When is local better? The only time that we would recommend a local tax professional over Washington Tax Services is when a TON of bookkeeping (and I mean a ton of bookkeeping) is going to be necessary to make Profit and Loss Statements. For the record, we have taken on many cases like this: it just requires shipments via UPS, usually.
However, local can often worst especially when "local" is only local in name. A company that advertises on your local TV station, but whose corporate offices are in South Carolina, gives people an entirely wrong impression. In actuality, their firm has temporary offices in strip malls around the country staffed by SALESPEOPLE. There are numerous examples of these fly-by-night offices that are no longer in existence, stranding hundreds of customers.