Recovery of Personal Tax Files from Professional Firm
My question involves a consumer law issue in the State of: California
I recently had a so-called "professional tax firm", not a lawyer, negotiate a payment plan with the IRS for myself. I have asked this firm to send me a complete copy of my file with all communications and notes concerning my case. Their response was "As for sending you the entire file, we can not do that." Do I have any legal rights to my file that they have on record?.
Also, if they have recorded conversations with the IRS concerning myself , do I have a right to receive these recordings?
Thanks for any information.:)
Re: Recovery of Personal Tax Files from Professional Firm
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diamond2x
My question involves a tax law issue in the State of: California
I recently had a so-called "professional tax firm", not a lawyer, negotiate a payment plan with the IRS for myself. I have asked this firm to send me a complete copy of my file with all communications and notes concerning my case. Their response was "As for sending you the entire file, we can not do that." Do I have any legal rights to my file that they have on record in their company files?.
Also, if they have recorded conversations with the IRS concerning myself , do I have a right to receive these recordings?
Thanks for any information.:)
Why do you think that phone calls with the IRS were recorded, and what do you think is in the file that you need? Quite frankly, I would be surprized if any firm would record phone calls with the IRS, and notes wouldn't necessarily be kept once an action was completed. Many firms are going paperless and only scan in what they truly need to have on file.
Did you use one of those national firms that advertise on TV? If so, ouch.
Re: Recovery of Personal Tax Files from Professional Firm
I am not 100% positive there are recorded phone calls, but my case worker told me the phone calls with the IRS are not completely transcripted word for word to my file, which would tell me they have something recorded to transcript notes off of. I could be wrong. Even if they don't keep a hard file of my case they would still have a computer file on me and I want a copy of this.
Does anyone know if I have a legal right to receive a copy of this?
Re: Recovery of Personal Tax Files from Professional Firm
Why won't they provide the entire file? Is it because you haven't paid your bill?
Re: Recovery of Personal Tax Files from Professional Firm
They must return to you any and all records of yours that are necessary for you to comply with your Federal tax obligations. That would include any documents or materials provided to the tax practitioner or obtained by them in the course of representing you. It also includes materials provided to the practitioner by third parties. They also have to return to you any claim for a refund, schedule, affadavit, appraisal, or any other document they prepared "if such document is necessary for the taxpayer to comply with his or her current Federal tax obligations".
Pages 18 and 19 of IRS Circular 230 cover these obligations: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/pcir230.pdf
Re: Recovery of Personal Tax Files from Professional Firm
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Mr. Knowitall
Why won't they provide the entire file? Is it because you haven't paid your bill?
IRS Circular 230 covers practitioners who deal with federal income tax matters. Practitioners cannot cite non-payment as a legitimate reason for withholding records a taxpayer needs in order to comply with the federal tax laws. Other workproducts and records not required to comply with the tax laws are a different story.
Re: Recovery of Personal Tax Files from Professional Firm
Let's say I hire you to prepare my tax return. You do so and tell me, "That will be $200." I say, "Nonsense, I'm not paying. Now give me my entire file." Do you truly believe you have to hand over the return you prepared, at no cost? Of course not. That would be work product, and as you admit there is no obligation to turn over that type of work product (or certain other records) when your client doesn't pay you.
Re: Recovery of Personal Tax Files from Professional Firm
My bill was paid over a year ago.
Re: Recovery of Personal Tax Files from Professional Firm
The other question was "Why won't they provide the entire file?" - have they given any sort of explanation?
Re: Recovery of Personal Tax Files from Professional Firm
Here is a quick overview of why I want my complete file. In the file their are notes with dates and what was asked for by the IRS. I had a problem with them not following through in a timely matter and subsequently the IRS placed a lien against my savings and checking account. The money was eventually released back to me (all of it, 100%), but this caused me to bounce checks (all checks have been taken care of now). I want the tax firm to pay the bounced check fees. They had the info the IRS wanted but never sent it in. Their excuse was, "We are a busy firm and have many clients to represent,if you didn't owe the tax to begin with this, this would not have occurred. So we are not responsible."
I believe, my file with their note will prove that they didn't follow through in a timely matter.
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aaron
The other question was "Why won't they provide the entire file?" - have they given any sort of explanation?
This has been their response twice now, "As for sending you the entire file, we can not do that."
Re: Recovery of Personal Tax Files from Professional Firm
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Mr. Knowitall
Let's say I hire you to prepare my tax return. You do so and tell me, "That will be $200." I say, "Nonsense, I'm not paying. Now give me my entire file." Do you truly believe you have to hand over the return you prepared, at no cost? Of course not. That would be work product, and as you admit there is no obligation to turn over that type of work product (or certain other records) when your client doesn't pay you.
Please re-read what I said. I can withhold my work product. I cannot withhold any records you provided to me, or provided by third parties, that are necessary for you to comply with the tax laws. It's all in Circular 230, at the link provided on the pages referenced. If the tax return was actually electronically filed with the IRS by the firm, then yes, a copy would have to be provided even without payment. However, most firms will not file the return until they are paid for this reason.
I would personally consider notes, records of conversations, and so forth to be work products in the representation of a client before the IRS. They were produced as work you were paying for. The definition of "work product" would be a legal question as it relates to a non-attorney such as a CPA or EA.
If I were the OP I would have my attorney send a demand letter on his letterhead giving them some time period in which to produce copies of all work products for which you paid, i.e. the contents of your file. They can charge you for making the copies. The attorney will charge you. It may cost you more than you would recover from them. But I tend to require people to be accountable for what they do as a matter of principle. You'll have to decide what works best for you since their present position is refusal, and to force the issue will certainly cost money. If they did in fact mishandle your case with the IRS you may consider suing them for recovery of what you paid them.