Duvall & Associates, Inc.
BUSINESS ADVISOR NEWSLETTER
 

Many factors to consider when picking help for your taxes

- by Alan Duvall 

Published in Dayton Daily News July 30, 2006 

Where to go to get help with tax preparation or simply answer a tax question? 

Consider a call to the Internal Revenue Service via the Web at www.irs.gov/help. Individuals can contact the IRS at (800) 820-1040 and businesses can contact the service at (800) 829-4933.  The advice is free, but there is a price.  The IRS will not be advocates for aggressive tax solutions on your behalf nor can you take their answers for gospel.  IRS answers can be incorrect and other agents are not bound by a co-worker's bad information. 

Where next?  Tax return preparers are excellent sources for tax answers.  But not all preparers are appropriate sources for all inquiries.  Preparers tend to specialize in certain clients and charge fees appropriate to those clients.   

Generally it is best to find a professional focusing on clients that mirror you.  Smaller tax preparers and national chains such as H&R Block tend to focus on smaller to mid-sized individuals and businesses.  Medium-sized local Certified Public Accounting (CPA) firms often specialize in mid-to-large scale regional businesses and individuals.  National CPA firms are geared to servicing very large companies and their top employees. 

Typically, attorneys specializing in tax law are not ardent disciples of tax return preparation.  Such legal professionals are most often confined to engagement of complex transaction issues and document preparation. 

There are also many levels to transaction issues.  Larger firms tend to be better suited to handling more complex issues than smaller competitors.  But exceptions exist, and the industry also accommodates competent independent practitioners. 

Take care when selecting consultants for very sensitive tax controversies.  Non-legal tax professionals are afforded some degree of client confidentiality - but the protection of recent laws has not yet been fully tested.  For issues requiring absolute confidentiality, consider the use of attorneys who enjoy legal extremes of data protection.  If needed, the attorney may hire a non-legal professional as a consultant, thereby crafting a zone of confidentiality in the process. 

It is wise to seek word-of-mouth referrals from confidants in constructing your tax team of professionals. 

 And remember – the professional used for advice need not be the same used for return preparation.

Alan Duvall is a certified public accountant in Dayton.  Contact him at Alan@Duvallcpa.com.