Jessica is amazing! She is so attentive and prompt. I need a little handholding with this type of stuff haha, but she takes all the stress away. Richard has been great too. I also love the small town feel of a local office. I can always drop in with questions and they welcome it. read more

Terrible service! This business is at the beach instead of at the office! I am a small business owner and I suppose that is why my accountant will not respond to my emails. Just so unprofessional and so dangerous. These are tax people who should follow through in communication! PR read more

Nothing short of awful. My taxes were filed here for several years over the course of about a decade. I thought James was the guy to go to when I needed help with filing. After an audit that claimed I owe over $13,000 in taxes, James and Richard have been of almost no help. They told me to "call the IRS" because there is nothing they can do. After telling a coworker, he suggested contacting a CPA in North Carolina who said he could help me. I also spoke to another CPA locally who called the IRS with me, and is actively following up to submit an amended return. James has not responded with any sense of urgency to my requests for documents, often not responding or taking several days to do so. These people show a total disregard for accountability, and couldn't care less about providing follow up service for their own mistakes. What a joke. read more

In Feb. 2019, James Sherman discussed with me to get the estate financial evaluation from my estate attorney. This info was then provided to James per his request along with other legal documents from my attorney in March 2019. In March 2021, my CPA found out my four tax returns for tax years 2018 and 2019, which were done by James Sherman, were completely incorrect. Because of his negligence, my income was substantially overstated which caused me overpaid tax and penalties, etc. When I informed James and Rich about these discrepancies, Rich became so defensive that he even accused me that James never received the important financial info from me. How would someone selectively acknowledge emails or simply ignore them and say he never received the emails? This is absolutely ludicrous. If Mother Lode Bookkeeping really didn't receive any emails from clients, they better checked their email system instead of accusing their clients. Besides emails, all legal hard copy documents were provided to James which he claimed he kept a photo copy. Rich told me that he didn't find any while James was on a trip. It seemed like they really have bookkeeping problems. BTW, all the hard copy documents James returned me were still in the MLB white envelop and proved he did receive all the important financial info! To make the client relationship worse, Rich used a racist name all of a sudden when he replied my email. All his previous replies were using my name correctly though. Based on all the email evidence between James and I and all interactions with my estate attorney, it was extremely hard to believe that James, as a professional and competent EA (as other reviewers believed so), can make such a huge mistake unless he did it intentionally. Regardless if you sent him email requests to report tax deductible items, use correct cost basis, and do ES, he would not comply and simply dropped your requests. Some expenses can be deducted from CA and he didn't bother to add them to the CA tax return. He only sent you your tax returns at the last minute on the deadline and asked you to sign and pay the filing fees even though all tax docs were provided to him 2 months in advance. Turns out you as a taxpayer become the victim because your tax preparer does it his own way. Don't even think about phone calls as it simply puts you in voice mailbox and MLB would say they never receive any phone calls. Not only do they not take responsibility, but they would say it's your fault. It turned out that MLB did not amend all my four tax returns even though it was their fault. Damage has been done repeatedly. Don't waste your time and money doing taxes with them. My four tax returns were prepared for more than 2 months and did completely wrong! Part of my overpaid taxes are forfeited and the rest are still in process in IRS which have already taken more than 6 months. Rich, you can simply treat this review never happens as you did to your client. read more

I've always done my taxes through TurboTax but decided to file married jointly this year. This is new for my husband and I who've always filed separately due to slightly complicated finances. Through excellent communication, James was able to guide us through our options to get us the best refund. He filed our returns and provided a written explanation of the process for our records all without ever meeting in person. I was concerned about the process during a pandemic but Motherlode proved to be a highly effective team. Motherlode has earned our confidence and future patronage. read more

20 years and going strong! We have been with Motherlode for nearly 20 years. It's like going to a friend's house. Warm and cozy and oh yeah, they take care of Mama's money! I don't make a move without them! Thanks James & Co! read more

We have referred our clients with very complex tax matters to this office. They always do a great job and are very thorough. We have used Jean Smith and James Sherman, but honestly everyone who works there is great to work with. read more

Mind you, I'm not an accountant nor a "tax guy." I'm just a normal guy that knows what's in and out of his bank account. So, it's important that if I share that intimate info with you that I know I'm going to get personalized service. My family has a regular guy we go to. He's really good. I'll yelp about him sometime. Because of time and I didn't get my act together, I went to Mother Lode based on a friend's recommendation instead. I'm never listening to him again. Basically, I felt like this guy was just "plug and chug" some numbers and I wasn't happy in the end given that while my numbers hadn't really changed over the past year, I was getting less of a refund that I was used to and their rate was more than what I had expected. I'm sure it was done correctly since I did end up filing my return, but it made me wonder - what was different? So, I've learned my lesson, and i'm going back to the family guy. Nevertheless, I'm sure Mother Lode is an excellent bookkeeping service, but as tax folk, not so much. read more

Mother Lode Bookkeeping has been a bedrock of the business community for decades. We have used them for 16 years for both corporate and personal returns and have always found them to be precise, communicative and focused on service. I can't recommend them highly enough. read more

The EA, James Sherman, I was using was amazingly unprofessional. He was introduced to me by my attorney as I needed to file Form 1041 along with 1040. My attorney said James knew how to do Form 1041. James' filing fees were not cheap, more than $1000. I used him to prepare the tax returns for years 2018 and 2019. My attorney and I already informed him that all the court filing fees and probate fees were tax deductible. He did not file them correctly for tax year 2018. This mistake could not be caught as he provided the 2018 tax return client copy at the last minute on April 15, 2019 regardless all my tax documents were provided to him at the end of Feb. 2019, 1.5 months in advance. He also did not prepare and file the ES for me. As such, it incurred penalties on me. For tax year 2019 filing, he again did not include the deductibles for court filing fees and probate fees. I stayed up late at night, as he provided the client copy at the last minute, to review the tax return client copies and found the filing mistakes such as entering the wrong amounts and not filing the probate deductibles. When I informed James about the mistakes, he was so defensive and kept telling me that it was what it was and he did not have time. The difference of these mistakes amount to 5 figures in dollars which is a significant amount. He got all the true copies of my 1099 forms and made the careless entry mistakes which was terrible. That means he did not check what he entered. Regarding the probate deductibles, I have to get my attorney involved again to re-address to him that he made a big mistake ignoring the deductibles for years 2018 and 2019. He then simply dumped the deductibles from year 2018 into 2019 tax returns. I am not an accountant but simply dumping the deductibles from year 2018 into 2019 tax returns seems dubious. Because he did not prepare the ES for me last year, I had to ensure he did this time. I contacted him to confirm the ES was setup properly and he gave me lame excuses saying that I already signed the document for the ES. The document he referred to was for the 2019 tax return payment that I signed and nothing about the ES for year 2020. I even re-attached the signed document in the email for him to re-confirm. He, of course, did not bother to look at the attachment. When I called him, he again told me he did not have time to search my signed document on file. I told him I already attached in the email. Obviously, he did not even care reading customer's email. The only time he had and dealt with me immediately was asking me for the credit card number to charge me for his full of errors service. This was the most efficient time he did. In all, you paid this guy to prepare for the tax return and he ended up kept telling you he did not have time to fix the mistakes he made. But he had time to take your money. This is a very frustrating experience to hire him to prepare the tax filing. Recommend not to hire James to prepare your tax return as 1) he does not time for his clients as he kept telling me; 2) unless you are willing to pay extra to IRS due to his mistakes. Unfortunately, I cannot give a rate of 0. read more

Since relocating to the San Diego environs 4-years ago, for our state & federal taxes we've been using the tax accounting services of Mother Lode (ML) Bookkeeping. ML was recommended (highly) by my daughter/son-in-law and son-in-law's brother. Here-to-fore, it's been my stereo-type that all accountants have "500 lbs brains" but are pretty much devoid of any social personality. NOT SO! To my delight, last week over the phone I heard our ML designated tax accountant with the 500 lbs brain, actually chuckle! Our guy is "James" who, to us, looks eerily like the very talented actor John Malkovich. Similar to Malkovich, James is a MASTER at his craft. To my wife, I refer to James as "just the facts James." Can't vouch for any of the other personnel in the office, except for the always, always pleasant and courteous front office personnel (both spouses of the in-office accountants) but egads, if you want your books or, as in my case, your taxes done right then please visit ML! As an important aside, we've never heard anything from the Federal IRS/CA Tax Franchise Board EXCEPT for one year when we received in the mail a check from the Federal IRS in the amount of $1.75. Lucky to have Jame's/the office's services! read more

My husband and I have been using MotherLlode Bookkeeping for about 20 years. They have taken care of our payroll and taxes for years. Dealing with Maria and Cory has been a pleasure and always accommodating. Cal has been extremely helpful preparing our taxes over the years and really helps you on a personal level if you need advice. He also helped me prepare my parents taxes after my parents passed and made the whole process much easier. I would recommend Mother Lode Bookkeeping as an inexpensive, local payroll and tax preparation service. read more

I've been using Mother Lode for about 18 years for both my business and personal taxes. These people are terrific. They're always available, very responsive, and if they don't know the answer, they'll find the answer. I'm very happy with them. read more

I don't know how the negative reviewer could find fault with Motherlode Bookkeeping. I have used them for the past 12 years and they have helped me in an excellent manner every year and even greatly assisted me in two disputes with the IRS. Motherlode and I won. I highly recommend them. read more

I have used Motherlode for tax preparation since the late 1970's. Every year. They have been outstanding throughout. I would not hesitate to recommend their services. Cal, Corrie, Maria and James are honest, thoughtful and professional people and I don't know what I would do without them. read more

Mother Lode tax preparers Jean and Cal are top notch. Jean is very thorough, provides great service and builds trust. Cal is very knowledgeable and friendly. If you can get past the disinterested, somewhat sloppy work of the new owner, you'll be well-served. read more

Jean was able to help with my estimated taxes, then complete my complex multi-state tax return quickly and accurately. Best of all: everything was done remotely since I moved out of state at the end of the year. read more