| Waiver of Liability for Phone Consultations |
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| Waiver of Liability for Phone Consultations |
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If you will send me an email describing your questions, and if I can't easily answer your questions over the phone, there is no charge for reviewing your question.My lawyer strongly recommended that I quit giving tax advice to people over the phone because the legal risk to me is far greater than the small fees I may receive for an hour or less of consultation. To give proper personal tax advice, an attorney or accountant needs to have a detailed understanding of the clients personal and business circumstances as well as an in-depth knowledge of their past tax returns and financial information. That's reasonable for clients with whom I will be doing extensive work or will be preparing tax returns. It's not reasonable for a person who is simply seeking clarification of some aspect of the tax law.The problem arises when a question about the tax law turns into a request for personal advice, in the form of "What should I do?". If you are a client and if I have the detailed information described in my client checklist , I am willing to give you a written or verbal opinion as what you should do with respect to some tax problem. But if you are not a client (meaning that I don't have all the due diligence information described above) and haven't spent two or three hours getting acquainted with you, then I can't "put myself in your shoes" and give you personal advice. Therefore, for those who are seeking clarification of some aspect of the tax law and are willing to sign a waiver of liability (below) , I will ignore the advice of my legal counsel and will continue to offer help to people over the phone and without the benefit of all the background information that is needed to give personal advice to a client.What that means is that I will express my understanding of the meaning of the tax law, and how I believe the IRS would construe the law, based on the available information. But I will
not
give you personal tax advice -- I will not tell what you should do.
If this is not acceptable, then you can either look for another source of help, or if you want my help, you can provide me with two years of your tax returns, a detailed financial statement, the information in my client checklist and then meet with me to get acquainted. If these waiver conditions are acceptable, please sign the waiver of liability below and fax it to me (or send a scanned copy by email), with your credit card information including the full billing address (with zip code) for that credit card and a phone number where I can reach you. I also need to have your email address. (Please note that our merchant service only accepts Via or Master Card.) The credit card information is not necessary if you have subscribed within the past 25 days.I will attempt to answer your questions to the best of my ability. However, my responses will be limited to the information you provide and may not be accurate if you have not provided all of the pertinent or critical facts relevant to that issue. What you will get is my opinion as to how I think the IRS is most likely to interpret a transaction involving the facts you provide. If you want a brief phone consultation with me, you must agree to waive any claims for possible or alleged damages in excess of the fee you have paid me as a result of reliance on any information provided to you and you must agree to not treat any information provided to you as professional advice.
If there is any possibility that you may have some unreported income
from past international transactions, you should read my memorandum
(before
you call me) on the limitations of the
accountant-client privilege of confidentiality and you should consider consulting with an attorney before you divulge any confidential information to me.
If you want to retain me to answer some kind of question about international tax law, please sign the waiver below and send it to me via fax to (913) 432-7174. If you don't have a fax machine available to you, you can scan the information below and send it to me via email to my wife at marciajacobs1@me.com I would appreciate, but do not require, an email describing the questions you wish to ask so that I can be prepared to respond or so that I can inform you if I will not be able to provide an answer to your questions -- in which case it would not be necessary to charge you for an unproductive consultation. Please fax the statement below to 913-432-7174 Waiver of Liability for Phone Consultations I would like to retain you to answer some questions, by phone, regarding the meaning of certain parts of the U.S. tax law with respect to certain international transactions. I understand that your answer is limited to a discussion of the pertinent law and that you will not advise me as to the suitability of the transaction for me, my family or my company. I also agree that if the information you provide should prove to be incorrect in any manner, my recourse will be limited to the amount of the fee I have paid and that you will not be responsible for any consequential damages to me, my family or my company. Signed _______________________________ Date _______________________ Name _______________________________ Phone (_____)________________ Address ____________________________________ City___________________ State ____ Zip ________ Email _______________________________________ CC # _______________________________________ Expir Date ______________ (Visa or Master Card only) |