COLORADO TAX CENTER

I originally submitted a review on 7/15/2013, and wanted to add an update. After not hearing back from Rick despite repeated attempts to contact him throughout 2013, I started working with the BBB in an attempt to get reimbursement for what I had to pay another accountant to file an amended return.Rick did not reply to repeated attempts by the BBB to contact him, so they eventually closed the case. His business now has an unresolved complaint in the BBB files.Do yourself a favor and don't risk using this company.

We thought everything was going very well because prices were good and as far as we knew everything was completed properly. Boy! were we wrong. Rick performed services for us over the course of several years. We started to worry a little when we received a letter from the Colorado state department saying that a report turned in had some wrong numbers -we showed Rick and he said no problem that he would take care of it and he did. That was only the beginning. After that letter about a year ago we have had two other state reports with similar problems and had an IRS audit that was also caused by his improperly completed forms. At this point Rick was a very difficult man to reach and very rarely ever returned our calls. The IRS auditor advised us it would be in our best interest to find a new tax person because everything incorrect with our tax return pointed directly to Rick Ward. Needless to say we do have a new accountant (we made sure this one was a CPA). Rick is a very nice person and he was cheap but he has cost us a lot of penalties, interest and headaches along with having to pay unexpected corrected taxes owed over $1,000.00 at an unexpected time. The scary thing is that we could still be called out by the state department  and, or the IRS on other reports/ forms that he completed for us. We will pray and keep our fingers crossed for the next 5 to 7 years that everything else is correct.

I'm very sorry to have to write a bad review about Rick, but
since he won't return my emails or phone calls, I feel like I should share my experience.
I enjoyed working with him and was impressed with him during
our meeting. However, weeks after I'd filed my taxes, my domestic partner found
what he thought was an error in my return. I wrote to Rick about it, and spoke
with him on the phone about it, and we had a number of conversations where one
of us didn't have the appropriate files with us, so this back and forth process took a couple months.
Eventually I sat down and really studied my return, and it now seems obvious to
me that he made an error in copying the information from my previous year's
return (prepared by another accountant) into the current year. That
(presumably) incorrect information ended up being filed as part of my return.
 
When I wrote to him again to tell him I was now pretty sure he'd made an error, he didn't reply.  I've sent him several emails and
left a couple of phone messages over the past couple of months and he still hasn't replied.
I don't consider an error that horrible a thing, and I bear responsibility for not noticing it before he filed the return
as well. I'll probably need to file an amended return (since the error isn't in my favor) and I wanted to talk to
him about that. I do consider him not returning my calls and emails about this issue to be a very bad thing, however.
I'm very disappointed, since I thought I'd found a good accountant I could use for many years to come, but I obviously won't be going back to him now.
 

I would say that the job was completed in time,  I found the professionalism to be lacking a bit.  Once I went to Parker to meet him to complete my taxes and he forgot the file in Castle Rock.  That was a pain due to the fact I had to come back.

He is a nice guy, got us in quickly, and did our taxes quickly.  We will definitely us him again.

Company was very responsive with initial contact and subsequent contacts. Erin, office manager,  was very friendly and customer oriented. Rick, one of the accountants, was very professional and provided insight to complete my returns which included investment transactions, high deductible health plans, HSA and partial residency questions.  I wouldn't hesitate in using this company again in the future.

Within one hour we walked out with our returns E-Filed, and copies in hand.. Our returns are not simple due to many interest gains, and
stock sales, donations. Rick does an outstanding in the face of the tax rush.
We could not be happier with our experience, and will be back next year.

Answering the question about whether or not the individual performed services was a tough one, because really, he did NOTHING!  Also, we did not spend a dime, because..HE DID NOTHING!
We first met with Rick Ward on Feb. 13th in their Castle Rock office.  Meeting went fine, and he made it sound like he would have no problem doing our tax preparation.  Two weeks later I sent via e-mail the other information that he would need for our taxes.  Up until that time, we had heard nothing back from him.  After sending this e-mail, we also got no response.
Approximately two weeks after this, which is now a full month since our first visit with Mr. Ward, we had still not had any contact with him or Colorado Tax Center.  We then called them 3 times before we got a response from anyone associated with this company.  The first call came from a young lady who said that he was about to finish up our return and he would be calling shortly. Still, NOTHING!  So my wife left a message saying that if he didn't call back that she would go to the Sheriff's Office and get someone to accompany her to their business to get our tax information back.  Amazingly, Rick Ward then called her back in about 5 minutes!
Again, he said that he was almost done with our taxes.  My wife said that she was coming by to pick up our information, and he said that he wasn't sure where our information was, and that he may taken it to the Parker Office.  She said that she would come to the Parker Office the next day to pick up our information.
Later that night, I received a call on my phone from Rick Ward, and from the questions he was asking, it was obvious that this was the first time he had looked at our documentation since our first meeting!  So, even though he had been telling us that he was almost done, he had NOT EVEN STARTED ON OUR TAXES!
Amazingly enough, when my wife went out the next day to pick up our information so that we could have someone else now do our taxes, he was STILL TAKING NEW CLIENTS!  Couldn't find any time to do our work, but STILL TAKING NEW CLIENTS!
We will NEVER use Colorado Tax Center again, and quite frankly, can't imagine why anyone would.

I was able to schedule an appointment within a couple of weeks of calling and met Rick at their Parker office. I had to wait until April to schedule my appointment b/c I was waiting on one last form to come in the mail. My taxes were done within a hour and a half and I ended up getting a better refund than I thought I was going to get when testing it out with turbo tax. I feel much better going to a professional than just guessing on some of my taxes with online software. Overall he did a great job and I will be back. 

Great experience !  Very knowledgeable, professional, and organized.  They sent out a worksheet ahead of time so that we had time to find receipts for lots of possible credits.

I called Rick to help me do my income taxes. After going through a divorce last year, I wanted a professional to go through my taxes with me. Rick did a great job of helping me find deductions and even found some errors in my last year's tax return. He was fast, professional and very nice! I would definitely recommend his services!!

I contacted Rick at around 10:00 am on September 13th and asked him if he would be able to put together a tax return for my small business on short notice.  The IRS deadline for the return was on September 15th so I really didn't have much time.  Rick asked me if I would be able to meet at 7:00 pm that night and I was ecstatic.  My previous experience with having my small business taxes done has been me dropping off my information and having to wait for days to hear back so when I met with Rick at 7:00 pm and he said we would have them completed and in my hand before I left that night I was stunned.  Rick walked me through the process and asked a lot of questions about my business to make sure that we had covered everything.  He even made specific recommendations regarding how we could save more on our taxes by making simple changes to the way did our bookkeeping.  That kind of advice is invaluable to a small business owner struggling to make it in this economy!  From start to finish the entire process took about 1.5 hours and I was out the door with my return having been electronically filed with IRS and my copy in my hand.  I really don't know what I would have done without Rick's great service!

We showed up at Rick Ward's office on 6/2/11, left our records, and he delivered everything to us on 6/3/11.

Outstanding service. The price was great, used to pay $400+ for a CPA to complete my returns. Setup an appointment over the phone, and got in the next afternoon, Wow! Rick Ward actually did our taxes while we watched his computer screen. He caught a few items I had not thought of, and best of all he e-filed the three returns, and we left with our copy.. Done, no waiting, no going back to his office, it was a GREAT experience. Year round professional, not a seasonal tax jockey! Small office, but then again I don't want to pay for a fancy office... Highly recommended! Accurate! I am still amazed the experience could that easy and quick...