I own a small one-person company. An accountant at Johnson Block helped me and my business with tax planning and preparation. We created a tax plan, I paid in quarterly estimated tax payments and met with them frequently to avoid a tax bill at the end of the year. I sent over my business' final numbers on December 1st of the tax year, giving them 4 and a half months to prepare my taxes.
However, as the tax deadline approached I received a phone call on April 14th - THE DAY BEFORE TAXES WERE DUE!
I was surprised with an unexpected tax bill in the amount of TENS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS! Luckily, I had been saving money so I was (barely) able to pay the tax bill and file for an extension.
I called the next day to try to figure out if there was a mistake in hopes that I could get my money back. Another surprise! The accountant who I was working with no longer works at the firm.
Sure, these things happen. Maybe it was just a bad employee? Trying to be understanding, I allowed the company to try to find out what went wrong in tax planning and help me finally file my taxes.
I spent 2 additional months working with another accountant at Johnson Block trying to get my taxes filed. Meanwhile I was still out several thousand dollars with no explanation and no one seemed concerned. This was their chance quickly help me get the money back that my business needed to operate! Or at the very least provide an explanation as to the insanely large tax bill.
At the end of 2 months, there still wasn't any progress, and I was still out tens of thousands of dollars in unexpected tax payments.
At that point I left the firm and I went to another tax accountant. Within 48 hours he had corrected the mistake in taxes, I got almost all the money back in tax refunds and I was finally able to file.
This was the worst business partnership I've ever made and I will always regret partnering with Johnson Block. They could have cost me my company. Please consider my story before you ever choose to work with them.