We found Karen Chase through the Dave Ramsey ELP program. I met her about 2 years ago to help with…read moreour individual tax filing. Very nice lady and had the same values as Dave Ramsey, which I liked. The 1st year was good. My main wish with taxes is to make sure that we don't get a large refund and/or a big bill in April. The first year we ended up owing $500. Not bad. After that 1st year, everything went down hill, which will bring me to my conclusion that I would not recommend her for individual tax consulting and will more than likely reach out to Dave Ramsey to give my feedback. Her communication skills towards me was poor at best. It would take her weeks to reply to emails and that is after I sent her multiple emails. At first, she was always happy to help with our W4 (free of charge--as mentioned during our first meeting) to make sure that we were withholding the right amount for the year. She would then become unresponsive with any question that I might have. We had two big events happen with my wife losing her job due to COVID and me doubling my income, so we would definitely need a W4 change. I reached out multiple times to get this fixed, with no reply. I finally called her office to figure out the issue. Her receptionist went to the back to see if she was available. Karen told the receptionist to tell me to just, "claim 0 on the W4's." With no explanation. This was all during the COVID craziness, which we understood, but there was absolutely NO communication from Karen and we did not appreciate her telling her receptionist to give lackluster advice in regards to our W4. I emailed her back to express my concern with that decision, she later replied with, "Just FYI that this is outside our normal individual tax engagement, so I will need to send a bill for our time to work on this." A bill for a W4 change was never discussed on the initial meeting or during any meeting. This was extremely frustrating, especially since it was communicated via email.
We also had issues with her not completing the tax return for 2019. Granted, we turned it in a month late after the original tax deadline, but then COVID happened and the tax filing deadline was pushed back to July. Even then, we reached out multiple times to Karen to get an update on our tax return and we never got an answer. 2 months after we submitted all of the paperwork to file, we finally got an email back saying that she has not started it yet. Absolutely pathetic! Again, I'm cool with the delay, but she never communicated her timelines with us. She was never transparent and we cannot work with someone who does not give 1st class customer service. We fired her finally and hired a new CPA quickly who said that he will never charge for W4 changes and would be happy to check the W4 every quarter due to me having a job that mostly consists of commission (lots of changes from a pay standpoint). Oh, and he completed our tax return in 1 week, which was outstanding. We later find out that our tax return came out to be $4,800, which is absolutely pathetic. Karen did not understand our wishes from a W4 standpoint and did a poor job with that. I will be sending Dave Ramsey a message because I am a huge Dave Ramsey guy and would hate for anymore of his listeners in San Antonio to experience this poor service from an individual tax standpoint. Our new CPA is Wes Crowley out of Orlando, FL. He is fantastic, has the mindset of a teacher and is always willing to help. He is easily accessible via text message and is always communicating with us on his plans for us. Her price to file is $350.
