Steven J Kopff & Associates

Want to add on I got audited by IRS because of an error Steven made. He counted rental income as business income. Irritating.

Steve is a total lifesaver. Period.
My finances were in complete shambles and Steve saved me. He gave me a list of all the documents that he needed and once I provided them he quickly filled out all of the paperwork and I was all set! I no longer dread tax season as I know that Steve has my financial back, as it were.
Cannot recommend him highly enough.
Thanks Steve!

I was using a financial district accounting firm to do my business taxes for a number of years. It seemed like every year, their bill got higher and higher. One day, I looked at their latest invoice and said to myself «this is rediculous!» For what they were charging me, I could take my family to Europe every year. So I checked Craigslist and found Steve. I’m gettng at least the same quality service faster and at a fraction, I repeat — A FRACTION — of what I paid before.
I recommend you use Steve and go to Europe!

My exhusband offered to pay for my taxes preparation for the past 2 years. Steve and my exhusband did some «mistake» /​creative accounting on my personal tax. Steve declared spouse support instead of child support, so my ex could write it off and I will pay taxes on the other end. I discovered it, brought proof to Steve. Steve refused to correct without my exhusband consent. My exhusband refused too. I had to file a 1040X with another CPA to correct the «mistake»
Scandaleous. Dishonest. Untruthful. No ethic.

Steve did my personal and business taxes for a number of years. We found him on Craigslist and he seemed like a nice guy and affordable as for start up business. After buying out my business partner four years later, I continued to use Steve’s services. I remember specifically asking Steve once if I was a sole proprietorship or a corporation because I was looking into becoming a corporation for liability purposes. His response was something like «you told me you were a sole proprietorship.» As a professional, I would have hoped he’d ask to see the documentation I filed with the State when I dissolved my LLC partnership. Had this happened, it could have solved Part 1 of what was to become a major headache years later as it turned out I was a corporation, unbeknownst to me and had to pay back taxes and penalties to the State for 2 ½ years. I also had to re-​file my taxes as a corporation. I used Steve to do this. This brings be to Part 2 of my major headache… some months after I refiled, I got audited. Yep, the big «A» every tax payer/​business owner dreads. The IRS was questioning why my expenses far exceeding my income and obviously wondering how I was surviving. As I began to prepare for the audit, it was clear as day to me that Steve had reported my income as the business income! When I inquired with Steve about this, he was like, I just went off the documentation you gave me. The documentation said «my salary» which he ASSUMED was the business income because he ASSUMED I was a sole proprietorship. At the time, he was like, «oh I was afraid of something like this happening.» Well, wouldn’t you think he’d ask me about the discrepancy if he’d noticed it? I trusted him as my accountant and signed on the dotted line when filing my taxes. BIG MISTAKE! Suffice to say, I now owe the IRS $ 45,000 after negotiating penalties down. Still not sure what I owe the State. Also paid Steve to do my taxes twice incorrectly for two years. Also had to pay my new brilliant accountant. Yep, I am singing the money blues. When I was in the beginning stages of the audit, I was still waiting on Steve to complete my current taxes. I’d check in with him and get responses like «still in the pile,» «barely coming up for air,» or I wouldn’t get a response at all. When I finally contacted him to discontinue my services, he responded «No worries. Good luck.» I felt like he didn’t care one iota what I was going through and took no part of owning up to his role in my financial troubles. I would not recommend using Steve and feel you’d be better off using TurboTax on your own.

My wife had used Steve to prepare her taxes for several years and was satisfied, but then the next year we had a different experience. We feel accuracy is important with taxes, so we checked over the completed return, and came back to Steve with questions on anything that we didn’t get or that looked wrong. While you wouldn’t do this with, say, an artist you commissioned a painting from, I think it’s more than acceptable with your accountant, since it’s your money and your signature that is being sent to the IRS.
However, Steve did not react well, and in fact was quite rude. We felt this was especially inappropriate since several of the figures questioned were, in fact, very wrong. Steve agreed these were his mistake, but said his policy was to charge for correcting his own errors. We felt that this, and the uncalled-​for rudeness, make him unsuitable as a tax accountant.
The sunny demeanor that other reviews mention, and that we also experienced at first, changed dramatically when questions arose.

FIVE Star Business here!
I reached out to Steven for assistance with my taxes and he quickly followed up and schedule a meeting to review my needs.
I think taxes from 2010 will be a pleasure, did I just say that? Wow, yes I feel like I am in good hands.

Very very pleased with Steve’s abilities in preparing my tax return. He’s very competent, extremely patient with my dumb questions, and very responsive. I love how he can communicate with me over email. If you stay organized and do your part, Steve will do his ten-​fold.

Steve is great. I found him on Unilocal,and he did my taxes with great ease. Moving from out of state, with a home office and rental property… Thanks Steve!

Steve is my Tax Guy.
For 5 years running Steve has made my personal and business taxes an absolute dream. He’s fast, professional and extremely knowledgeable. Over the years I’ve had a number of questions and speed bumps comes along in my personal business or LLC and Steve always know what to do and explains why he’s doing it.
I can’t imagine taking my taxes anywhere else.

I am not a financially astute person. I am also 25 and self-​employed. Plus, I earned income from about 5 different places in 2009. So you can imagine how confused and flustered my taxes and personal finances make me.
Steve helped me make sense of it all — and always answers my many questions. Really. I have no idea what I would have done without him and I just today found out that I’m going to get to keep about 80% of the money I’d been saving for taxes. I feel mildly rich by accident. Thank you, Steve!
PS: His rate is $ 175/​hour and he’s more than completely worth it. He’s rarely taken more than an hour to do each of my quarterly tax returns.

I’ve worked with quite a few accountants. Most have been slow, expensive and barely competent.
I was very, very pleased with Steve’s responsiveness (esp via email, which I prefer) and exceptionally reasonable cost for prompt, thorough work. We had some complicated amended returns and reversed payments to various tax agencies that he handled very nicely.
Everything was mailed, neatly organized to me, with clear instructions and the «sign here» stickies.
Highly recommended!

We came across Steven because of reviews we saw on Unilocal!and we are so glad we did. Steven was very efficient, met all his estimates for processing our return (actually beat them by a day) and we can’t be happier with his work.
We had been going to a CPA downtown and got very dissatisfied with his work and his continuous rise in prices, so we dropped him and are so glad we found Steven. Great advice, great expertise, and a nice guy to boot!