R&G Brenner
Reviews and Complaints

I was charged almost 50% more for my taxes this year without any prior notice of a fee increase. When I called the Valley Sytream office to speak to Louis Arena, that's the name I was given by my accountant to complain about the rise in fees, the "manager" answering the phones, Annmarie, would not let me speak to him. Very rude and unprofessional.

***For all who left good reviews, I implore you to double check your tax filings or have another professional do so. If R&G Brenner made a mistake that causes you to owe interest and penalties, they will not refund you for that nor your preparation fees.***

Dennis Grogan made a mistake on my 2018 return. It was quite an egregious oversight, though I understand accidents do happen. What really has me concerned for other clients is that it was only my own thorough review of my return months after it had been filed that caught the mistake. In addition, the company's response was extremely lackadaisical, uncoordinated and downright rude. I reached out to Dennis several times over the course of a month questioning the discrepancy with no response. It wasn't until I contacted corporate that I received a response. The issue was resolved through an amended return, which resulted in me owing additional taxes as well as interest due to the original error.

As a follow up to my lack of faith in RGB's return preparation, I requested that a new preparer review my previous three years returns to see if there are any other issues. His process let me with even less faith, as I received a call saying "someone asked me to look these over, what specifically do you want me to look for?".

To add insult to injury, the company's management was incredibly rude throughout this ordeal. Here are a few email excerpts from Louis Arena, General Manager (keeping in mind that I was the one who found their error months after they had submitted a faulty return on my behalf):
- "Your current tax return was amended, as you stated, therefore that issue has been corrected and no refund is merited. I am not even going to entertain the premise that we should pay for a 3rd party to redo the work we have done that is correct. If there is something specific with the prior year returns you want to review with us please let me know what that is."
- "The tax liability and interest is your responsibility, so there is nothing for R&G Brenner to do. In prior emails you were insisting that you were going to find another CPA firm to do your taxes. I strongly encourage you to find that firm and take your business elsewhere. Too much time and effort has been extended on this issue"

Although the company refuses to refund my preparation fees or interest penalties and reimburse me for a third party review of previous years returns (which I still worry could have similar issues lurking), my biggest concern is that ***hundreds or thousands of other R&G Brenner clients who don't review their own returns may have similar undiscovered issues in their returns and may owe a lot of taxes, interest and penalties to the IRS (which R&G Brenner will not reimburse).***

Consumer Beware

They did a really crappy job on my return. A majority of the return was entered incorrectly. It was either someone else's numbers or made up. It resulted in me having a zero refund and I wasted more money going to another tax preparer to fix this company's mistakes. I tried for many months to call my tax preparer to fix the problem and they basically ghosted me. Avoid this place at all costs.

Omg absolutely the most horrible unprofessional people ever! I had no idea their incompetence was so extraordinarily wide spread and that they have used the same tactics on all of us. The run around, no return phone calls, blaming the victims of their incompetence. (you can be sure that those cheerleaders are their vulgar crude employees writing in.)

I had a fool list me as deceased while I was sitting in front of him! Then for the next year & a half I thought I was dealing with identity theft because for the following year I was unable to get a credit card and my credit rating went to zero, I contacted everyone trying to find out if it was identity theft. Then I couldn't file taxes, it was assumed irs that I was committing fraud because I was "assuming a dead persons identity"! These people are monkeys in suit and ties and they are equally as well mannered.

After agreeing to refund me they ran me around and then refused to, saying I waited a year to tell them, never mind that I didn't know until the problem was fixed by social security who investigated and I never knew they where the problem! Then they faulted me for not wanting to accept their offer of free services, which are of such poor quality they carry a substantial financial and emotional cost. They are truly [censor], malicious in their follow up interactions and have no they have no scruples. They happily screw customers over customers for a few hundred dollar and give no thought to their reputation... I guess because they haven't got a good name or reputation to lose.

Joe Gallagher totally lied to me. He represented himself as a tax attorney and I have since found out his was disbarred. R & G Brenner should be held accountable for his misrepresentation to his clients. I was a client from [protected] and was financially ruined by his deceptive practices. Yes he has gone to jail for his own tax evasion and now he has passed away. I just finished paying off the IRS for his and R & G Brenner's negligence. The company had to be complicit with his employment practices. Would love to be involved with class action. May be too late now.

Same here with joe gallagher and a total nightmare. Although I recognize that I am culpable, I was young and stupid and put my faith in a man that spent less than 10 minutes doing my taxes while he mostly talked about his celebrity chef clients and his upcoming island holiday.

I am going to do some real work to see what the options would be for a civil suit.

I will join a class action suit. Same problem here--total nightmare. Realize I am culpable for signing but was young and stupid and spent most of my 10 minute appt listening to him talk about his celebrity chef clients and his upcoming island holiday . . . Doing some real work now on what our options might be.

My husband and I are now being charged over $7K in back taxes to the IRS thanks to Joe Gallagher. (This is for 2012 taxes). We paid over $36k in taxes due to his incompetance/audit from 2010 and 2011. Is there anyone contemplating a class action suit against R&G Brenner and Gallagher. If yes, i'm joining. This nighmare is still ongoing and its 2015!

Joe Gallagher was disbarred from legal practice and was recently sent to prison for falsifying his personal tax returns. See http://www.northjersey.com/news/crime-and-courts/tax-preparer-from-rutherford-sentenced-to-three-years-for-falsifying-or-failing-to-file-returns-1.554926