The first time I went here I spoke with Cam and he was great, so I kept coming back, but these past two years have been disappointing.
In 2021 & 2022 the office has been inundated. You need to book your appointment as soon as you get your taxes in, otherwise you're going to wait a while. I gave the office my paperwork the day before tax day and expected it to take some time. They file an extension for you, but if you owe money interest is accruing on that amount. I lost track of time and realized it was JULY and I still hadn't heard anything from the office. I think I was forgotten so I sent an inquiry email. After some back and forth (where I didn't check my email for the response which is on me) the accountant finally got back to me. To my surprise I owed money even though I was on unemployment only, though I don't know why. I should've expected this kind of nonsense because 'MERICA! Of course I don't blame the accountants for this.
However I question why I was never asked about other kinds of deductions i.g. taxable charity donations, that could lower my bill. When I pay money for the services of a tax accountant what I'm looking for is someone who has advanced tax knowledge which enables them to navigate the byzantine labyrinth that is the American tax code to get my tax bill as low as possible or be able to think outside the box and problem solve to come up with other solutions. Otherwise I could do the taxes myself for free on the IRS website and save myself the cost of the accountant. In my situation I increased the amount of money I had to pay out instead of reducing it, which is bad since I'm tight on money right now (who isn't amrite?).
Also, the previous year I had the following experience (which was written at the time but not posted):
Full disclosure I had several years of back taxes to deal with and I've had to leave town for an emergency, so my situation is unusual.
That being said-
After my first set of taxes were done the communications have steadily become more sparse and they stopped returning my phone messages. If this were a normal situation and I had a single set of taxes I wouldn't be communicating so frequently, but I have to call them to make sure everything is acceptable for every separate filing.
I've had difficulty verifying whether my taxes were filed, signing my paperwork (issues on my end with email spam filters) and a general lack of communication on their end.
To top it off I called today and the receptionist mistook a joke for an insult, became quite upset with me and hung up. I called back and there was no answer. I'm assuming the momentary lapse of customer service is due to the stress of dealing with a multitude of people calling in, but I still find it unprofessional. I don't enjoy continually calling the office about my taxes but my emails aren't being consistently answered. Calling and being yelled at for being "nasty" and then hung up on doesn't help.
I still have to contact the office since a verbal statement with no written verification isn't enough assurance of my paperwork being filled due to the complication of the situation.
Throughout this process the return communication has been spotty and the technical savvy necessary to troubleshoot web based application issues is lacking.
The taxes were eventually done, they always do what they're supposed to do, eventually.
TLDR-
-If you have a simple tax return just do it yourself for free on the IRS website.
https://www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-for-free
Choose the "Fillable Forms" option, the other option just takes you to some independent contractors that will charge you a lot of money for doing a whole lot a nothing.
-If you have a seriously complicated scenario go somewhere else.
I suppose if you have a tax situation in between simple and complicated you could try them. They do eventually get your taxes done, but that's a lot of caveats and I want something beyond what I could do.
On a side note, in other first world countries it's free to file taxes and their governments make it easy. It is a uniquely American phenomena to turn everything, even paying taxes, into tortuous for-profit money making schemes that stick it to the little guy for the benefit of big business. read more