I have been using Merchants since 2020. They have always been fine, This year they have fallen way down. In March 2024 I left my taxes at their office. It's mid April and they haven't been touched and the person I spoke to had no idea when they would be done. And, honestly, he wasn't very well informed -- he couldn't answer any of my questions. I can't recommend them. read more

Terrible service. I usually use TurboTax but I was going through a divorce so I thought I needed more assistance with preparing my taxes. I delivered all of my tax information perfectly formatted and up-to-date in QuickBooks on January 14th. No one would meet with me no one would return my calls. I received my tax return fully prepared and an invoice for over $300 on April 12th. It took two emails three weeks and four phone calls for me to receive a full copy of my entire tax return with all the attachments. Roger Fields failed to file a waiver of carry back losses for me. The IRS denied my amended filing causing me to later owe the government over $4,000. Roger Fields was not only unhelpful but created an expensive time-consuming and complicated tax situation for me. read more

MAS has been expertly handling our business's accounting for the past 6 months. We had previously worked with the same accountant for 14 years, so we were anxious about making such a large change. We have a restaurant and a separate catering business which makes us two clients in one. Our first contact with Mike set the stage for an overall great impression. We later met with the owner (Charanjit) to discuss our business's needs. He assigned John as our Accountant and I couldn't be happier with his attentive, knowledgeable and precise accounting practices. MAS is partnered with an annual CPA who we are in the process of switching to.....and they also provide analytical business consulting which makes them a one stop shop! Restaurants have special accounting needs in my opinion. MAS has expert experience in this field. I highly recommend them for hospitality accounting or any other business. read more

I know it may sound crazy, but I love tax-time! Our CPA, Ted Barben (a.k.a. the Tax Accountant Extraordinaire) of Merchants Accounting Services in Oakland, is the reason. He has been our CPA at Merchants since 2012 or 2013 (time flies) and he has been great. We were worried that we'd need to find a new CPA when we moved to Honolulu in late 2013, but Ted is licensed to do Hawaii returns :) You can tell Ted is passionate about his work by the excitement and enthusiasm in his voice while explaining things - yes, about taxes! And, it is remarkable how despite his heavy workload he returns calls and emails so quickly - often within minutes - to get his clients the information they need. How many businesses in general even do that? I never cease to be impressed by Ted's attention to detail regarding all the millions of tax laws. He used to work for the IRS as a tax examiner, so I always feel great when we sign our returns. The last thing anyone wants is to have one's CPA screw up. We've been with Merchants since 2009 thanks to a friend's recommendation. Our former CPA retired and sold her business to a CPA out in Concord who couldn't find her way out of a Turbo Tax software box to save herself. Two friends of ours were also transferred to the same overwhelmed and incompetent woman whose office also supposedly did payroll. Their business ended up being penalized because a payroll form was not filed and the woman refused to own the mistake. Long story short - with Sarah Neider doing their returns and Ted doing ours, we are all now very happy to be at Merchants! read more

I used this service for about 6 months. Very unprofessional. Paperwork were being filed late and when I called and talked to one of the worker she became defensive and started to belittle me over the phone. After conversation with her I decide to move to different company. After leaving the took forever to get me my files. I feel sorry for whoever is still using them. read more

I've been using Mechants Tax services for 4 years. I am self-employed with various streams of income and my deductions can get convoluted. They have handled my tax returns in a timely, professional, and favorable manner every time. When I met with my accountant this year, he remembered my personal situation. I liked that. And he got the taxes done by the very next day! read more

Roger & Charanjit have been super successful in getting our business up and running. We've had lots of questions along the way and their responses, along with those of the crew doing lost of the direct bookkeeping work, have always been timely, helpful and friendly. In the past I've worked with multiple companies and/or internal bookkeepers for bookkeeping and taxes - I'm particularly happy it's now all under one comprehensive roof. Finally for us their deep understanding and experience with restaurants is terrific though I would trust them with any business I owned or was managing. read more

4 years ago we used this company to do our very simple and straightforward taxes. We were told that they would be done by a certain date, and a week after that date we called to find out if our tax return was done. The CPS (not sure that he actually was a CPA) yelled at us on the phone and said that he was working on it and he'd call us when it was done. 2 weeks later, we got a call that the return could be picked up, and were told that we needed to show up with a check in order to get it. So, in summary, we got a flakey-bad-attitude preparer, were yelled at, got charged 400+ for something that could have been done with turbo tax for $40, and got our return later than promised by 3 weeks. Way to go, guys! You win the award for being crappy to deal with, overpriced, rude, and late! Never again. read more

My company used Merchant's Bookkeeping payroll service from '05 through '09. There were problems and inconveniences (like the time payroll landed on the Friday before a three-day weekend and everyone went home early and I was unable to pick up my payroll) that were solved w/ phone calls. Then there were the problems that escalated to our pulling our account and going elsewhere. Example: An employee's direct deposit paycheck was not sent to the bank, but the amount was pulled from our business checking and federal/state taxes were sent. Then, when we contacted them about the error, they did send the paycheck to the employees account (after payday) AND they pulled/sent the taxes again! One example of Merchants lack of fiduciary duties, but there were many more. At a meeting, where I presented them with an invoice reflecting the time my hourly bookkeeper had to spend to audit the first nine months of 2004's payroll, they nodded and said apologies, but nothing changed and they refused to pay the invoice. We are happily doing our payroll elsewhere for less headaches, no errors, and less money. read more

I've been going to Merchants since 2008 after another accountant screwed up my taxes. It was complicated because of an inheritance. Merchants handled everything quickly and efficiently. I'm an individual with some slightly complicated deductions, but nothing major. I felt it necessary to offer another opinion on these folks. They always return my calls or emails promptly, are courteous and helpful. read more

My business has been using Merchants Accounting for our book keeping and accounting for about a year now. I have worked with various companies over the past 16 years and Merchants is BY FAR the best company I've worked with. They are on top of every detail and its really so refreshing to work with such a thorough and professional team. I was referred to Merchants by another restaurant owner who also previously and for many years had a hard time finding an excellent accounting company. Highly recommended! No complaints here... Thank you Merchants! Ill send people your way whenever I have the opportunity. read more

My domestic partner/wife and I have been using Merchants for our complicated tax returns for more than 5 years. We were referred to Merchants by our tax accountant when she retired. She interviewed a number of tax folks to find someone who was able to work with same sex couples/Domestic Partners and the distorted tax codes related to how we can file taxes. Even more complicated when children are involved. Merchants has ALWAYS worked magic with our returns. We have been very happy with Merchants. read more

Roger Fields at Merchants Accounting is truly amazing! I am Business Manager and have worked with many tax accountants over my several decades long career and he is by far the best. This year I was not able to get him my information for the corporate return until the first week in April (which is the worst time when all the individual returns are also due). Roger was able to process our completed return in under a week! A Herculean feat--and he was professional and pleasant throughout. We have been working with Roger since 2010 and I see no reason to ever go anywhere else. read more