I was ghosted by Mr Peterson back in 2018. We had been using him for several years for tax prep. During that time, he used 3 different business locations and, eventually appeared to be using someone's office space off-hours (looked like a telemarketing/call-center space). Then he misfiled 1 year and I had to do damage control with the IRS. The next year he delayed submission even after payment of fees and appeared to be trying to work a multi-user license of some tax program that he let expire, and became harder and harder to contact. He finally totally ghosted us. I kept his last voice message to me where he committed to actions that he then didn't follow through with... and no call back after that. We now only use CPAs (instead of tax preparers) because they have their state license at risk. read more

Hi there. I've had the same CPA for around 8 years. He did a decent job until last year when he handed me my completed taxes over a smoke break and did not go over them. This year I stayed with him after letting him know I need him to go over my taxes with me not just hand them over. We decided we wanted to buy a house in the new year so he volunteered to do a "check" on my taxes in December 2019 for my lenders so we could find out where we are at. I received nothing back after turning over all of my paperwork. January 15th I submitted the remainder of our numbers for 2019 & all of our 1099 details for our contractors. When I returned back from out of town on January 23rd he assured me everything was filed for 1099s. I couldn't seem to get him to send me copies like he usually does. Daily for months I've been in contact with him and he says my 1099s were filed and gives one excuse after another for 4 months as to why he can't send me copies. I called the IRS in January and was told they didn't see the filing but they can't say for sure as things are backlogged. Months go by with daily communication. He says my taxes are done and he just needs to upload documents. The documents are never loaded. I've asked him for my paperwork back and he refuses. Keeps saying my taxes & 1099s are done! Obviously that's not the case. He's lying. Holding my tax documents hostage so I can't even take them somewhere else without redoing & Requesting every one of my documents. I have finally asked for this to be over after many times asking if I just need to go somewhere else. I told him I was going to go elsewhere if I didn't receive the taxes he says are complete and he failed to comply. I told him I would report him if he didn't give me back by documents and he failed to comply. This is ridiculous that an accountant can #1 lie and say 1099s are sent when they are not after daily follow up for months. Now they are late with penalties from no fault of my own. $300 loss. #2 can keep telling me my taxes are done when they are not. I've been needing them for months for our home purchase, my sons financial aid for camp ($2000 loss), and now my PPP loan for my business ($8,000 loss). He knew every single one of these deadlines including April 15th and just kept assuring me it's done. I'm pretty sure there is an alcohol or drug problem. He tries to say he was in the hospital, on vacation, busy with irs audits etc...the excuses are ludicrous and literally never resolve. Each time he gave an excuse he'd assure me they would be finished that week then nothing. Serval times he says they are done and is uploading to the portal and they are never there. It's one lie after another, after another. This isn't the first time either. I recommend did him to my dad two years ago and he pulled this same thing on him costing him 1,000s for late filings and never completing the work or giving back his paperwork. Since he had done a decent job for me over the years I chalked it up to some kind of anomaly or miss communication and let them sort it out. I'm so mad at myself right now for not seeing his true colors/character then because now the exact same thing is happening to me but instead of ignoring me, he keeps telling me it's done! I don't want to double file so I've been trying to work with him but this is literally insane and I feel like I'm being held hostage. I have hundreds of messages & emails documenting all of this. read more

As the other reviews mention - James is a crook. I filed 7/14/20 of this year and received a false refund date and then zero responses from James. He took my hard earned money and never filed the forms with the IRS. He did not return calls or emails regarding not having my refund (now it's December!). DO NOT trust this person with your taxes or your hard earned dollars read more

Actually a ZERO! NOT EVEN 1 STAR! This fraud says he filed my taxes on feb9th. The submission never went through cause he failed to enter a correct filing #. The IRS automatically emails the preparer to tell them this as to have it fixed & resubmitted. He failed to do so. He never refiled. Needless to say, I've tried contacting him several times. Advising him something had to be wrong. Weeks had gone by & i was unable to "track my refund" & no $ deposited to my acct. He would ignore me & my concerns. Well, 39 days after feb9th file date, I spoke to IRS. They told me I had no taxes filed. I now have to redo them. I tried contacting again & of course he won't respond. DO NOT USE THIS LOSER read more

In my opinion, the main reason (maybe the ONLY reason) to go to a "Tax Preparer" is the human factor of their "expertise". Pretty much everyone uses computer programs to file your tax forms anymore. Hopefully a professional will know any and all legal "tax avoidance" methods (that a program might not utilize) and use them in your favor. For the first time in my almost 70 years of LIFE I had a kickback from the IRS on a 2-year-old return. They disallowed some medical deductions and noted some income that hadn't been filed at all! Numerous calls & emails to James/Tax Dog went unanswered. The one time I did get him on the phone for 15 seconds, he said he would call me. I am still waiting for that call. I had hoped he might have some suggestions or assistance to offer but I found that I was totally on my own. $2000 later, I am now nervously hoping that I won't have problems with my 2016/2017 returns filed by this "Tax Dog". All I saw was that James runs the info through a Tax program. When I asked about deductions this year he advised me that he had "run it through the program" more than once with the same result. If he had any expertise beyond the tax program I didn't see it. I strongly suggest you purchase a copy of Turbo Tax or such and just answer the questions yourself. Save a few hundred dollars. THAT is what I will be doing next year. No more "My Tax Dog" for me! As they say in Texas, "This Dog Don't Hunt"... If I could give LESS than 1 star I would. read more

In 2015 Mr Peterson at my tax dog prepared our taxes and did a good job saving us some money. In 2016 we returned to him and he again submitted our taxes, however a mistake was made and they were returned to him. Rather than fix the problem, he simply resubmitted them unchanged, twice. Then he just stopped. I texted him repeatedly during this time as in why I had not received a bill from the IRS and he said he would look into it. He told me several times that the IRS was backed up and that he was meeting with them. I finally called the IRS and they told me that at no time had Mr Peterson contacted them on my behalf. He repeatedly lied and misled me. I finally filed our taxes and got my bill and paid it, including$750 in fines. Mr Peterson said he would refund these fine to me if I would agree to retract my previous statement on Facebook and my complaint with the BBB. I agreed to this, but again, he lied. He has not refunded my money and will not respond to my texts. Mr Peterson is a liar and a fraud. Do not give him your business. read more

I've had my taxes prepared by James Peterson for the last couple of years. He is expensive, but I thought I was getting good service. What a mistake! To the point that he's simply not worth the hassle. I've texted him and left voice mails with questions I've had. It's like pulling teeth to get a response. And more often than not you won't get one. I found so many mistakes, he said I owed the IRS almost 5,000. To add insult to injury, when I called him about the mistake he made in filing, his first response was he missed the tax I had paid on a 1099 and he checked the box that I didn't have health insurance. I asked him to please send in the correct return. Guess What? He still sent in the wrong return. There is no excuse for the mistakes that I found and still sending in the wrong return. Due to his "oversights" I've had to file an amended return. Incredibly frustrating and unprofessional. Well turns out he apologized and he offered me a $50.00 discount off my next years tax preparation. I think not! read more