Recommend a Tex Preparer in San Jose

January 5, 2009 9:47 AM

Please recommend a local tax preparer in the SF Bay area (San Jose preferred). I have a fairly straightforward situation: single, 401(K), charity donations that need to be itemized and some interest income from a money market account.
posted by JDC8 to Work & Money (9 answers total)

My brother-in-law is an excellent CPA (really!) who specializes in tax preparation, but he's in San Mateo, near the intersection of Hwy 101 and Hwy 92. He may also be overkill for your situation, which does sound very straightforward. Nonetheless, here's his info:

Ron Seligman, CPA:

Byrne, Seligman & Co., Inc.
Certified Public Accountants
1650 S. Amphlett Blvd., #124
San Mateo, CA 94402
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Web: http://www.byrneseligman.com/

The web site is fairly generic, but he's a CPA, not a web designer.
posted by mosk at 9:57 AM on January 5, 2009

I am a big fan of turbo tax (I use the online). With your situation, turbo tax could easily handle.
posted by jules1651 at 10:26 AM on January 5, 2009

Another vote for TurboTax. If your tax situation is pretty straightforward, and only includes what you've listed in the question, filing yourself should be a breeze.
posted by lalas at 10:59 AM on January 5, 2009

Hal Friedman
[phone]
2483 E Bayshore Rd # 203, Palo Alto, CA

He's a good guy, and can handle the regular stuff as well as the occasional bizarre situation.
posted by tkolar at 11:06 AM on January 5, 2009

If you still want a CPA (agree that your situation looks as though it might not merit hiring one) Greg Hock is excellent; he has been handling my taxes for ten years or so. (Satisfied customer, no other relationship.)
posted by jet_silver at 1:44 PM on January 5, 2009

I'm also a big fan of TurboTax. I used to pay $250-$300 to get my taxes done, then it occurred to me that I was spending hours summarizing all my deductions and bank accounts on someone else's forms, so what were they doing for me? Probably entering it into a computer program. I could do that. I've used TT for the last 5 years and had no problems so far. If you're feeling wobbly, you can get audit defense insurance through a TT-affiliated company for about $35.
posted by Susurration at 8:58 PM on January 5, 2009

nthing TurboTax. In addition to TT, Intuit writes one of the leading tax prep softwares that professional tax preparers use...why not cut out the middleman and buy the software yourself?
posted by crinklebat at 9:16 PM on January 5, 2009

Are your charity donations and other possible itemized deductions greater than your standard deduction ($5450)?
posted by Jacqueline at 5:13 PM on January 6, 2009

Response by poster: No--the charity deductions are less than that. I guess that I will look into TurboTax or some of the Intuit software.
posted by JDC8 at 8:17 PM on January 7, 2009