Mother Lode Bookkeeping

In Feb. 2019, James Sherman discussed with me to get the estate financial evaluation from my estate attorney. This info was then provided to James per his request along with other legal documents from my attorney in March 2019. In March 2021, my CPA found out my four tax returns for tax years 2018 and 2019, which were done by James Sherman, were completely incorrect. Because of his negligence, my income was substantially overstated which caused me overpaid tax and penalties, etc. When I informed James and Rich about these discrepancies, Rich became so defensive that he even accused me that James never received the important financial info from me. How would someone selectively acknowledge emails or simply ignore them and say he never received the emails? This is absolutely ludicrous. If Mother Lode Bookkeeping really didn't receive any emails from clients, they better checked their email system instead of accusing their clients. Besides emails, all legal hard copy documents were provided to James which he claimed he kept a photo copy. Rich told me that he didn't find any while James was on a trip. It seemed like they really have bookkeeping problems. BTW, all the hard copy documents James returned me were still in the MLB white envelop and proved he did receive all the important financial info! To make the client relationship worse, Rich used a racist name all of a sudden when he replied my email. All his previous replies were using my name correctly though. Based on all the email evidence between James and I and all interactions with my estate attorney, it was extremely hard to believe that James, as a professional and competent EA (as other reviewers believed so), can make such a huge mistake unless he did it intentionally. Regardless if you sent him email requests to report tax deductible items, use correct cost basis, and do ES, he would not comply and simply dropped your requests. Some expenses can be deducted from CA and he didn't bother to add them to the CA tax return. He only sent you your tax returns at the last minute on the deadline and asked you to sign and pay the filing fees even though all tax docs were provided to him 2 months in advance. Turns out you as a taxpayer become the victim because your tax preparer does it his own way. Don't even think about phone calls as it simply puts you in voice mailbox and MLB would say they never receive any phone calls. Not only do they not take responsibility, but they would say it's your fault.

It turned out that MLB did not amend all my four tax returns even though it was their fault. Damage has been done repeatedly. Don't waste your time and money doing taxes with them. My four tax returns were prepared for more than 2 months and did completely wrong! Part of my overpaid taxes are forfeited and the rest are still in process in IRS which have already taken more than 6 months.

I don’t know how the negative reviewer could find fault with Motherlode Bookkeeping.
I have used them for the past 12 years and they have helped me in an excellent manner every year and even greatly assisted me in two disputes with the IRS. Motherlode and I won. I highly recommend them.

I have used Motherlode for tax preparation since the late 1970’s. Every year. They have been outstanding throughout. I would not hesitate to recommend their services. Cal, Corrie, Maria and James are honest, thoughtful and professional people and I don’t know what I would do without them.

My husband and I have been using MotherLlode Bookkeeping for about 20 years. They have taken care of our payroll and taxes for years. Dealing with Maria and Cory has been a pleasure and always accommodating. Cal has been extremely helpful preparing our taxes over the years and really helps you on a personal level if you need advice. He also helped me prepare my parents taxes after my parents passed and made the whole process much easier.
I would recommend Mother Lode Bookkeeping as an inexpensive, local payroll and tax preparation service.

Mind you, I’m not an accountant nor a «tax guy.» I’m just a normal guy that knows what’s in and out of his bank account. So, it’s important that if I share that intimate info with you that I know I’m going to get personalized service.
My family has a regular guy we go to. He’s really good. I’ll Unilocal about him sometime. Because of time and I didn’t get my act together, I went to Mother Lode based on a friend’s recommendation instead.
I’m never listening to him again.
Basically, I felt like this guy was just «plug and chug» some numbers and I wasn’t happy in the end given that while my numbers hadn’t really changed over the past year, I was getting less of a refund that I was used to and their rate was more than what I had expected.
I’m sure it was done correctly since I did end up filing my return, but it made me wonder — what was different? So, I’ve learned my lesson, and i’m going back to the family guy.
Nevertheless, I’m sure Mother Lode is an excellent bookkeeping service, but as tax folk, not so much.