Page 1 |
Previous | 1 of 6 | Next |
|
This page
All
Subset
|
Responsibilities in Tax Practice by Neil R. Bersch The author's remarks are based on his participation as a member of the Tax Division of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and its Committee on Responsibilities in Tax Practice. As such, they are based on the feelings and experiences of many tax practitioners. Your responsibilities in tax practice include a responsibility to the firm, to your client and to the Internal Revenue Service, as well as to yourself. By now you are familiar with the five Responsibilities Statements issued by the Tax Division of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. These statements discuss such things as when you should sign a return, use of estimates in tax return preparation, and other responsibilities. You may be wondering why there have been only five Responsibilities Statements issued by a committee that has been functioning for over eight years—that deserves some explanation. The committee has very carefully considered every proposed responsibility statement. They have taken their assignment seriously and, before issuance, each proposed statement receives careful scrutiny by the committee members individually and as a whole; scrutiny not only as to the substance but also the precise wording. This has resulted in as many as 28 or 29 drafts of a proposed statement and three to four years in the development. The committee is presently working on three more proposed Responsibility Statements that I want to discuss because of their significance in terms of tax practice today. Advice to clients The first one deals with the question of Advice to Clients. It originally started out as "Follow-up on Advice to Clients." But after rehashing this several times, there were a lot of people who said, "We're not sure we have any responsibility to follow up or update advice previously given to clients so let's eliminate any inference in the title to'Follow-up'." What happens when you give written or oral advice to a client on a particular matter and subsequently the code or regulations change or a case is decided which is contradictory to the position that you have taken? Do you have the responsibility to get in touch with your client? And if you have the responsibility, for how long do you have it; an hour, a week, a day, a month, a year? Does it make any difference whether the advice was oral or written? Let me give you an example of a very disturbing actual instance which occurred in a reported case. 11
Object Description
Title |
Responsibilities in tax practice |
Author |
Bersch, Neil R. |
Subject | Tax consultants -- Professional ethics -- United States |
Citation |
Tempo, Vol. 16, no. 2 (1970, summer/fall), p. 11-16 |
Date-Issued | 1970 |
Source | Originally published by: Touche Ross, & Co. |
Rights | Copyright and permission to republish held by: Deloitte |
Type | Text |
Format | PDF page image with corrected OCR scanned at 400 dpi |
Collection | Deloitte Digital Collection |
Digital Publisher | University of Mississippi Library. Accounting Collection |
Date-Digitally Created | 2010 |
Language | eng |
Identifier | Tempo_1970_Summer-p11-16 |