The most important thing about representing a client is – know at least as much about them as the IRS does.

Don’t ever put yourself in the position of being embarrassed, after putting together your client’s financials or tax audit workpapers – only to learn that the IRS knows about income or assets your client has not disclosed to you.

How do you make sure this never happens?

1) Get a signed power of attorney from the client and/or spouse and/or partner
2) USE the POA to request every possible kind of transcript there is for the year(s) in question – third party reports of income and expenses, master file records, account Read More