Tax Ninja

i’ve done my taxes with Tax Ninja for **3 years**, but this year I emailed them April 10 about getting an extension filed to which they said ‘sure’ but then 2 email follow ups asking if they had taken care of filing the extension had no response. And with that, the filing date came and went and to this date April 25 I’m left wondering if they did it or not, to which I can only assume not. I understand it’s busy season but they dropped the ball and it’s been completely unprofessional with the lack of response, even when I cc’d my actual accountant (previously an admin/​junior emailed me about it). If they had told me they were busy I could’ve looked for alternative solutions, plain and simple. If my money isn’t good enough to get even a courtesy email back, that’s okay, I’ll go elsewhere.

Are these guys for real? working with Michael has made me realize I wish I hired an accountant years and years before I started with them. I’ve working with them for several years now and I love tax ninja.

Outstanding organization and tax preparation service. My wife and I worked with Mike Karatov and this was, hands down, the best tax preparation process I’ve ever dealt with. He actually made it enjoyable with his sense of humor, easygoing nature, his experience and knowledge, as well as his preparation before we sat down to complete the filing.
For me, Mike’s legal and accounting background really made a difference for us. Between selling a house, getting married, and different jobs we had a lot to go through, and Mike was both very patient and helpful along the way and I feel helped maximize our return this year (which is always a great outcome when doing taxes).
We will definitely be using Tax Ninja next year as well. I highly recommend their services!

The gross incompetence of this business is astounding. I was unhappy with the experience as it was happening, but one year later as I started working with a new (phenomenal!) accountant it is becoming clear how terrible this was from start to finish. My initial phone consult with Matthew, but then I was handed off to Zoe, who was so aggressive and hostile throughout our phone call to finish up the filing that I wanted to cry and consistently felt like I was doing/​answering everything wrong.
This year we realized that OUR CHILDREN had been left off of our filing done by Tax Ninja. Even an idiot filling out a return using TurboTax can handle that portion. That was just the beginning of many, many juvenile mistakes that leave me to believe this is the last place you should be going to get your taxes done.
Our taxes will now have to be refiled by our new accountant. I emailed explaining the poor work done by Tax Ninja, asking for a refund or some other offer to make things right. Never heard a response.

They charge $ 500 per hour but there wasn’t guarantee whether they can get the problem solved, or it would require me to pay more hours.
I had a $ 5000 tax miscalculation from IRS, and requested help from them. At first they replied «it should take only about 1 hour to complete this». I paid them $ 500. Then I was told «it would require another one hour labor». I asked about the guarantee of either I could get the money back, or it would be completed within the second hour, and I didn’t get any guarantee. In the end I basically threw $ 500 to them and didn’t get any solution to my tax problem.

I will throw a HUGE tantrum if they ever stop being in business. The excellence, speed and reasonable rates and even extra great advice has made our lives less stress full.

Tax Ninja was great and reduced my stress levels greatly. Mike helped me understand my complex stock options and offered great tips for my S-​Corporation. As lawyers and accountants their prices are reasonable and they provide significantly more insight than those generic places that pop up and disappear after April. Since he also a lawyer, Mike was able to prepare an independent consultant contract for my business and gave me his cell number to contact him year round. Surprisingly, I can’t wait to do my taxes next year.

I was new to the U.S. and I decided to get a pro to look at my tax as I had no idea if my foreign assets mattered, what I could claim, etc. I decided to try and the ball rolling early in Feb and contacted Tax Ninja due to their 5 star rating and reading that they had experience with foreigners.
Over the next 4 months I had so much trouble getting things done:
— Towards the beginning I hadn’t heard anything for 3 weeks even though there was still some open questions, so started frequently emailing trying to find out what’s happening, I was then told to stop emailing as they are «very busy»
— After a bit of back and forth the emails stopped coming, I waited a month (as they were «very busy») and at that point was told the tax dude got fired/​left/​had issues (not sure), strange that Tax Ninja didn’t reach out…
— New tax dude seemed more responsive but still had issues with a lot of things not being claimed (had to remind twice to get things added), being told I couldn’t claim things (even though I am still not sure if that was actually the case) and just generally feeling rushed into signing things off
— When handing in the forms at the office I had to slide the documents through a crack of the wire gate that surrounds the office, was really weird and not very welcoming
— I was given 50% off to make up for the issues (although that did take a month to receive)
In the end I learnt a lot about how to do my own tax, which I was hoping I wouldn’t need to do as that is why you pay $ 400 (pre-​discount) for what turned out to be a fairly simple tax return.

Working with JP Cross was an absolute dream as we took a friend up on his recommendation. We had been using H&R Block for years and would never go back. We saved so much more money using JP and even filed back taxes for past mistakes made by H&R Block. He is really easy to work with and everything is so much more convenient.

6 years later, I’m still going back for more! Matt and his team are awesome. Professional and down to earth, hard working and accurate.

I am extremely frustrated and disappointed with Tax Ninja. I used them to file my taxes last year, the year I got married.
I asked if I needed to be withholding any extra money since I was now listed as married on my W4 and my company was not accounting for my husbands income, so I was afraid that I was in the wrong tax bracket. The accountant laughed in my face and told me I had nothing to worry about that that I would be getting a large tax return this year. I should have listened to my gut. I owe $ 6,400 in taxes this year, because I didn’t withhold any extra money even though I took zero allowances. This is a huge financial setback that could’ve easily been avoided. The accountant’s lack of knowledge was evident as he was relying only on the program he was using. When the program was missing a form and my husband had to go behind his desk to help him sort things out. Very unprofessional and frustrating.

Such a great company with warm and helpful customer service, done my taxes in a couple of minutes and I’ve got a really pleasant outcome! CoolGreat! Will only use these guys and recommend them to my friends.

Mike Karatov and I go way back. 1990s. College. Even back then Mike was a guy you could trust. All these years later we get to use that trust. We consult each other about tax and family law issues. You can trust your business to Mike!

I’ve known the Tax Ninja for over 10 years and if you have complicated tax problems
Matt can solve them in minutes. He makes doing taxes completely painless, and really knows a lot about helping people who work in the art world. Super secret hint if you bring him a sandwich hell probably comp you something.

Tax Ninja is the ***BEST*** I don’t have incredibly complicated tax returns, and as a matter of pride I stubbornly did my taxes myself using Turbo Tax for years. I didn’t even realize how insufficient the prompts in the software were for understanding the complexities of taxes until I finally came here and got things professionally done– I wish I’d started going here sooner!
The staff is both incredibly friendly, and extremely knowledgeable– I come away from every visit understanding things much better than I ever did before. Being able to ask questions in person rather than getting (false) information on the internet is both much safer and absolutely invaluable. I can’t recommend this place (and especially Mike Karatov) highly enough!

I just wanted to update this review (I can’t believe it’s been almost 7 years!), and say that I’ve been going to the Tax Ninja every year since. And every year I get the best service — prompt, efficient and thorough. Recommended once again!

I am surprised to see negative reviews. We did our taxes with them last year and they were on top of things. I run a DBA and file jointly with my husband. They helped me stay organized with great documents that I did on my own, so it made the meeting with them very straightforward. They had great advice and I feel confident they steered us in the right direction. We also got a refund which is always awesome.
We plan to use them again this tax season. We’ve kept in touch since when I’ve had a few questions here and there and I’ve always gotten a prompt reply.

In my experience, both the good and the bad reviews here are true.
On one hand, they do know a lot about taxes, and can handle very complicated tax situations.
On the other hand, after using their services for several years for both regular and self-​employment income, I found out by chance that I should have been getting a business license from my city, and paying business taxes to the city — something which nobody here ever mentioned.
On the first hand, they can be very friendly and helpful! On the other hand, they’ve had many receptionists and other staff who, when they’re in a bad mood or have personal problems, can be very cranky or passive-​aggressive — and when it’s the person doing your taxes who seems distracted and upset, it can be unsettling at best.
They do have an open office where your taxes will be discussed in front of other customers who are well within hearing distance. I heard many an interesting conversation while waiting for my appointments.
Which brings us to the main reason that I stopped using the Tax Ninja: I often heard other customers being encouraged to take shady deductions, or given shady advice. A frequent recommendation people seemed to get was to take rental income in cash and not report it, but there were other recommended ways of fudging the truth too.
I got those suggestions a lot as well, and it made me really uncomfortable. It’s very tempting to just throw up your hands and grin and say «well, my tax guy is suggesting it,» but it also seems really unethical and dangerous.
So yes — in many areas they are very thorough and may save you a lot of money even despite the very high hourly rate ($ 350, as stated in another review, although it might be more now). On the other hand, the money saved may ultimately come at too high a cost.

Matt and his team did a worse-​than-​terrible job on my taxes. They actually never got them done.
They were minimally responsive. They ended up refunding my money, but that hardy made up for the giant tax mess I was landed with when I had to file all kinds of extensions and amended returns.
They even misspelled my name on the forms.
Because of Matt, I was digging myself out of an IRS mess for a year. Phone calls, letters. It was the worst. I am impressed they managed to get all these positive reviews — that must have been back when they actually focused on being accountants. Don’t be fooled by the 4.5 stars. Working with Tax Ninja was a giant mistake for me.

Wow. Just wow. I would say that I am at a loss for words. but I have enough words left to write this review! I seriously caution anyone that uses this firm for tax preparation – just based alone on the lack of professionalism I experienced.
So, I had an appointment scheduled for Saturday @ 11am. Everything was all good. Then less than 48 hours before the appointment (mind you they have a VERY strict no cancellation policy where they will charge you $ 200 if YOU cancel less than 48 hours) I get an email saying that they have to move my appointment and they gave me some options. I couldn’t do the proposed options. Instead of emailing back I wanted to get a hold of them ASAP, so I called them.
A woman (Christine the Receptionist) picked up the phone in a huff. I started talking to her and she cut me off by talking to someone else. OK. Then I proceeded to tell her the issue. She told me that she was actually at Peet’s so was unable to help me «unless I wanted her to order me a coffee». Umm. OK, so I asked if there was anyone else I could call. She said nope that this was her cell and she was not at the office. Although this was the number listed on the email from the business. I told her that there was no need to be rude. She scoffed and asked for my name – but she «didn’t need my number since she had it on her phone».
So I emailed the office manager back and told her what happened. I said that, due to the fact I couldn’t make the proposed appointments and the rude receptionist, I would pass. I mean, who wants to work with that kind of attitude. No big deal – let’s just cut our losses and move on.
About an hour later I got a text from the owner asking if he could call me. OK, I as expecting an apology. I got on the phone with Matthew Whatley, the owner. He said he was told to cal me and asked what I wanted. Not really, he called me. I had already severed ties. So I told him the situation. No apologies whatsoever. He said that everyone was stressed so that is why his receptionist was rude. I proceeded to tell him that I couldn’t make the new times. He told me that his tax preparer was out because his wife was having surgery «and it’s not like he isn’t going to go to that for you». Totally legit excuse, but how was I supposed to know that from the initial correspondence? And then he said he would schedule a new meeting and «wouldn’t hold this against me». So I said never mind then. He told me to have a nice life and hung up. Super unprofessional.
But, you would think that would be the end of this. But no, he proceeded to harass me and text me this: «I’m very sorry we were not able to meet your expectations. You made one of my staff members cry [because i called her rude at Peet’s] and another is quite upset [I never spoke to anyone else]. Is there some conflict or other situation in your life that is possibly the root of your stress or aggression that maybe we can help you solve?». Like, why even continue contacting me on my personal number???
SHOCKING lack of professionalism. Is this a real business??? Like just let it go! They could have left it with my email to cancel. Instead, this guy had to call me, be rude on the phone to me, and then text me. WTF!