP so we could put the finances together. Weeks went by. Months went by. Many phone calls were made and emails were sent to him pleading for a response. Eventually, I sent a very impolite message telling Larry how unhappy I was and that I wanted my complete (or incomplete) returns and I would be stopping by to get them before April 15. So, right away he sends me the *exact same* returns that he showed us in February. In other words, there was no evidence of *any* work being done at all during the months that we were begging for some feedback from him. How can I trust that these returns have been thoroughly vetted? I simply can't. In other years, Larry has used every single day of the extension period and we ended up filing in August. His priorities just don't line up with ours. Sorry, Larry, you just are not understanding the anxiety you put your customers through. I hope your business does well, but I also hope nobody else has to be treated like we were. It is shameful behavior from a professional CPA. read more

Larry was fine for the first few years but I have to say that when my husband and I met with him he only spoke to my husband. Once we moved away we still chose to use him because the majority of the year had been in the Bay Area. We sent him all of our tax information and he dropped off the charts. He never returned calls, emails, etc. We finally heard from him in April and he had filed an extension (without our consent). Somehow, I cannot believe he is still in business. read more

Larry has been doing our taxes for years! I've never had a problem with him being unresponsive...just the contrary

I've been using Larry for about 10 years now, and he has been fantastic. I'm fairly well read and informed when it comes to making financial decisions, and Larry has surprised me with very good ideas to maximize my long-term savings. Not only that, when managing the financials of an estate, I made a serious omission, and Larry jumped to my assistance as soon as I called and did a great job fixing everything up for me. read more

Been very happy with Larry for our taxes. Thorough and very competent. My friend did have trouble getting a hold of him though once and had to go in to the office. But my experience he has been very responsive and helped me when I needed some quick advice, followed up, and never charged me. read more

Larry has been our CPA for over 10 years. My wife and I have both found him very easy to work with and his friendliness and energy makes dealing with dry and complex tax information and materials easier to understand and more enjoyable to cover. He has a strong understanding of the tax codes and is conservative with his advice so you never feel like you are taking a risk should you ever be audited (luckily, we have not had that pleasure). Both my wife and I have our own small businesses that generate more than the average number of schedules and forms and I have great confidence that when I receive my tax returns (now sent in electronically, a big time saver and no addtl fee) that they are thoroughly accurate. He has also assisted us with some basic financial and estate planning and I have found his advice and recommendations very helpful and knowledgeable. I'm very cost conscience and I have found that Larry has always found ways of saving enough through his recommendations on our tax returns to adequately cover the costs of his services. I'm sorry a few other people have had bad experiences. I have no idea of their financial situation and I am quite surprised by their negative reviews. All I can say is we have been completely satisfied with Larry's knowledge of the latest tax codes, financial advice and thorough understanding of small business taxes and would recommend Larry highly. read more

I have been ging to Mr, Pon since 2007. He has been extremely helpful and has helped me navigate through being layed off, pensions, rollover 401K's, and tax and financial planning in geneneral. He has always returned telephone calls and my returns have always been done in an extremely timely manner. I would recommend whole heartedly. read more

I have been using Larry for my taxes for 10 years now. My experience has been professional and timely every year. In fact, when I moved from the San Mateo area to Fairfield, I have continued to use Larry each year because we have had such a good relationship with him and we have been well satisfied with the results. read more

Larry and I had a solid working relationship for 15 years and this year for whatever reason was drastically different. I submitted all my paperwork except for a single K-1 form in early March. The K-1 followed at the end of March. Between March 1st and April 12, I attempted to contact Larry repeatedly via email/voicemail and received minimal response. He finally did reply to an email on the 12th telling me my tax returns would be ready on Saturday to be picked up. When I arrived on Saturday Larry told me that my returns were not ready yet and they wouldn't be completed until Monday the 15th. On Monday I received a one line email from Larry informing me that he didn't have time for my returns and we would be filing for an extension. I was extremely disappointed but wanted to give Larry the benefit of the doubt considering he'd been a good CPA to me for the last 15 years. I sent him an email asking to meet and talk about what went wrong this year and how we can work better together going forward. That was over 2 weeks ago and still no response. I've also left him 5 voicemails the last of which is informing him that he's fired and I'll pick up my paperwork to take elsewhere. I was shocked quite honestly that a guy could undergo that kind of negative transformation in a year's time. His behavior is completely unacceptable and I'll never do business with him again. read more