Attorneys Audit Technique Guide
Monday, August 8th, 2011
The IRS published the Attorneys Audit Technique Guide to help examiners audit an attorney’s tax return. However, the document is not an official pronouncement of the law or the position of the IRS, and cannot be relied upon as such.
The Guide notes in part that:
- the identity of a client and the nature of his or her fee arrangement generally is not protected by the attorney-client privilege.
- attorneys who base their fees on hours worked plus case-related costs should be able to provide detailed records of their time and costs since that is how they bill their clients.
- attorneys working on a contingency fee basis use either a gross fee contract (where court costs, expert fees, etc. are deductible business expenses) or a net fee contract (where expense advances are treated as loans until settlement).
To view the entire Guide, click here. If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at 561.394.5100 or sberger@kaufmanrossin.com or any Kaufman, Rossin professional.
—–
Scott F. Berger, CPA is a tax principal at Kaufman, Rossin’s Boca Raton office. Kaufman, Rossin & Co. is one of the top CPA firms in the country. He can be reached at sberger@kaufmanrossin.com.
Category Value For Your Employees, Value for your law firm | Tags: Tags: Accounting, attorneys, attorneys audit technique guide, CPA, IRS, Kaufman, Kaufman Rossin, law firms, lawyers, Rossin, Scott Berger, tax, tax law, tax return,
Many law firms, large and small, hold funds in trust (or escrow) for their clients. These funds can be entrusted to you for a very short term, or for quite a long time and the amounts can be substantial. But whatever the circumstance, make no mistake, you are responsible for the security of those funds.
