I've been with Smeed for several years and have always received personalized care for my personal…read moreand business entities. It's been comforting knowing I have a team to help navigate the complexities of accounting and taxes...my business books have never been this organized and consistent. Michael is a tax wiz, and it's especially awesome knowing that he's so versed in the tax law and the minute changes that allude a lot of CPAs in my experience.

This will be a long review, so TLDR: if you value honesty, integrity, organization, accuracy,…read more personalized tax guidance, and good customer service, DO NOT use Smeed CPA for their tax services. I unfortunately did not give much weight to the negative reviews I saw of them, and have now paid the price with my money, time, energy, and sanity. When my husband and I agreed to work with Smeed, we thought we were getting CPAs that we could trust and would help us navigate this complicated tax system as new business owners. Unfortunately, they turned out to be dishonest, not honoring promises made when we signed up, disorganized in planning our meetings and tax returns, and did not provide good tax advice for the stage we were at in our businesses, recommending we do an S-Election when we weren't even profitable yet (luckily, due to their disorganization, the documents were never actually filed). They didn't truly understand our businesses, or at the very least, greatly oversimplified them, and seemed to offer a one size fits all solution for tax planning. Not to mention, they are very unresponsive to email communications, which required us to reach out several times and in some instances having to call before we got a response. This entire experience was a nightmare that was dragged out for entirely too long. Our 2021 tax return was not completed until January 2023, and that was only after me getting fed up and letting them know I'd be doing a chargeback on my credit card if they did not complete our returns. Then they had the nerve to push the blame on us and our bookkeeping, when we were looking to their guidance all year and doing what they told us to do as our CPAs. They knew we were new business owners. They took it upon themselves to recommend entity types, all kinds of documents and meeting minutes we should keep and notarize, getting hotel event space quotes, but apparently ensuring we had proper bookkeeping was out of scope? They didn't even let us know what documents they would need from us for tax filing until it was tax filing time, leaving us scrambling, and all the other documents they had us working on all year turned out to be irrelevant and a waste of time. Fast forward to filing our 2022 tax return, we have found a CPA who actually cares enough to fully understand our tax situation and they have found multiple glaring issues with our 2021 return, requiring us to do an amendment. Smeed preaches education, which is what drew us to them as new business owners, but they are not educating you on information specific to your situation, just general tax loopholes. All in all, highly DO NOT RECOMMEND. They did not provide the support and guidance expected of a CPA, and we ultimately overpaid for an INCORRECT personal tax return.

This is the first time we did not do our own taxes. We were VERY pleased with not only the…read moreprofessional service, but also the expert advice that Alex gave us!! All of our questions were answered and we came away from our meeting feeling very informed about how to approach our taxes moving forward. With that said, Alex is also just a very cool guy who cuts straight to "brass tax" and tells you what you need to know in order to make an informed decision. Thank you!!!!!! -J

BEWARE The non…read moreprofit I volunteer for got fined 1100.00 because Alex did not apply for an extension as promised. To make matters worse, I got an "intent to seize" notice weeks after Alex told me "it was all taken care of" Very scary and disappointing

An update to my previous review ... we had to start from scratch with our tax return this year and…read morehire a new accountant to do our taxes. Stephen completely botched them; they were filled with mistakes and left out some important information - we decided to cut our losses rather than have him "fix" them, so we are out of pocket the $300 we paid him.

I have to say I was very surprised when I read Rebecca's review. I just returned from overseas and…read moremy returns were proving to be horrendously complex. After asking around I received several recommendations, but decided to go with Mr. Graves. What some people may perceive as unprofessional I took as friendly. I want to have a solid relationship with the professionals with whom I work. I want to know about their lives, as it helps me judge them better. Case in point, I went to see Mr. Graves last friday to get my 2009 returns done, after he helped me clear up my 2008 mess a few weeks ago. He was working late with another client, and asked me to wait. I did so and was happy to. Why? Because if a man is going to take the time to do something right, and not rush just to get a bit of extra business... Well that speaks volumes to me. Once it was my turn, it was quick and thorough. When he had questions about something that came up, he raised the matter, explained his worries, and told me what he thought was appropriate and why. I wish everyone I worked with could be that transparent. Great guy, definitely will be working with him again.

Even though I have a degree in Accounting & Finance, I opted for the first time ever to pay someone…read moreelse to prepare my returns because I had a fair amount of more complex events that took place for me in 2020; after the experience I had with Howes Tax, I realize that I should have just sucked it up and spent the time to do the research and file my own returns (or should have found someone else more reliable for the job.) While there were certain things that affected the practice that were outside of their control, there were still many issues that should have caused me to jump ship well before they completed the work: - I did not have my return completed and available for review until Friday, October 15th (the very last day for taxpayers on extension), despite the fact that we first engaged in February of 2021 and they had the majority of my documents in the first week of March, giving them more than seven months to complete the work. - With less than 10 hours to review and file my fairly complex returns before the midnight deadline, I discovered a pretty significant error in their calculations that overstated a gain on sale and therefore unnecessarily increased my combined federal/state tax liability by several thousand dollars. - Their preliminary estimate was that I would owe a combined $90K between federal and state income taxes; naturally, I freaked out, told them that this was a HUGE leap from the amount I was expecting to owe based on my own quick math, and that a tax bill of that size would put me in financial ruin. This news was delivered to me on May 17th (the last day to make payments for 2020 tax liabilities); instead of working to get a more accurate / reasonable number, I was simply told to "pay what I can" in order to minimize penalties/interest. [At the end of the day, I ended up with a net *refund* of about $5K, nearly a $100K difference from what they told me I should have paid up front!) - In the two days leading up to the filing deadline, the estimated liability total that I was given kept fluctuating several thousands of dollars at a time, and when I asked for clarification for the drastic swings, I was told "I wish I had to explain tax law at the last hour but I unfortunately don't." - Messages often went weeks (or even months) without being responded to, leaving me in a huge cloud of uncertainty with my financial future. - I was asked multiple times to provide documents that I had already uploaded several months ago (when originally requested.) - Not only was I charged over $1,400 for this "service" that amounted to a crazy level of stress and frustration, I am now likely having to file an amendment on the returns that they prepared because they insisted on revisiting a calculation I made on my prior year return that didn't need to be touched. Having never hired someone to do my own taxes before, I had no real-life basis for comparison, but after having gone through this fiasco (and reading the other reviews from people who have had a similar experience) I am now pretty convinced that my experience was a particularly horrendous one; needless to say, I will not be returning to Howes Tax.

Mark did my taxes but charged a large amount. I only stayed with him one year and found someone…read moremuch less expensive. It was obvious that I got a much better return after leaving Mark. I don't recommend his services.

I have been using this Accounting firm for many years for my moms taxes... new accountant this year…read moreand what a screw up..... Tax returns promised for weeks... not finished until 5 pm Saturday afternoon - requiring me to drive into Walnut Creek to pick them up and scramble to get them fed exed to people to sign.... don't trust your time or information to this firm..... awful.... absolutely awful....

Small firm with great accountants. My company has been using BPR&H for many, many years and the…read moreservice just gets better. If you want thorough accountancy work, personalized service, all at a good price, then this is the firm for you. The money they have saved us (as well as peace of mind that our taxes and other accounting issues have been done correctly) has been priceless. Best accounting firm in the Bay Area!

Worked with this lady for 2-3 years. Left because she made mistakes on my returns, was very poor at…read morecustomer service: multiple calls or emails just to get a response on tax return issues , and woefully overpriced for the lack of service provided. Sorely disappointed for mistaking personality for character and competence. Shame on me.

I work with Margarita often, as she's the tax preparer for many of our clients at our financial…read moreplanning firm, also located in downtown Walnut Creek. These families range from middle-class to high-net worth. No matter who she's working with, she jumps into everyone's situation looking to learn and see how she can help. More recently, one of our clients was a victim of fraud (the other tax firm had lost their data) and Margarita spent hours on the phone with the IRS working to clear it up and find next steps. We found solutions and her fee for service was extremely reasonable. Her credentials are top notch - IRS Enrolled Agent (EA). If you see these letters, know they represent the highest pedigree in tax education (more direct than the broader CPA). I highly recommend working with this firm on your tax and accounting needs, as I trust her ethics and competency. We have high standards for our clients and this firm meets all of our criteria.

I did a short sale last year and was told I needed a specialist. I went here and gave all my…read moreinformation to Teresa. 2.5 months went by with eight unreturned phone calls. They had my credit card and quoted me at $400-$500 (not to exceed $750 - of course). I never did get a call but I was charge $750 fully on a very simple tax return. They also forgot to include my donations for tax deductions. Ask around about the cost of a tax return and you'll find $750 is a rip-off unless you have complex taxes. I don't usually write bad reviews, but this was a completely unprofessional rip-off.

Teresa and CMC have been doing our taxes for more than 10 years. I completely trust their…read morejudgement and appreciate their advice because our taxes can be challenging with our small business. I highly recommend them for your personal and/or business tax/accounting needs.

She was very transparent through the whole process! super nice and helpful. Excellent service! will…read moredefinitely be back. Thank you!

AMAZING - my go to place. I have been a client with Mia for…read moremany years now and I am pleased with her work. This place is great - very knowledgeable, reliable, responsive and Spanish/English speaking. All I have to say is fast process - max return and very friendly and have never had any issues 10/10.