I had Eric Kaster do my taxes two years in a row. I will never trust this company with my tax needs again, and I hope that nobody else will trust them either.
The first year, I never had a phone call or meeting to discuss my tax situation, everything was traded back and forth with email. Felt very impersonal. Mr. Kaster informed me that we would need to make quarterly tax payments to the state of Oregon the following year. After filing my return I got notices from both the IRS and State of Oregon that my taxes were done incorrectly. The IRS notified me that I had paid them too much (!!!!), while the state of Oregon notified me that I hadn't paid them enough and assessed a penalty. Mr. Kaster had incorrectly assumed a penalty from the IRS for not making quarterly tax payments. Never once did I get an apology nor any effort from Mr. Kaster to make me feel at ease. I ended up taking the standard deduction and was charged $700.
The next year, for some reason, I thought I would give them another chance. Once again, no meeting to discuss my tax situation, and this time, it wasn't even Mr. Kaster sending me emails to ask about my taxes, instead it was one of his underlings. After providing all of the needed documents, I received a call from the office telling me that they were filing an extension to my taxes because they hadn't received what they needed. I questioned Mr. Kaster on this and resent the same information as before. He said that they had what they needed and would file (a few days late). No apology. I was charged over $900. When I questioned the astronomical prices that I was being charged, the lady at the front desk offered to discontinue our engagement and not do my taxes. How dare I question those rates....
Considering that I had hired this firm to do one job, which is do my taxes accurately and on time, and they had failed to do that, I can't say that anyone should have their taxes done by them. The lack of personal attention and any sort of customer service really made me feel like they were just extracting money from me. Further, since starting to work with another accounting firm, I have been told that the quarterly tax advice Mr. Kaster had given me was incorrect and that I didn't need to make those payments.
Don't trust this firm with your money.
What a joke. read more