I spoke with Mr. Ro a year or so ago and he was very helpful and knowledgeable. Unfortunately, I wasn't positioned to afford his services and had splurged on the consult. This year, I decided to fully invest in professional services and officially set up a business so I reached out to him. Sadly, he said he was already booked up for the season. I am glad that he was upfront about that and isn't trying to overbook and under deliver. I appreciate his professionalism and will try to get my bid in early for next year. read more

I write this review on 4/19, with my taxes still not filed by John and no response to my emails.  Admittedly, I came to John with a mess of current and previous taxes. He accepted this mess graciously and I paid him $700 for his services. This was on February 15th. Since then, I have followed up with him several times over a span of several weeks, with a CC to his assistant, and have either received assurance that my taxes would be completed prior to the due date or simply no response at all.  I took a leap by trusting someone that I came across on the internet with good reviews but as I sit here filled with anxiety, I'm realizing that was a huge error in judgement.  Learn from my mistake and don't simply trust the good reviews. Do your homework and maybe stick with the larger corporations where you know the work will get done. UPDATE based on John's response: The dates provided by John are correct, however, they do not excuse an Accountant hired to complete taxes prior to the April 18th deadline failing to file said taxes. John, check your emails and you will see that all information, including the information you asked for most recently, was absolutely completed and uploaded to Dropbox. The fact that you are accepting no blame for not responding to multiple requests from a client in addition to not filing taxes by the due date is appalling considering that it's exactly what you were hired for. Regardless to any amount of refund, you didn't alert me to this until April 21st, three days after taxes were due and I had already told you that I was taking my services elsewhere. As mentioned in my final email to you, I strongly advise assessing your workload prior to accepting new clients. You knew exactly what you were agreeing to 2 months prior to the tax deadline and assured me that my taxes would be filed. Lastly, for anyone who has read this far. I am attaching a copy of John's list of excuses as to why the taxes weren't filed on time. read more

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John is a super cool guy. I always go with him with my taxes. I feel like he does a good job and it doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Never got Audited so 10 out of 10. read more

John is a pretty busy guy during tax season, which I understand. However, he's terrible at communicating and managing his workload. I gave him my tax documents early March and he replied to my email saying that they'll be done within 10-15 business days. Cool, sounds great. Early April comes around and I haven't heard or gotten any updates on my taxes. So when I emailed him, I got an auto reply and decided to just call him instead. We verbally agreed on getting my taxes finished on Thursday 4/11 as long as he got it done before the tax deadline. Thursday night comes and I haven't heard anything back so I decided to email him again. Got an auto-reply. At this point, I'm freaking out and felt completely disregarded. I also felt like a total fool for trusting him to get my taxes done. I didn't even bother calling him to check my status. At this point, I interpreted his silence as "you're on your own". So I went to another tax accountant who gave me the kind of attention to detail that I was looking for. And she got my taxes done for me in 45 minutes on April 15! I'm not even mad at him, I'm just very disappointment I waited so long to find someone else in hopes that he's get my taxes done for me. But lesson learned. I understand tax season is hectic and he didn't have his partner (Jessica) to help him out this year. I just wish that he communicated to me at some point that he wouldn't be able to take me on as a client this year due to his workload. That way, I would have ample time to find someone else instead of freaking out the night before tax day to find someone else. John, please manage your workload and set some kind of email reply saying you're no longer taking any clients due to your workload or etc. Best of luck to you, but my won't be returning as a client. read more

Filing with John Ro was super fast and detailed. The cost was fair and when I had questions on my taxes he was very helpful in explaining them to me. I'm glad I found him for this years filing because I surely would have messed it up if I did my own this time. Highly recommend. read more

John did not deliver our tax returns this year after confirming multiple times that he would have them completed. March 28, 2024 - "Yes we can get your taxes done" April 12, 2024 - "Yes, I am planning on getting back to you tonight" April 13, 2024 - No response to our email April 14, 2024 - No response to our email Worst of all, John did not reach out to apologize for not completing our taxes after confirming multiple times that he would deliver. I am sympathetic to him not having a senior tax accountant this year, but failing to communicate prior to April 15 and afterwards is unacceptable. We will not be returning as clients as we don't trust him. read more

It was easy to work with John. He was responsive and made it convenient for us to share documents to help in preparation.

I have worked with John for a few years now, and he was great in helping me sort out an issue with my 2018 and 2019 returns. Because of the great work he did, I continued to work with him for 2020, 2021, and 2022 and even referred a few friends. 2023 was a different story. I filled out his financial organizer form, uploaded this and other documents to DropBox, and sent John an email confirming this on 2/21/2024. He responded promptly, as he typically does, and I confirmed all my documents have been uploaded. I explained my tax situation was a little different this year and I likely owed money. I continued to follow up with John over the next few weeks with little to no responses. I followed up on 2/26/2024 to confirm he has all the documents he needed, he said he will get back to me in 4-5 business days. I followed up on 3/11/2024, he responded that he needs to finish S-Corp taxes and will get to mine after. I followed up again on 4/1/2024, and I indicated that since I definitely owe money, I wanted to have enough time to pay what is due. My last email to John was on April 10 where I directly asked if he will still be able to help me with this year's taxes. I wrote that I understand if the situation has changed, but I would need to find alternative ways to file if that were the case. I understand that things happen and John may have taken on too many clients this year. As a client that has been with John for a few years, acknowledgement that he will not be able to help me file, or really any communication at all, would have been appreciated. I write this on April 14, one day before the due date, and John has not responded to my latest inquiry. As I said before, John's work is accurate efficient, however the service and communication is lacking. read more

John is straight forward and his response time are quick. What I appreciate the most is that he's able to meet me on my level of understanding. My brain works a little differently when it comes to preparing taxes and I'm not very advanced when it comes to using tools like Dropbox , but he's always patient with me and helps me figure it out. He's helped me with a multitude of things since I opened my own business. I highly recommend. read more

Unfortunately, we had a bad experience. Submitted tax information in Feb to be completed by April 15 and communication was nonexistent. I finally got a hold of him the week taxes were due after half a dozen emails and he didn't follow up in the timeframe he said he would. I got him on the phone at 7pm on April 15 and he couldn't commit to getting our taxes done, so we pulled the work from him and scrambled to do it ourselves before the deadline. We do not recommend doing business with him. read more

John was quick to help me do my taxes. It was actually unreal! Definitely referring him to friends and family. Thanks!

I needed a CPA here in Chicago after having used my California accountant for years when I was renting out our home there. And what a relief to find a good and reliable one in John, easy to work with and quick in producing results at reasonable rates. I'm using him every year now! Thanks John. read more

My wife and I were very pleased with how professional, organized, efficient and fast John was while helping us with our taxes. What had once been a stressful undertaking was made easy with John. I would absolutely recommend him to anyone. We are confident we found "our guy," moving forward. Thank you, John! read more

Warm hearted and helpful! Definitely recommend. John Ro reply my questions in time with patience with professional feedback. Definitely the right choice! read more

John is extremely knowledgeable, fast, and efficient. He was consistent with his follow-up with me, and could not have been more professional. It was an extremely stress free experience which I was worried about. I relocated myself, and my business last year, so there were multiple items to be itemized. I also wasn't aware of many of the new restrictions that were put in place in 2018/19, and John explained the changes to me. I highly recommend John, you will be very pleased! read more

I was extremely remiss about the small amount of reviews my Yelp community has posted about John Ro, EA. In case you don't know what an EA is compared to a CPA. An EA is a Tax Practitioner whom is licensed at the federal level by the IRS and it is the highest credential awarded by the IRS. With that said, I've used many CPA's and a just a couple of EA's and have gotten substantially better returns from EA's. They truly know what you can do and cannot do in regards to the IRS as they are specialists with the IRS. CPA's are only licensed by their State Boards of accountancy. So just the State you live in I.E. Illinois or California. John was a lucky find, I've recently moved from downtown Chicago South Loop to Edgewater and then the COVID got me hard for a month and a half. I still had stuff in boxes and unsure where I put my tax paperwork. John came through for me after the fact. After the Fact is after the extended deadline for return. I thought for sure I would be paying a step penalty. Johns approach was investigative, thorough, and direct. In the end my family will continue using his services and hope you too will support his business. read more

I probably called 10 different tax places, before I decided on John. I was sick of heading out to the suburbs to get it done, and really wanted to find someone local in the city but prices seem super high in comparison to the suburbs. I found John to be very reasonable and loved that he was downtown. He did mine, my boyfriend's, and my parent's tax returns. I appreciate how thorough he is as he summarizes the form afterwards and explains where the numbers were coming from. He provided printouts of information in regards to the additional questions we asked. He was very flexible and accommodating with scheduling appointments. Obviously, I would recommend and have already recommended him. read more

We had used John for 2 years and were some of his initial, recurring clients (he completed our 2015 and 2016 tax returns in the past with no issues at all) We had recommended him to many of our friends. Then the following year everything fell through. We sent our taxes and paperwork in advance and when we asked for a check-in we were told it was in progress. A few days before the submission deadline, we still hadn't received our returns. He wouldn't return our phone calls or emails. After calling multiple times, we finally got a hang of him the day of the deadline and were told our taxes were not done. No notice or indication was provided by John that our taxes would not be done on time. You can imagine our disappointment and now we had to scramble to do our taxes. At that point, we stopped using John's services and I would not recommend working with John. read more

Still getting my taxes done here every year. Still pleased. John Ro is helpful, efficient, and friendly. He makes the necessary evil of getting the taxes done easier and more pleasant. His rates are also reasonable especially for this part of town. His office has moved to Michigan Avenue near Lake Street, and I prefer this location to the location of his previous office. read more

John Ro did an excellent job doing my taxes this year. He was very efficient and fast. I was running very late but he was still able to work my appointment in with his schedule. I would highly recommend using John for all your financial needs. read more

Best find in Chicago! After a new job, corporate move, new home office, two state income tax filings, and an increasingly difficult federal tax filing this year due to all those changes, I sought out John Ro for tax preparation assistance. He is great! Not only were all my tax returns prepared efficiently and quickly, but he helped me understand how to think about home office/business deductions and plan for 2015. I usually dread tax season and obsess over all the possible savings I may have left on the table, but with John, this year was worry-free and painless. He offered me a $50 discount off the total bill as a new customer and my total preparation fees were the best money I've ever spent. My returns were filed ahead of schedule, worry-free and painlessly, making me genuinely look forward to next year. Thank you John! read more

Very poor experience . Made my appointment at 9 am on a Saturday morning , should have know he was unprofessional when he showed up late. I asked up front the cost , and was told $150 for personal returns and $75 per extra form. My prior year returns were two from a ( personal and small business ) so I was expecting a $225 bill. After meeting with him and sending all my information, I notice there is a very careless mistake amounting to a meaningful amount of money. I made an appointment to see him again to discusses this error , and once again , he was late. I had to point out the error to him as he couldn't figure out was was driving it. Finally figure the return was complete , then a receive a bill for $750, and he mentioned nothing about pricing increases along the way. Very deceptive and unprofessional. I would avoid . read more

ultra professional. recommending for every on L of H visa. response to email and phone call are immediate. I arrived on time, he made an email reminder and phone call wen i was a late. fee can be higher then other but not by much... worth the peace an mind that you can actually come back to him of there are issues. Yoav read more

Very responsive and good service when I consulted him last year and this year. I highly recommend.

Very professional - completed our tax reports in the speed of light. Was super helpful and responsive and saved us a lot of money! When one of our tax reports that we sent got lost in the mail and never reached the IRS he quickly prepared all of our documents again, even the envelopes with the addresses on, with no extra charge. Great guy. will definitely work with him again next year. read more