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Posted by R. C. White on September 19, 2007, 9:46 am
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Hi, Una.
>>When I was a sole practitioner in a small town in Oklahoma, with my
>>practice
>>limited to taxes, I subscribed to "tax services" that cost me over $4,000
>>a
>>year - in the 1980s.
>
> Hm. A CPA practice limited to taxes? Meaning, not bookkeeping? Were
> most
> of your clients businesses (for profit, nonprofit?) or persons?
First I got 20 years experience as a "generalist", doing bookkeeping,
auditing, management advising - and taxes. Then my partnership decided that
I would be the "tax partner" for the firm. Among other things, I became the
chairman of the taxation committee for our local chapter of the CPA society
and president (and one of the founders) of our estate planning council. So,
when I moved from California back to my native Oklahoma, I had not signed an
audit report in a few years, but I was pretty confident of my tax
qualifications.
My small town had no "specialists" of any kind, not even a pediatrician.
There were 2 dozen lawyers in our town of 7,000 (40,000 in the large
county), but they all said things like, "I don't know anything about taxes;
I just handle divorces." It seemed to me that the town NEEDED a tax
specialist. I did not accept any auditing engagements and did only enough
bookkeeping for my tax clients to get the numbers for their returns. Much
of my tax practice did not involve preparation of returns, but advice on
estate planning, divorce settlements, business buy/sell transactions and
such. (And there were a lot of amended returns to correct errors made in
prior years by the taxpayers or their previous tax preparers. Sometimes
these claimed refunds; other times they required more tax payments, but they
allowed my clients to sleep better, knowing that their tax histories were in
order.)
>>Your best source of word-of-mouth advice to choose a CPA might be the
>>attorneys that you know.
>
> Now that is a problem. The only local attorney I have dealt with did
> something I think was totally uncool. I had a general question about
> state law, that happened to relate to a real estate transaction I was
> entering. The attorney asked who the other party was. The other party
> was the estate of a dead guy. The attorney said no problem, there was
> no conflict because the attorney did not represent the estate. But,
> the attorney did represent the estate's executor, and principal heir,
> and did not tell me that.
>
> I live in a very small town. Choices are limited. Expertise also may
> be limited, but on the other hand many people have medical expenses.
In addition to the other small-town aspects, there is this: Many of my most
eligible prospects in Poteau would rather take their tax work to Oklahoma
City or Tulsa - or to Stigler, just to avoid "baring all" to a neighbor.
That was OK with me, because I had many clients from Stigler who came to
Poteau for the same reason. Substitute your own town names and you should
be able to find a qualified CPA within a reasonable distance.
>>Sorry for the long post, Una. But if you hang around this NG much, you'll
>>see that many of my posts are like this. ;^}
>
> No problem. I see you think a lot and for some reason you'd rather
> think about work than gardening or breeding fluffy lap dogs. :-)
> And I understand the appeal of Usenet: you can work exactly when and
> as much as you want, with next to zero aggro. If only we got paid
> for it, life would be perfect.
My wife is the gardener - but I help. ;<)
> Well, I'll keep working on finding a CPA and/or attorney. Tedious but
> probably worth it.
>
> Una
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