Ravi Tax Preparation Services

I rate him ²⁄₅ for tax prep and −1÷5 for asset management/​tax planning/​financial planning. Go to someone else or DIY with TurboTax/​wealth front.

I’ve never wrote a review for any business or individual before… but Ravi Tax is so bad i had to take the time to let others know of it. I’ll try to stay as respectful as I can, but its hard to do that when you have to work with someone like Ravi.
Dont get me wrong, I’m not expecting white glove service, but in Ravi’s world, service is almost non existent. Looks like we pay him to get screwed and he knows that… hence the only explanation of why he is still in business.
I’ve been with Ravi for 4 years and with each year i have seen his level for service go down. Last year was the worst as I got an IRS letter and hefty fines due to his mistake and not doing his job right.
Not only does he have a bad, really bad service, doesn’t do his job well, but also manages to charge an arm and a leg for this pathetic service.
I wish I could honestly pay people to not go to him. Those who are looking for a tax consultant, please, for heaven’s sake look somewhere else… you will not only save yourself some heartburn, you will also save yourselves some money as well.
Good luck!

As an Indian and from the same state I went to Ravi taxes hoping it would help.
I didnt want to post review without comparing with others. So this year i moved to another Tax preparation service and felt i have done the BEST thing by moving away from Ravi Taxes.
Last year was my first time filing taxes in US and i ended up in RAVI tax. I had problem through out. Even now my amended taxes (Situation should not have gone to this as because of the mistake in a form ITIN for my wife was rejected twice.) are not credited.
I would say if the team at Ravi taxes improve on listening to the customer and understand before acting, it would change the situation.

Worst service and their charges are very unreasonable

Avoid at all costs.
1. Long wait times.
2. Super high charges for basic tax returns.
3. They go on a vacation and won’t be available for a month after the tax season. This is when you need their help to deal with your IRS notices.

Very unprofessional and charge very high for simple tax returns.
Avoid at any cost.

I had one of the worst experience with this guy. Listening to him waxing eloquently on the AM1170 radio program, I went here for help with hiring a nanny as an employee and issuing a W2 for her.
During the signup process, everything went fine and he charged me $ 300 upfront. This was a 30 min work and I was little surprised with the fees.
I was supposed to receive a W2 after 2 weeks. I did not get it for 2 months and when I will call their office, the answer is always we will give it to you by end of today. They have hired some newbie kids to manage the front office and they teach them some canned answers to tell customers on the phone. No follow-​through once they get their money.
Finally, after waiting, I went to their office finally and I started demanding my money back. At which point, Ravi magically appeared all nice and friendly and gave me what I wanted.
Even after then, the forms were not filed properly and I had to pay fine to EDD. This is one of the most shady guy I ever met.

All I can do is agree with all the rest.
Ravi is a nice guy and always smiles. Unfortunately — his smile does not get my taxes filled. I have been using his services for a few years — and I have no idea why !! Yes. It’s cheaper than other options. But you get NO service at all. No reply for emails. The staff doesn’t give you answers. They basically answer the phone and say «we will have Ravi call you back «and — as the others mentioned — you do not get the call back.
I give 1 star for the service — because it’s bad. I give
1 more star to Ravi — because he is a nice guy.
What can I say? I have a week heart.
P.s in the process of moving myself and my family to a new accountant.. .

The worst accountant experience this side of the Atlantic — the owner, Ravi, obviously still oersted under the impression that he is in India, completely ignoring his customers! Unreturned calls (Ravi is never there and you never ever get to speak to him over the phone), constantly full voicemail box, unreturned emails, doors locked upon arrival, staff that does not really speak English (they don’t understand you over the phone, ignore your questions when you’re at the office), overbooked! (waiting for hours inside their waiting room to see Ravi despite a scheduled appointment), and WORST of all: they take your money and 7 MONTHS later you’re still after them trying to make them fulfill what they promised — register a new business sellers permit number! You can see how destructive and money-​losing that can be for a new business!
Avoid at all cost and advise your friends against them too, please!

I walked in without seeing these reviews like many other first timers do the mistake visiting this place. There was some details which i didn’t have and provided them on the next morning and they kept me following up for almost 2 weeks with 15 to 20 follow ups.
They charged me $ 550 for filing for two states and i was shocked. Later i came to know from my friends that for similiar kind of filing as mine which they did, they were charged less than half of mine. Many of my friends were sorry for me as i didn’t consult any of them as most of them were mentioning that anyone who visited this place would never come here again. These guys survive because of peoples ignorance and thier busy schedule to go through the reviews for this place before visiting.
I was made to wait for a hour and half as i walked in without a appointment and i saw 5 to 6 people walking in for their tax filing and almost every person walking out were upset and few were vocally complaining about the kind of service provided and the money charged for such pathetic service.

I called and someone took all my information stating they will call me back and set up appointment. Never called. Their loss.

This agency should be terminated from business. It had messed up my taxes and takes no responsibility for professional courtesy.

One of the best Tax reviewers at a decent price for Corporations. Ravi is very knowledgeable and you will never catch him without the right answer for anything tax related. That is his asset.
Yes, sometimes there are issues with timelines and a few delays, but I still like Ravi’s work because he is really good at what he does.

It never did occur to me to write a review for this business (which of-​course I have been using for the past 3 years), the current year experience has broken all levels of tolerance and common-​sense metrics that any individual can stand. I am your regular Joe, came here to the States for a higher education, graduated and started working in Silicon Valley. I also have been the lazy one’s and basically didn’t put a lot of effort into researching into any of the tax related stuff. I moved to SF Bay Area immediately after graduation and have gotten my taxes done with them from a period when i was on OPT to the most recent last year (2 years into H1 B). My taxes (as i see it) have always been a little complicated especially with RSU’s, ESPP’s and multiple brokerage and dividend accounts. Back when i started, i really wanted to use an online tax software, but unfortunately none existed back then, and even if they did (like Turbo Tax), I could not use them as a Non-​Resident Alien.
I always knew that Ravi Tax was a busy place, which is understandable because they are pretty well known and also because of the location (right in the center of a Gazillion Indians living), but what is astonishing is the way they are always understaffed and completely disorganized. Anticipating rush every year at-​least during the tax season calls in some basic common sense to hire a few more people and giving a realistic time line to its existing customers. This year, they asked me to submit my documents through email and they never got back to me after that. Repeated phone calls (at-​least a dozen times) with different people in the company and a equal dozen to be put on hold and a complete lack of co-​ordination left me skeptical about the worthiness of the whole hassle. Ultimately they decide to process my documents and gave me a quote of 170 dollars for 1 W2 and three 1099’s. I agreed and asked them to process and file my returns. A whole month or so later (again with a lot of phone calls and unending waits) the lady (or the business owners wife) writes back to me that it would cost me 415 dollars (whatttt???). They had no records of my first phone call nor was it ever noted anywhere about how much they quoted me when i submitted my documents.
Thanks for the past years of service, Ravi Tax… but your sloppy service and really callous attitude this year has raised my doubts to a point of no return. I will not recommend your business (as i did in the past) to any of my friends.

Hi All,
This is my first review on Unilocal and couldn’t hold myself from writing a review for Ravi tax.
Please avoid going to them. These are unprofessional bunch of guys trying to make money.
Following were the issues I faced with them:
1. They made mistakes in my 2012 tax filing due to which I am still awaiting my refund. There were few other errors made on my 1040 form like wrong Gender, incorrect phone number.
2. I emailed and called Ravi tax to rectify the problem on 2012 tax forms and they asked me to talk to IRS and sort it out myself.
Absolutely No help from them even after paying 180 USD for single W2.
3. Incorrect information shared regarding FBAR.
4. I revisited them for 2013 tax return thinking they will help me with my earlier tax returns as they had incorrectly filled the form. But to my surprise they asked me to file tax amendment which I confirmed with IRS and was no needed at all.
5. When I asked how much will they charge and the first reply was we don’t give estimates. So it’s something like you buy without price tag swiping your card and only then you will know how much it cost. Isn’t that cheating?
6. Finally I managed to get the fees and it was 240 USD for single W2 and this was in first week of February when they had so many ads played on Radio for 25% discount.
7. The lady at the reception is so difficult to talk as she keeps on speaking without listening what you are saying. I figured out lot of clients were facing the same problem.
8. Needless to talk about the waiting time even after scheduling appointments
I finally did my 2013 tax filing all by myself by just spending one Saturday and for free and received my refunds too. But I’m still awaiting 2012 refund after paying to Ravi tax.

Went there 2 years in a row for a basic tax return. First year (2010 tax year) they charged me $ 250 which is pretty steep for the relative simplicity of my return. When I had a tax question after the fact, left a message (long after tax season was over) and someone got back to me 2 months later by which time I had long since solved it myself.
Went back this year, raised prices to $ 350 for a basic return.
They seem to specialize in people who are citizens of, or have taxable assets in, India. If you fall into this category, then they might have something to offer you that a standard HR Block type place does not. If you are a typical American citizen with no foreign assets, I think you might be paying extra for an expertise that you don’t need.

Ravi Tax has been doing downhill. The service is pathetic and they will charge $$ for every small item. After paying 500 dollars for tax preparation fees I got a note to pay another 25 bucks just to file the FBAR form. They also sent the note only 2 days before the deadline. Why? You are smart to understand why.
Stay away.

Terrible Service. Extremely disorganized & have no respect for people’s time or money. Even after making an appointment and calling to confirm multiple times, I had to wait in a waiting room for over 2 hours from 8:00PM to 10:00PM. Even after that, they asked me to come back the next day.
I feel the problem is they are trying to scale a business (add new paying customers) without increasing staff — that’s a recipe for disaster. Also, the quality of the staff is suspect. Even after giving them multiple documents, they keep asking me one or the other clarifications. I’m never ever going to come here again. This place is a disaster.
On top of it, Ravi himself is rude & curt and has no time or patience to listen to his customers. Also, the consulting/​filing fee practice is unethical. I felt like I was biated and switched on the pricing.
Run. Run Run. You’ll ruin your peace of mind with these guys…

Complete Rip off. Please stay away from Ravi Tax. He charged me $ 550 for filing taxes for me and my wife. I prepared tax filing myself. The reason I went to him was to make sure if I am not missing anything. He made us wait for a week and charged $ 550 as consultation fee. Horrible service. Friends, I never write Unilocal reviews even if I find some service is bad. but I couldn’t stay away from writing this review.

Booked an appointment online. Called them to confirm it. They asked us to show up after one and half an hour. When we reached there, it was crowded… On checking about the wait time, without any hesitation they told at least one hour… Since nothing happened even after one hour, we left without filing. We were supposed to receive a call about rescheduling the appointment… haven’t got it yet (more than a day passed by)
What is the use of getting an appointment then. We also tried confirming it, still ended up waiting for more than 2 hours… It didn’t look like we were the only one who had this experience… Many of them showed up for their appointments and were equally frustrated. and many others were asked to come back some other day…
The problem here is that, they haven’t allotted proper time for each appointment (probably greedy to cash in on the tax filing spree).
Would never go back again.