Client Reviews of Lynne E. McClure, EA

Run the other way! Lynne McClure instructed me to grossly over pay my CA taxes, and grossly under pay the IRS, by tens of thousands of dollars. It was a financial catastrophe that occurred along with a 2 year IRS audit. She took no responsibility for her mistakes and I had to go to small claims court, San Mateo County, where I was awarded the penalties (Sept. 2016). She was awarded her fees, which I learned was common practice. Please realize that if you get terrible advise, and that advise causes you harm, that there is little recourse in Small Claims Court (so hire a great firm from the start that has a reputation of standing behind their work). Even if you get bad advice, the advice was given, and you have to pay for it. Lynne McClure mishandled the IRS audit telling me to offer to pay 10k or 20k to the IRS to settle!! She also spent a good bit of each meeting with me trying to shame me for my methods of record keeping. She complained about doing her work while charging $300 an hour. I had to put up with it because of the audit, not wanting to switch representation and start all over again at great cost. It was annoying, and very insensitive, given I couldn't change the past. But when I realized how untrustworthy she was, and that she wouldn't stand behind her work and offer to pay for the penalties of her newly discovered mistakes, I had to hire a professional CPA to represent me to the IRS, even in the middle of an audit. I learned the difference between EA and CPA. It was costly and emotionally draining to start all over again. The hourly rate for a very experienced CPA firm was the same, or less (when averaged between the team) than what Lynne McClure was charging. Tom Duffy and his team, of Wubbles and Duffy in San Jose handled the audit and my taxes stood as filed and I owed nothing to the IRS (letter from IRS Nov. 2016). W and D were also very knowledgeable, kind, and professional; nothing like my other experience. In Small Claims Court Lynne McClure lied under oath. The court recognized she lied, and awarded me the penalties. She also used a problematic relationship of mine, picked up from prior friendly conversation about life, to try to defame my character in court; which had nothing to do with why we were there, and was untrue. If she had spent as much time correctly figuring out my prepayments as she did trying to defame me, she may have gotten it right. I have hesitated to write such a review for fear of what this dishonest woman might do now. And I don't want others to go through what happened to me- to find her true nature when they are in the hot seat of an audit, or paying the consequences of bad advise. I did not know her nature for many years, until her morals and business ethic were tested. Nightmare! Beware!