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Accounting, Bookkeeping & Tax Services in San Jose, CA

Silicon Valley's largest city runs on its small businesses — the restaurants in Willow Glen, the boutiques near Santana Row, the SJSU startups, the tradespeople in East San Jose. B&H handles the books, payroll, sales tax, and business tax behind all of them: one flat monthly rate, and a real person on the phone.

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About San Jose

Accounting, Bookkeeping & Tax Services in San Jose CA

San Jose is Silicon Valley's largest city — more than a million people and a business community as wide as the state. It was California's first capital; the plaza on Santa Clara Street where the first state capitol stood is still a landmark downtown. The city hosts the Tech Museum of Innovation, and San Jose State University, the oldest university in the California state university system, puts thousands of new graduates into the local workforce every year.

Businesses here range from fifty-year-old family shops in Willow Glen and Japantown to venture-backed startups out of SJSU, from contractors rebuilding houses in Almaden Valley to retailers on Santana Row. Each one has a different books problem. B&H — based five miles away in Milpitas and working fully remote — handles the whole range at a flat monthly rate, no hourly billing. San Jose tax preparation has its own page; everything else is here.

The San Jose Community

San Jose's Community Engine

Few cities invest in public gathering spaces the way San Jose does: roughly 16,000 acres of city parkland, the oldest municipal park in California (Alum Rock Park, established in 1872), Kelley Park with its zoo, Japanese Friendship Garden, and History Park, Emma Prusch Farm Park's community gardens in East San Jose, the Children's Discovery Museum, and a 65-mile trail network recognized as the nation's largest.

That community infrastructure is a business engine. Park events, museum weekends, farmers-market Saturdays, and the cafés and markets around them create the foot traffic local merchants run on. And SJSU keeps feeding the other side of the economy — new founders, first-time S-Corp incorporations, and a steady stream of tech employees who land in this city with RSUs and a rental property. Both kinds of clients are who this page is written for.

Why Choose B&H

Why San Jose Businesses Choose B&H

San Jose is a big market. Here's what a small, direct firm does differently.

Five Miles from Downtown

Our office is on Mirabella Ct in Milpitas — under ten minutes from downtown San Jose. Close enough for a face-to-face meeting, remote enough that you never have to plan a lunch break around your questions.

We've Done SJSU Startups and Grandma's Deli

The range of this city's businesses is the range of our clients: brand-new S-Corps with stock options to sort out, and third-generation shops that just need someone to own the books. Same flat-rate discipline for both — only the chart of accounts changes.

Remote-First, Certified in QuickBooks

You upload through the secure portal; we reconcile, report, and file. QuickBooks ProAdvisor certification means the file is built right for lenders and the IRS, and you can log in on any Sunday and see the month is clean.

What We Do

Our Services for San Jose Businesses

Start with one service. Add the rest only when the business needs them.

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Flat Rate Accounting, Bookkeeping & Taxes

One monthly price for whatever you pick — monthly bookkeeping, full accounting, business tax filing, payroll, sales tax, or the bundle. No hourly meter running in the background, and no re-quoting when your needs change mid-year.

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Small–Mid Size Business Tax

From a Schedule C food truck in Berryessa to a multi-entity C-Corp downtown, we prepare and file federal, California, and local returns for every structure in between — with deductions documented before filing, not hunted down after.

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Catch-Up Accounting Services

Unfiled years, missing receipts, an FTB letter you've been avoiding — we've walked San Jose businesses through all three. Bank statements become the source of truth, overdue returns get filed, and the agency correspondence is handled by us, not you.

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Individual Tax Returns

Tech wages with RSUs and ISO exercises, side businesses, rental properties around the Valley — we file them. If a tech employee in North San Jose is wondering how to handle a first big RSU grant, that's a conversation we have all the time. In person, at your place, or through the portal.

QuickBooks Expertise

QuickBooks ProAdvisor in San Jose, CA

Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor means your file is structured the way San Jose's lenders expect to see it — industry-correct chart of accounts, bank feeds automated, and reconciliations that stay current all year, not just at tax time.

Using QuickBooks already and it's a mess? We take over the file and clean up the history. Starting fresh? We set it up correctly on day one. The full outsourced workflow is on our outsourced QuickBooks accounting service page.

Know Who You Need

CPA, Accountant, or Bookkeeper: Which Do You Need?

In a city full of “CPA” search results, here's the one legal line that actually matters.

Bookkeeper

Bookkeeper

Owns the day-to-day: recording transactions, reconciling accounts, keeping records organized — and stops there. No tax return filing, no tax advice, no IRS representation. Pair with an accountant or tax professional for those layers.

Best for: businesses that want clean, organized, up-to-date records.

Accountant / Tax Professional

Accountant & Tax Professional

Books plus the rest: returns, tax planning, payroll, sales tax, and representation before the IRS and FTB. An Enrolled Agent (EA) — the credential behind most of our work — holds the same full IRS representation rights as a CPA, including in audits.

Best for: the large majority of San Jose small businesses. This is what B&H is.

CPA

CPA (Certified Public Accountant)

The licensed attest path: audits, reviews, compilations. Necessary when a lender demands audited financials, when an institutional investor is doing diligence, or when you're on the SEC side of the line. Not necessary for daily books or tax work.

Best for: companies pursuing major SBA loans, institutional funding, or public filings.

The full decision tree — every scenario with an example — is in our CPA vs. accountant vs. bookkeeper guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

San Jose Accounting & Tax FAQ

Which San Jose neighborhoods do you serve?

All of them. Willow Glen, Downtown, Berryessa, Japantown, Almaden Valley, East San Jose, Evergreen, and everywhere between — the service is identical wherever you are, because we work through a secure remote portal. The bonus: our Milpitas office is five miles from downtown, so a face-to-face meeting takes less time than most “virtual” appointments.

Do you support startups in North San Jose or Silicon Valley generally?

Yes — startup work is a big part of the practice. Entity setup, first-year bookkeeping, R&D credit tracking, and the payroll setup that comes with a first hire. SJSU spinouts and garage-stage companies get the same flat-rate treatment; the R&D credit work just gets bigger as payroll grows.

Can you handle business taxes for an LLC or S-Corp in San Jose?

Both. LLCs and S-Corps are the two structures we file most of for San Jose — S-Corp elections, K-1s, reasonable-salary planning, quarterly estimated payments, all handled. If you're deciding between the two rather than asking us to file one, that's a planning conversation we'll have before a structure gets picked.

How long does it take to get started with B&H?

Usually the same week. The first call maps what you need, you set up portal access, and bookkeeping starts on the next cycle. If there's catch-up work — unfiled years, a tangled existing file — we give you the full timeline before we start, so you know exactly what “started” means.

How much does accounting cost in San Jose?

Hourly firms in this market quote $150–$400 for a CPA's time, and a basic bookkeeping retainer runs a few hundred a month before tax work is on the table. B&H quotes one flat monthly number that covers the scope you picked — call 408-256-0339 and you'll know the price before the call ends.

Do I need a CPA for my San Jose business?

Most don't. The only work that legally requires a CPA is attest work — audits, reviews, compilations — typically demanded by a large lender, an institutional investor, or an SEC filing. Returns, bookkeeping, payroll, sales tax, IRS representation: an accountant or EA does all of it at a lower cost. The full breakdown is here →

Specialized Services

More Services for San Jose Businesses

Startup Accounting & R&D Tax Credits

New San Jose company — an SJSU spinout, a garage startup, or a side project that just got real? We set up the entity from day one and track R&D-eligible spend so the credit is there when you file.

San Jose startup accounting & R&D credits →

Business & Individual Tax Preparation

Every return type, every structure, filed at a flat rate. San Jose clients don't hit a tax-season crunch because the work was done month by month — this page covers the rest of the year's work.

Business & individual tax preparation →

Our Flat-Rate Bookkeeping Process

Twenty minutes of your time a month: upload to the secure portal, we do the rest. The guide walks through every step of the EZ Process so you know exactly what you're signing up for.

See how the EZ Process works →

Accountant & Tax Professional Services

Need year-round accounting, not just tax season? Our core accountant service page covers the full scope — direct access to Bill and Hannah, flat monthly pricing, no hourly billing. San Jose clients get the same setup, run remotely from our Milpitas office.

Meet your accounting team →
Get In Touch

Schedule Your Free Consultation

Give us a call or send an email — it's a direct line to Bill or Hannah, not a call center.

Bill Karp

Bill Karp

408 - 256 - 0339

Looking for help with taxes or accounting? We would love to talk with you. Call or email to schedule your free consultation — no pressure, no obligation.

📞 Call Bill ✉️ Email
Hannah Le

Hannah Le

408 - 332 - 2286

Reach out to Hannah directly for bookkeeping inquiries or to get started with our flat-rate monthly services. We're here to help.

📞 Call Hannah ✉️ Email

📧 Email: BNH@BNHTaxService.com

Beyond the Books

Which Kind of San Jose Business Owner Are You?

The one still doing the books at midnight — or the one reading a clean monthly report in twenty minutes? Every service on this page exists to move you from the first to the second: less time on paperwork that adds nothing to what your customers buy, more time being the owner your business needs next.

Find your stage: The Small Business Maturity Evolution →

Too busy to deal with this right now? That's exactly the point — you're too busy because you're churning. Every minute you spend getting us started begins returning dividends within weeks.

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