Fischer, Carrillo & Associates

Fischer, Carrillo & Associates are a local tax and accounting firm whose marketing materials claim that they are "industry leaders in the Income Tax, Accounting and Business arena." The following text was written by an FCA principal:

With 15 Years Accounting Experience, 13 Years Tax Industry Experience, and 12 Years Management Experience, they are suited to meet all your needs and are able to handle your situation promptly and effectively.

Fischer, Carrillo & Associates provides individualized service for all businesses and individuals in a suite of business services. FCA handles every form in Tax Preparation, will Amend Tax Returns to find you more money in past tax seasons, and provides Superior Audit Representation. Furthermore, FCA can help you Create Corporations, offer Business Consultation, provides Sales Tax Reports and Accounting Bookeeping Services. Lastly, you should consider FCA in helping you create your Revocable Living Trust and Pour Over Wills.

2007-01-13 20:45:54   You can get coupons for services here and here —RichardCarrillo

2006-02-25 11:45:53   If you are looking for friendly people that you can trust, this is the right place to go! —MargaretaLelea

2007-02-04 09:40:39   The Yahoo group DavisFreecycle was also apparently spammed by the same group. I say apparently because we don't know whether either of these acts were done as a conscience business decision, or by a disgruntled ex-employee or customer. I'd suggest getting more facts before boycotting them. Lots of strange stuff happens on the web. —GrumpyoldGeek

2007-02-05 00:43:32   An apology was issued to the people that recived the unsolicited email. I'm satisfied with that, as long as it doesn't happen again. —RyanCastellucci

2007-02-04 13:45:10   The links section of the DavisFreecycle group also had a link added to taxzappers.com —RyanCastellucci

2007-02-04 16:51:20   It would have been nice if they had put some sort of "commercial email" header or title on the mail, but I don't think they were obligated too, and I see no reason to boycott them. The message is polite and was sent to people that it is likely to be relevant to, so I think it is an example of not bad commercial email. —NickSchmalenberger

2009-04-30 21:58:01   Guy Fischer is a nice guy. He was able to see me on short notice during the busiest time of the year for tax pros. I can't report anything bad about the service really— although I was dissatisfied, I did have a rather peculiar tax issue. Every other client of his I saw seemed really happy, in fact there was this sense of relief on their faces, which I take as a good sign. I ended up having a dispute about my return, but he settled it quickly and to my satisfaction (although I think he was pretty annoyed with me) At least he was honest and true to his word— an excellent thing in a professional. If you need help on a run-of-the-mill, the IRS-is-out-to-get-me sort of problem, I'd recommend him. —bpwhite

2011-04-08 13:02:04   I highly recommend Guy Fischer. I had always done my taxes on TAXACT before, but this year my taxes became more complicated so I decided to get them done by someone who knew what they were doing- and Guy Fischer definitely did. His price was very reasonable- $175- considering I had 5 W2's along with other various other bank and tuition forms, and had gotten married this year and we were filing jointly. He saw me on short notice in April, and had my return ready for me (with a bigger refund than I could have gotten myself) in 3 days. I'm highly satisfied with my experience, and will be going back next year. —WhitneyMarie

2012-02-05 11:25:29   I had Guy Fischer do my amended 2010 tax return, as well as my return for 2011. As a foreign postdoc who is now a resident alien, I had to pay back my federal taxes retroactively because I've been in the country two years. I am sure many others will be in a similar situation. Rather than figure out the amended return myself, which was quite complex and would have taken a good while, I left my data with Guy on a Monday, and the four returns (two federal, two state) were ready to be mailed the same Friday. Total fee was a highly reasonable $225. Not only that, but Guy is local, and an affable, friendly face. I can highly recommend his work. —jamesegraham

2013-06-04 02:32:27   Don't go here! Guy Fischer did not return our phone calls or e-mails. He made a $16,000 mistake on our tax return. He figured that we owed $20,000 in taxes. Instead it was actually $4,000. He did not apologize and blamed it on hitting the wrong key late at night. It took him six weeks to prepare our return. And we ended up having to file an extension. He blamed it all on family problems. Well Guy, "if you are not able to do the return, give us back our $1,500 and our files." Don't keep telling us that you will have it ready "next week, this week, in a few days." The entire experience was extremely aggravating!

2013-06-22 11:22:57   My experience was almost identical to the comment above.

Mrs. ProfessorHedgehog and I used Guy Fischer for our taxes last year and were very pleased. Our tax return was handled in a timely manner, and the cost — $300 — was reasonable and easily covered by the tax return Mr. Fischer helped secure for us. He even found a mistake in our tax return for the previous year, and he also provided advice about common mistakes that attract the unwanted attention of the IRS. We were happy with his work and had every intent to use him again.

This year, my wife and I contacted him in the middle of March, hoping to secure his services again. He emailed me back and said he would file them, but subsequent emails went unanswered. Eventually, Mrs. ProfessorHedgehog and I went by his office and were able to catch him face-to-face. He said that he had been very busy, but had also suffered a personal tragedy that had forced him to be out of town for an extended period, right in the middle of tax season. Mr. Fischer said that he would handle our taxes, but that because of his backlog, he would need to file a tax extension. Sympathetic and trusting, we concurred.

Into April, we hadn't received a follow up from Mr. Fischer — which was a little disconcerting, because at our initial meeting, he hadn't taken any information from us. I, the trusting fool I am, believed that everything was fine; Mrs. ProfessorHedgehog impressed upon me the importance of stopping by and checking, just to be safe. I stopped by on April 15th, Tax Day, just to be certain everything had gone through — and lo-and-behold, Mr. Fischer had completely forgotten to file an extension on our behalf. He swore he'd do it that day, and we scheduled a meeting two days hence for me to come by with our collected paperwork and hash out the details. We met, I handed over my tax forms, and he said he'd have the return done to within two to three weeks. He also pointed out that, if we did owe taxes, the filed extension would ensure we owed interest. I accepted this as the price of business, but Mrs. ProfessorHedgehog was very displeased — the only reason we had filed an extension was because Mr. Fischer had needed one for personal reasons!

This meeting was the last time I talked or received any message from Mr. Fischer. I started to try to contact him in the middle of May, a month after tax day and a week or two after he had projected he would have our taxes done. He has never responded to any of my numerous emails or telephone calls. He was also not in his office at the different times I stopped by to try and talk to him face-to-face. Eventually, my wife and I went with another firm.

Suffice to say, Mrs. ProfessorHedgehog and I were very dismayed by our experience here, and cannot in good conscience recommend Mr. Fischer's services to anyone. —ProfessorHedgehog