James M. Cha, CPA & Company, Professional Corporation - Los Angeles, California

Clarissa D.

(This review is overdue!)
I was reluctant to hire a 3rd party without a direct recommendation but Mr. J. Cha, Janice & the whole team were very welcoming and YES they helped me every step of the way from start to a triumphant finish! She worked so diligently (minute details) to not only reduce my bill but to significantly almost zeroing it out (with my case). Hallelujah huge weight off my shoulders!! Do yourself a huge favor and hire them. Thank you.

Paul G.

An amazing experience, and I am incredibly satisfied with the result!

I’ve been looking for an accounting firm to not only handle my taxes, but also help me set up a corporation for my own private company. I Had previously been referred to an accountant from a number of my colleagues. However, There was a number of issues and I decided to continue looking. For a company that was more professional. Luckily for me, it did not take long for me to Find Janice Cho.

Janice. as well as her staff at tax wise, were incredibly professional, and extremely helpful. They clearly took the value of my time into account when dealing with me. The entire process from start to finish took approximately 2 1/2 weeks.
I paid half upfront, and half when everything was filed and prepared. Their work was efficient, effective, and prompt!

I would like to once more mention the level of customer service and professionalism embodied by this company, these are attributes that seem to have been lost in this day and age. The staff at tax wise clearly has not forgotten what customer service means. I Will be utilizing them for all of my tax purposes in the future, and I recommend anyone reading this do so as well.

Seunghyuk Y.

Filing my tax returns with James and his staff was a pleasant experience. The staff was always warm and welcoming, the team was super responsive by phone or email. James is very knowledgeable about tax laws and explained to me in a way I could understand. I also got a refund that I wasn't expecting. I highly recommend him.

Jason L.

Had a very productive meeting with James and team! I am a freelance designer and he is helping me with incorporation. He was clear about services provided and offered good explanation for any questions that I had.

It was simple to book an appointment, and his team is organized and very friendly. He is professional and also candid and nice to talk to!

Matthew M.

James and his staff are nothing short of phenomenal! Very friendly and professional but most importantly he knows what he is doing! I have recently started using James within the past 2 years and compared to my old CPA, its a different world. In terms of pricing, definitely worth every penny!

What I love most is how accessible he and his staff are to me as a client. They are a great team and I would def recommend them for anyone looking for a CPA!

kirk K.

James and his staff were terrific and exceeded my expectations.
Reasons James and his staff are received such a favorable rating are as follows:

1. He actually returned my phone call from my initial contact with James office. That may not sound like a big deal to some, but I was not one of James clients at the time.

2. Professionalism... Once my taxes were complete, James reviewed them with me. His ability to educate me on how to handle my expense transaction and paperwork were refreshing. After my experience, I actually was looking forward to implementing James' cataloging system.

3. KNOWLEDGE... Very difficult to understand, unless you experience for yourself. While reviewing my taxes it was only then, I realized what I had been missing in an accountant. James is not the ordinary accountant that can recite IRS rules and regulations, but he actually understands them and applies them.
In simple terms, I felt as though I had the IRS, a tax attorney, and an Accountant all at once. I feel like I cannot put into words James's knowledge of the tax code and actually making it work for you. I entered into James's office with a mess of paperwork and left with a complete tax plan.

4. From my initial visit, James provided the date and time my taxes would be completed. I left his office thinking he was incorrect. To my disbelief I received a phone call from James personally on the date and time he provided on my initial visit to notify me my taxes were complete. Old school business (he actually does what he says.. great concept!)

5. Money... I went into James's office thinking this is going to cost me a bundle of money for hiring a widely-respected account such as James. In reality, James' ability to know tax structure actually saved me more money on my taxes than I could have imagined.
In simple terms..., I felt like I was undercharged for his service.

6. STAFF... James's office staff was not just a staff of part-time workers shuffling papers.
They were a qualified group of highly-educated professionals. They knew every portion of my tax information without having to stop to look at my file. I felt as though this was an army of tax assassins on a mission.

In closing, James is the only accountant I trust from now on.
Trust is something that was not my objective by hiring James,
but became the cornerstone of my professional relationship with him.
You will not be disappointed in James

Jisu P.

I do not recommend James Cha for filing individual/personal tax returns. As someone who decided to hire a professional instead of doing it myself with TurboTax. I made a horrible mistake. I will admit that James is knowledgeable however the ordeal and their service is abysmal since they only care about your money. They are not first-time friendly. They provide no checklist to make sure you haven't left anything

I provided my tax documents to James and his associate Janice stayed in contact with me. After they filed my taxes, James made me review them and I was very skeptical due to the amount of money I owed (roughly 4k) for state and federal. However, James and Janice are suppose to be experts in this line of work. So I signed it and spoke to various people about the situation. By recommendation, I was told to have another CPA review the tax filing and he was about to spot a huge amount that made no sense. After I brought this up to James and Janice. They informed me that this was a bug in the tax filing software. This tells me that they did NO DUE DILIGENCE nor reviewed my tax filing. James Cha was nice enough to filing my amend tax return free of charge for their mistake.

Afterwards, I realized that I forgot to provide an important tax document and let James know. They said that they would charge me for the 2nd amend tax return. Now, I had a choice. Stick with James or go with the CPA that caught the issue in the first place. Since James had my information already, I decided to go with James. That was a horrible decision because the amended amounts were not correct and I received letters from CA and federal of corrections and stating that I was late. When I scanned these documents to James and Janice, all they said to me was the following:
"Be advised that we were engaged only for tax return preparation. IRS or state notice review and follow-up is a separate service, and we have our separate fee on that service. "

This unconventional for a professional service to inform me of a separate fee on this service if this IRS late payment was caused due to the pandemic and the software mistake that I caught and not by James Cha and Janice . All James Cha and Janice did was put in my information into their tax filing software. James handed me all the tax returns stating the amount that I owed without any due diligence. What is the point of paying for their services where I have to pay state and federal over $3600 only to discover that the state and federal actually owed me instead. I had to ask another CPA accountant for their opinion.

TL;DR
-They do not perform due diligence ( I owed over ~3.6k which was false)
-They are knowledgeable
-They only care about your money and will charge you for services just by asking
-State and federal amounts were still incorrect

Bach K.

A few years ago, the IRS sent me a Notice of Levy to garnish my wages. I entered into James’s office with a mess of paperwork and he took a strategic approach to deal with the IRS. Thanks to James, the crushing burden had been relieved. James is the only tax professional I can trust from now on. Trust is something that was not my objective by working with James but became the cornerstone of my professional relationship with him.