I was audited by the IRS which is when I hired Ms. Shah for representation. I had clearly asked her (even in an email) before signing up if she knew Research & Development related accounting, she completely misled me that it would be no problem at all, turns out that she is absolutely clueless on that. In fact, without my permission she sent our confidential information to some Joe Schmoe firm out in Sacramento who started calling me and spamming me emails. Turns out that Ms. Shah didn't know them either, she had merely found them through some advertisement flyer!!!
Once I signed the contract with Ms. Shah (for which she tried to charge me a few hundred dollars for my filling out and signing of her contract papers! Seriously?) I emailed and called her a few times before the audit date but she never bothered to respond... until just the afternoon before the audit to tell me that she'd be at the audit next morning! She never bothered to discuss anything with me before the audit, what kind of CPA is that? She kept me so stressed out all that time, that's when I had the feeling that the whole experience with her was going to be a disaster.
She showed up almost 45 minutes late to the audit, and spent most part of the day watching me sort through receipts with the auditor (couldn't she have told me to just keep it prepared chronologically before the audit? I had each year receipts in separate boxes but not sorted out within each box. Essentially I paid her $200/hour for sitting there watching me I sort receipts for most part of the day!) Then, without my permission she provided all of my temporary calculation work files for the past 7 years which were on my USB drive to the auditor! Even though I had nothing to hide, that is the worst thing a CPA would do, legally I was only required to provide information related to the audit! The auditor took my temporary files and made up some calculations to benefit the IRS (ALL of which got dismissed in a Tax Court case I filed later.)
In any case, I believe there were three such audit days. All in all I believe I paid her about $7,800 for her services ($200/hr), at the end of which the IRS gave me a bill for almost $120K+ for back taxes/penalties/interest/etc! The auditor had rejected 100% of my R&D tax credits and Ms. Shah told me that R&D credits were just not meant for me! She told me to just pay it, while telling me that fighting the IRS had only 20% chance of success and it never works. She recused herself right after that (which actually was a relief, good riddance, you'll know why in the next paragraph.)
I filed an appeal with the IRS, and then I filed a case in Tax Court against the IRS on my own. I easily WON! I was granted not only MORE R&D tax credits than I had originally filed for before the tax court case, I was also granted significantly more items that Ms. Shah had skipped! That led me to believe that she was more interested in being buddies with the IRS auditor than looking out for my best interest! Heck - I also received credits for some pricey electronic equipment for which I had lost receipts and the auditor wouldn't allow! At the end, instead of my having to pay the IRS $120K+, the IRS was required to PAY ME BACK excess taxes of almost $21K! Don't take my word for it, just look up 2018 US Tax Court decisions involving Santa Clara cases (they are public records.)
Be very careful before you get yourself involved with Ms. Shah, in my experience she was unprofessional and incompetent. And beware of these positive yelp reviews (I made the mistake of believing them), I wonder if they are made by friends and family (typical yelp problem.) read more