Block Advisors

I unfortunately have to give our accountant Ruthie James a not so stellar review. If you have no time to read this, here is the short version, she not only lacked knowledge and expertise to deliver on a complex tax filling but she made a huge mistake that would have cost a lot of $$$ and was going to send us home without completing the work. Given that your taxes are quite important and filling with H&R is expensive I thought you might want to know more before choosing this.
So we normally do our own taxes but given that last year we had dual country taxes in Canada and US, and needed a new tax ID number to file in the US for the first time and we had an LLC, we decided to use an accountant in the US (we also have one in Canada) assuming they know the particularities of filing in the US and in the state of California. We phoned several H&R block and this accountant was the only one available with the needed credentials. H&R block requires a different level of credentials for LLC fillings. They are not CA’s or accountants, they are called enrolled agents which gives them the authority to prepare taxes, based on this our expectations were low. But the cost was high, well over 1K. With a lack of options, we moved forward with meeting Ms James.
We started the process with the initial meeting and bringing all our tax forms with us. We had lots of questions since we have a very unique and rather complex situation. For the most part, Ms James answered our questions respectfully but we found that she became defensive once the questions became more complex. (The clientele at H&R is not really in our demo and they are probably not as inquisitive.) I started to have concerns when I asked her to run different scenarios and didn’t get clear answers to my questions (married filing joint or not, etc). And then we realized she didn’t even know how to use her own software properly. My husband spent over 2 hours coaching her with using her own computer.
That wasn’t even the most pressing issue. The main issue came when my husband uncovered an oversight from her end. She was going to overlook the taxes paid in Canada and did not file those numbers in the claim. HER MISTAKE WOULD HAVE COST US EXTRA THOUSANDS of $$$ .When we asked her very respectfully to correct this, she got offended and said we were trying to tell her how to do her job. She was going to bill us by the hour and send us home without filing our taxes. We then had to tip toe around her to get her to complete her work. Had we realized earlier her lack of knowledge we would have asked our Canadian accountant to file for both countries, but she already accumulated the hours so she had us in a bind. After this, we reviewed everything with a fine comb to ensure the filing was done correctly.
Not only was she lacking attention to detail. Her colleague who filled my tax ID request was the same. The colleague has a neat know-​it-​all attitude and she was appalled that I completed my own request form. She proceeded to redo the form but she overlooked some information not once but 2X, part of which I completed it myself otherwise that would the request would have been sent back.
After Ruthie finally filled our taxes, the filing bounced back due to some information she forgot to add. We received a mail asking us to add the info and send it back.
Overall we felt Ruthie lacked the experience, expertise and willingness to do her job well. We spent our time, our energy and money into a process that we felt was way more grueling then it should have been with a decent accountant.
I really hesitated to provide this review because I do not like giving negative reviews however, I think most people think of their taxes as quite important and I would rather be informed.
If you have simple taxes this place will be fine for you, otherwise I suggest you find a properly accredited accountant, or find someone who has received solid feedback otherwise you might as well do it yourself.

We have been coming here for 15 years to have both our personal and business taxes done. Ruthie James is great! She is thorough and efficient as she makes sure that we have considered everything that could possibly benefit us. Highly recommend! John & Gladys Williams, Williams Family Care, Inc.

RUTHIE is the bomb dot com.
Soooo as an adult you are supposed to know how to do certain things (i.e laundry, balance a checkbook, TAXES!) I’m happy to admit I can wash and fold a mean shirt but I must have missed tax lesson day.
Enter the best tax preparer around. Ruthie has been doing my taxes since she was working at H&R Block above the Serra Theaters (if you remember those theaters then you know how long that has been!)
She is honest, trustworthy and gets the job done. If you want someone to cut corners and maybe get you some extra cash that the IRS will for sure come looking for later go some place else. If you want your return, refund, and an easily awesome experience doing something that is usually a pain, definitely go see Ruthie.
Call early she books up pretty fast!

I had booked an appointment via the website for 12noon-12:45p time slot with May Young about two weeks ago. I went there a little earlier since I was on my lunch the office was closed/​locked. I guess I would have been their first appointment. I waited 5mins after 12noon and then left since no body showed up. This would have been my first time using H&R block but this experience left me feeling disappointed. Going to look for another company to do my taxes. :o (

Not sure if Doug is dealing with the same office… May Young is the most incompetent, dishonest and unprofessional person I’ve ever come across. I dropped off my 3 prior year returns for review/​amendment AFTER April 15, when they’re not so busy.
i received an email from May over a month later simply stating that she is ‘unable to work on my returns’ and that i need to ‘come by the office to pick up my stuff.’ Nothing else… no explanation. I responded immediately asking her to give me some explanation as to why she is unable to work on my returns. I was extremely worried that something may be terribly wrong with my files. After sending her 4 emails and leaving 2 vm messages, I was finally able to get a hold of her 4 DAYS AFTER she sent the awful email. Her basic explanation was that it’s too complicated and would take too long so her manager Ruthie told her not to work on it. WHAT??? I asked to speak to her but she would not get on the phone
She had me in knots for 4 days wondering what was wrong with my returns. These two women are absolutely incompetent, lazy and RUDE!!! I filed a formal complaint with H & R Corporate office… they said they will get back to me in 7 – 10 days. I’m not holding my breath… I will never deal with H&R Block!!!
UPDATE: It’s 4pm, the office is closed and as I had suspected, Ruthie did not call back. I called the office again and Ruthie answered the phone… The bottom line for Ruthie not wanting May to work on my returns? it will take her too long and my assumption is that she doesn’t get compensated the same rate for reviewing as filing returns under H&R Block’s 3 year review promotion. What a scam…

Ask for May Young. Friendly and professional. Couldn’t ask for more! She’s been doing my taxes for the last three years, and I couldn’t think of trusting anyone else to do it. She looks for every deduction, etc. that you are entitled to, and is very thorough.