Slade & Associates

Will Slade did our 2014 taxes, but failed to file them. We received this shock from the escrow company while purchasing our home. Will Slade ignored all attempts for communication — not returning calls, emails, and not even being in the office during regular hours! His incompetence put our home purchase in jeopardy. Will Slade is completely unreliable and unprofessional. DO NOT USE HIS SERVICES. Worst experience ever.

We used Will Slade services to file our taxes for the tax year 2014 and the experience was horrific because of the sloppiness, unprofessional behavior and irresponsibility that we had to deal with.
Despite providing the required documentation in time, he had to file an extension. Communication was dreadful to say the least. My wife was not able to get a hold of him via email, by phone or in person (according to the words of his colleagues, the schedule of his working hours is a cause of embarrassment for them as well). Eventually we were notified by the escrow office that the taxes were not filed and we received a penalty notification from IRS for our 2014 **unpaid** taxes (the amount was in the thousands of dollars). We tried to contact him as usual with no response. Besides the penalties, by failing to file our taxes, Will put the purchase of our home in jeopardy. We had to go to the IRS office in December to file the taxes by ourselves.
We decided to move forward and pay the penalties by ourselves, since it was clear that Will could not be trusted to take any timely action. In order to get the reimbursement for the penalties (that we paid) my wife tried to contact again Will countless times (phone and email). I had to call the office myself, verify that he was around, explain to the person that received my call what was the situation to finally get a hold of him. Will was only able to provide irrelevant apologies and no plausible reason for his continued negligence. Luckily the check reimbursement that he finally issued arrived, of course later than expected.
Also make sure to check his other Unilocal page (why two???) here:

Avoid! Will Slade does not return emails or phone calls. He does not follow through with anything he says he will do. If you have a question, get ready to email or call a million times and still only sometimes… weeks or months later you will get a response… if you are lucky. At my tax prep appointment in March he actually told me he would be my ‘best friend’ this year and would work closely with me to make sure my quarterly payments were correct… lies. This guy has been no help. I’ve had to go back to my orig tax guy who is kind enough to help even though he is retired! So frustrating!

I was referred to Slade & Associates by a friend who had nothing but exceptional things to say about their services, and specifically Will. After switching from my current CPA to Will, I can tell you I made the right decision. Since using Will’s services I have recommended him to several other small businesses looking for a personalized experience with their accounting needs. I am especially appreciative of the fact that when I contacted Will, it was at the height of tax season, less than 2 weeks before the deadline, and he still took me on as a client and had my taxes completed in a timely, professional fashion. Slade & Associates was a great find, has an easy/​accessible location, and the staff is warm and friendly. I no longer need to look elsewhere as I will be a client from here on forth. Thanks for making what is usually a stressful process fantastic!

I was referred to Will Slade by a friend who has used his services for several years. He was great to talk with and very professional. He was able to put tax jargon into user friendly terms and make sure my taxes were done correctly. I appreciated his recommendations for things to consider in the upcoming tax year and how I could take advantage of some financial investments that I have. I would definitely recommend him to anyone that needs tax advise, review of taxes or other tax filings.

If after reading my review, you continue to utilize this company for your tax filing needs, you can blame nobody but yourself.
I had my taxes filed in October 2013 for the 2012 Tax year. I had Will Slade help me file my taxes and it was nothing but a horrific experience and a complete nightmare from day 1. My employee recommended him, so I decided to give him a shot. My employee has seen everything that has occurred and has agreed that it is completely unacceptable and we will never recommend this company to anybody ever again.
Will Slade is rarely available, he is almost always late to appointments and he would cancel or change meeting/​phone appointment times because he is «so busy». He comes across as very intelligent and competent, but after experiencing his personal work on my filings and his personal values, I have definitive proof that he is not.
I could write a 50 page novella on what happened with my 2012 taxes, but I will try and make this as short and helpful as possible.
1) William Slade was give 3+ weeks in September/​October 2013, which is not supposed to be an overwhelmingly busy time, to file my taxes. He said he would have no problem filing by the October 15^th cut off. He literally filed at the last hour and made it a huge pain for our family the entire time.
2) We found out in February when going through a refinance that he used some other company’s EIN # on our LLC returns and our personal returns.
3) We also found out that he double reported a LLC member’s income on her K-​1 and the member thought we were trying to pass on income onto them to reduce our liability. We had to deal with their attorney. Fun!
4) We brought up both these issues to Will Slade’s attention in February 2014 and he said that he would correct and re-​file.
5) We then found multiple reporting mistakes when we were purchasing a home in April 2014 and we brought these to Will Slade’s attention again.
6) In May of 2014 we were contacted by the FTB and IRS stating that our LLC taxes were never filed in the first place in October 2013 and the changes to the EIN on our personal taxes were not made and the income reported for the LLC member was not changed. None of the mistakes were addressed and the TAXES WEREN’T EVEN FILED!
7) We tried multiple emails and phone calls from February to May to contact William Slade, but he never returned our calls or emails to address his mistakes. The only time I heard from him was he wanted to stand by the way he reported my income and to give me a speech on his vast knowledge of these facts. He then finally emailed me that he «refiled» the EIN # for the LLC, but didn’t address all of the other issues. We emailed and called him again and he didn’t respond.
8) Finally in May of 2014, we emailed him that we were contacted by the FTB and IRS and that he didn’t re-​file and fix any of his mistakes and worse, he didn’t even file our taxes the previous October. We said we were going to file an official complaint with the IRS and dispute the charges we paid him on our Credit Card. We are still going to do both.
9) This is where it gets good: Will Slade replied with a crazy story full of lies and misguided statements. He said that we never paid him to file the LLC and that we never gave him the opportunity to file the LLC returns because we weren’t available to sign the forms at our office. Everyone in my office knows I am always here and he is making this up. They have all seen how he works. He stated that because we found mistakes in April 2014 that he didn’t feel he should change, he never filed our taxes the previous October 2013.
10) This is so beyond untrue and illogical, my wife and I don’t know where to begin. We paid him the fee he told us he was charging us for both filings. He told us he filed everything and he even emailed us the one time in February that he would re-​file the LLC taxes based on the mistakes he made. If he was never available and he told us he filed everything, how could we have not given him the opportunity to file?
How does something that occurs in April 2014 affect the past (October 2013)?? Is Will Slade stating that he knows the future and knew that the disagreements and mistakes we found in 2014 would occur and that is why he decided not to file the taxes 6 months earlier?
This guy is not only terrible at his job, he is obviously very confused and his way of addressing his negligence is by making up stories to excuse his actions. I tell my kids that this is called lying and there are consequences for lying. Well, we will see what the IRS says. If this is how Will Slade does business, he needs to quit immediately.

My husband and I have used Jerry Slade for many years to do our personal tax returns. Jerry, Linda and the rest of the office staff are fantastic. Friendly, professional, accurate, helpful. Our tax returns are always done way ahead of time, and we have 100% trust that the returns are accurate and without errors.
I also have recently had a lot of interaction with Sabra Davis in this office, who has helped me navigate the handling of my deceased parents’ trust and estate. She has been amazing. She responds right away to my (many) e-​mailed questions, and explains these very complicated issues (to me anyway) in a really clear, precise, easy-​to-​understand manner. She is extremely knowledgeable in this area, and I am so glad I have had her guidance.
I would recommend Slade & Associates to anybody looking for a skilled, professional, reliable accountant or tax preparation firm.

My taxes were done fairly timely, but they were wrong. The IRS sent me a letter noting my refund would be less than Slade and Associates told me. And it was something pretty obvious.
I really didn’t like the fact that I asked for a piece of information back in late August/​early September. Two emails and two phone calls later and I’m still waiting. :-(I’ll be going elsewhere next year.

I have been using the services of Jerry, Linda, and company for 3 years now. I’ll never go anywhere else. Just the support they give if I have a question over the phone is worth every penny.
I broke my leg and ankle a while back, and they heard about it and called to check up on me to make sure I was doing ok. That meant a lot to me.
I am a small business owner and appreciate everything this company does for me and my growing business!

I went to Jerry Slade and Associates in Santa Clara. (Do NOT confuse them with the Tax masters on the radio — totally different, from TX and AWFUL!) They were recommended by a fellow MBA student a few years back.
This year in January 2011, I had a consultation with Dotti Dupre and we talked about my financial and personal situation. I forwarded my 2009 taxes for Dotti’s review and she came back to me and said, «You seem to have this under control, you can do it yourself.» They didn’t charge me for the consolation or the review.
Note: They are NOT inexpensive, but I think they are very good. They wanted to charge upwards of $ 350 for their service. One comment I heard was, «We usually work with people who are in trouble w/​the IRS.» I get the impression they represent a lot of clients at the IRS. I keep thinking I’ll start a small business, I plan to use them as my tax people when I get started.
I have no idea how they compare to an H&R BLock or Jackson Hewitt, but I feel that you’ll get good service and advice.