Howard Choder

Great first experience working with Howard. After receiving a letter from the IRS saying I owed 2 grand, a friend of mine referred me to Howard. As a favor to her, he looked at my letter to send me down the correct path, for free. So very generous and helpful.
I look forward to utilizing his expertise in the future.

I have a complex and unpleasant tax history, due to multiple IPOs, incentive stock options, alternative minimum tax, capital losses, derivatives trading, and an unfortunate tendency to not deal with my taxes because the numbers are overwhelming. I’ve been digging myself into and out of holes since 1992.
I had made a promise to my wife, when we got married, that I would handle the taxes, and get everything in order.
So with around 18 years of extensive tax records in hand, I approached a local tax handler. She spread things out, looked it over, collated it back up, handed it back and said, «This is too complex for me. Try this other person.» I went to that other person, and they also let me know it was too complex. They recommended a THIRD person. THAT person found my taxes too complex, and recommended Howard Choder. At the same time, I had been doing some searching on my company discussion board, and found another person who strongly recommended Howard Choder, and I finally brought everything to him.
He read through all of it, asked detailed questions, and figured out everything that had been done, and what needed to be done. He helped me file and re-​file for multiple past years, and negotiated with the IRS to get information that I didn’t have. He worked with me to determine what I could pay, helped me get a payment plan set up, and then when I lost my job after a year of that, got the IRS to hold collection until I could get back on my feet. Once I did, he re-​negotiated an amazingly good monthly rate, that leaves me able to breathe and keep my family going. His communications have been clear, friendly, and gives me the feeling I have a real, knowledgable ally in dealing with the IRS. Having gone back and forth with the the blank wall that is the IRS for decades now, I can’t express how good it feels to have that kind of ally.
I’m up-​to-​date on my taxes, and for the first time in decades I filed on-​time and without requesting an extension this year. I’m not in fear for my home, my car, or my income. That’s priceless to me.

WARNING — DISORGANIZED, FORGETFUL AND INCOMPETENT
I made an appointment with Choder Howard to do my Corporate Taxes and was hoping to have a great experience based on the reviews but here’s what happened instead…
I arrived for my appointment — Choder fumbled around (think MR. MCGOO) and had now idea who I was (we talked at length on the phone 2 days ago), or about the appointment this morning.
After he finally found my appointment, we sat down and he looked over my previous year’s return. He said I only have a carry forward loss of $ 1800 to offset the profit this year. I said actually, it’s more like $ 11,000. He studied the return, flipping back and forth like it’s the first one he’s seen. After 5 minutes, he finally found it and just said «Oh, there it is»
I wanted to grab my P&L and leave immediately.
Taking so long to find such a simple line item on a return screams incompetence.
Next he refuses to do the return since he must charge $ 1000 and my return is simple. The idea of adjusting his rates based on the complexity of the job is lost on him.
Me: Okay, can you at least file the extension?
Choder: Yes and begins to print out the form. Oh, there’s no toner in the printer.
Me: Can you file it electronically?
Choder: It’s $ 25, then gets half way through the process and ups the charge to $ 75.
He finally ends up e-​mailing the form to me to send myself.
I don’t write a ton of reviews, but I do use Unilocal a lot, so I felt I owed it to the Unilocal community to warn you guys of totally misleading rating.
Good luck out there!

Frankly, the folks at the IRS are nice, polite and civil and will smile as they work to screw the living hell out of your bank account. Howard was straight with me from day one. Sometimes bluntly so, but I always knew I’d get good information to operate off of and he wouldn’t hold back just to ‘be a nice guy’. After all, it was my financial life, and frankly, a lot of other things important to me at stake.
In the end, he probably saved me $ 30−40K. And had I actually followed his advice earlier on I would have saved more.
Was he cheap? No.
Was he worth every penny? Hell yes.

Howard dug me out of a hole with the IRS. He rocks !

Howard had a dramatic impact on my emotional and financial well being during a difficult time of my life. His experience dealing with the IRS and knowledge of its workings enabled me to substantially reduce a significant tax liability. His direct and pragmatic approach was very effective. I greatly appreciated his counsel.

There are a few things about governments which are necessary evil. Taxes are there right at the top. We went to war, and segregated from England, over this particular evil a few centuries ago. Every time I look at what is left of my paycheck, and watch the news and see where it goes, I feel like dumping some tea into the Willamette River. It’s the IRS’s job to make sure they get yours, and they will take more than their fair share… if you don’t have Howard with you. Howard is the best of many traits: advisor, tactical, diplomat and most important, implementor.
I recently (okay, a while ago) failed to file my taxes when due, and hadn’t extended. The IRS came after me for more than their fair share, and Howard stepped in and took care of it. This was no small feat. I am in Portland, Oregon and Howard is in Seattle. Didn’t matter, he knows Oregon State tax laws, and took matters into his hands and soothed everything with a remedy.
Quick to respond, patient to listen. He was there for me. You’ll be making the best decision letting him work for you.

Howard Choder is my tax guy because he’s resourceful, creative and collaborative, while simultaneously staying on the conservative side of risk. He’s community oriented; he stays up-​to-​date on legal matters (both cultural and business) which affect tax payers, so that I have the information I need to plan well and make good choices; he’s all business. Plus he’s a decent guy who can bust out the allegories to relate to my annual tales, walk me off a ledge when necessary or usher me to a pleasant surprise– all the while taming and making sense of my best effort tax hand-​off. Get Howard on board. You’ll be glad you did.

I started my own business 2 years ago and needed a top notch partner to handle all the paper work associated with 1099 filings and taxes. Mind you, I’m nowhere even close to competent at this sort of thing, so I needed someone that could just «handle it» as long as I got him all the paperwork. Mr. Choder has been a lifesaver in this regard. For 2 years now, he has given me a worksheet where I fill in my income and expenses. I keep it up to date, and at the end of the year, I just send him the worksheet and all my bank statements. Voila! Taxes done. I can’t recommend Mr. Choder enough. I get to spend my time running my business, and I don’t have to worry about tax season. Thanks Mr. Choder!

My wife and I have been using Howard for years to do our taxes. He helped us through our domestic partnership and onward. He’s always been helpful and timely… even if we haven’t! He’s also been a great source of advice in all financial matters. We can’t thank Howard enough for all of his hard work, professionalism, and his ability to look at each situation individually. He’s great and I recommend him enthusiastically for any financial needs you may have. Thanks Howard!

My partner and I started a small business almost three years ago. Together, we cover just about all of our bases… except for the accounting — neither of us had a clue. A friend recommended Howard. Howard took care of our personal taxes, our business taxes, and gave us truly great advice. Just one example: Recently, we received a letter from the IRS saying that we owed $ 8,000 in fines for filing late (our fault for not filing an extension before Howard knew us — not his) he kindly suggested that we try handling the issue ourselves and call him if we needed more help. He could have charged us a bunch of money and we would have been grateful so long as it wasn’t $ 8,000. But he was right, we could do it, the fines were removed and we didn’t need to pay the IRS or Howard. So not only do I now know a terrific accountant who really understands the IRS, an honest person who will not try to take advantage of our lack of knowledge, but also someone who is patient enough to help us continue to grow as business owners. Needless to say it is a huge relief to have someone like this in our corner and will likely make a huge difference in the overall health of our business long-​run.

Howard has done my taxes for about 6 years. He’s given me sound advice and is very quick to respond to any questions I have about my taxes or accounting in general. I’ve referred many people to him and they all have had good experiences.
He is also one of the leading accountants on filing as domestic partners. I appreciate his community and professional leadership on this issue.

I had a terrible experience with Howard, which eventually ended up costing me about $ 8000 in penalties and interest. Moreover, he totally overlooked a mistake in correspondance from the IRS, which I caught, which had me overpaying by a significant amount. Finally, there are certain measures another CPA recommended to me which Howard didn’t recommend to me, which saved me from even more penalties. I would stay far, far away from Howard as he is both at times impatient and condescending and has proven to do shoddy work.

I run a very successful bookkeeping business and I refer ALL of my clients to Howard for personal and corporate federal tax preparation. I have complete confidence in Howard’s expertise on all tax matters. He is my go-​to guy whenever I run into complicated bookkeeping situations and I can always count on him to be responsive, fair and reasonable when dealing with my clients. Howard is an absolute pleasure to work with and I greatly value the professional relationship we have established over the course of 3+ fiscal years.