San Francisco Bay Area residents are a unique bunch, in so many ways. Being one of the top-rated CPA firms in the city, we have many diverse clients, from all walks of life and with all types of financial issues. Among the issues that frequently come up is the tax refund. You can boil down the dilemma to this: on the one hand, withholding enough from your paycheck is a kind of ‘forced savings’ of your money vis-à-vis the government, and on the other hand, having too much withheld is a type of free loan to the government. Oh, and don’t forget, there can be tax penalties for not withholding enough.
The Complex Tax Situation of San Franciscans
Many of our clients have very complex taxes. Many, for example, are small business owners, and may have both W2 income and ‘flow through’ income via the S corporation. Still others are partners or owners in partnerships or C corporations, and have yet a different income stream. And still others are advanced in years, and have many trust, estate planning, and other types of tax issues.
A completely different type of client is the young entrepreneur. With the Bay Area – not just San Francisco but 
Oakland, Marin County and of course Silicon Valley – a hotbed of entrepreneurship, we have many clients who have little income in the early years, and then fantastic sums of income as their start-ups mature. And we have still others who work for start-ups for pennies on the dollar, but receive compensation through stock options.
As a respected, top-rated CPA firm for start-ups in San Francisco, we are able to plan with our clients not only about refunds but also about more strategic tax planning issue.
In sum, for most of our clients, whether or not they’ll get a tax refund is the least of their problems. Their taxes are a lot more complicated than that, and they come to us for serious advice and assistance.
That said, you can read an informative overview to the issues of withholding and tax refunds, in the April, tax tips bulletin, here.
