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The best part of the QCD for some of my clients is that it may result in less social security income being taxable.

Today the IRS CID and the Eugene Police Financial Crimes Unit visited an EA located several miles from me. Supposedly she had been taking funds from her payroll client's checking accounts, comingling the funds with her own money and spending it on personal expenses without making the payroll tax deposits for her payroll clients. Whenever I read stories like this, I am always amazed. How did they ever think they would get away with something as obvious as this ???

My personal position would be I am not beholden to anyone other than my client, or a court I am subject to. Meaning, I would provide required and allowed things to my client, or to a court, and not to any third party, not even my client's attorney. What the client does with the information is up to them, and not "on" me. I actually get this all the time, when someone asks how to provide a pay stub to a lender. It is up to the employee to handle, no employer should be providing documents other than to the tax agencies, a court, or when required, to the employee.

Is there a reason/rule which you are using to keep data from 7 years ago? I get it, tax data is different than what I deal with daily, but my philosophy is to not keep data longer than required since it cannot be used against you... Where I am going with the question is to try to separate client "want" from professional "required" to. I just find it odd when someone says I have my returns from 10 or 20 years ago, or all I have ever filed. My take on the OP is someone is fishing, maybe for helpful testimony in this case, but fishing is still fishing. I would make no response other than under the advice of my own representation.

Let the attorney (for whomever had the subpoena issued) know there will be a fee and present it to the attorney for payment. IMO it does not matter that your appearance is required by the court; you should be paid for your time and knowledge.

My questions are the same as Tom's. If I'm subpoenaed, how can I charge when it is a court order to appear? i did not volunteer to be a witness or anything else. I was given a heads-up that the possibility exists, and the court date is set for February. I will do as Max said and get the copies of the circular 230 ready. I have been deposed before in a wrongful death claim for my father and hoped I would never have to go through that again. I can't testify to what the guy actually did with the insurance proceeds. All of this is to prove he replaced a multi-family rental unit that fell to a catastrophic loss (fire), that was part of a pre-nuptial agreement, with other property making other said properties part of the pre-nuptial agreement and not on the table for the divorce. I have nothing but worksheets and not even the tax returns as the transaction occurred in 2014. Because I had nothing to do with the bookkeeping, bank accounts, receipts or other records, I have no idea why this even involves me. For all I know he could have bought the other said properties with funds from who knows where. My personal take, there is significant real estate on the table, close to 30 properties, along with other assets, and it sounds like the soon to be ex-spouse is taking him to the cleaners. Another twist to add. The guy gave verbal permission for his attorney to contact me regarding any items he, the attorney, may need. Provided me the attorney's name and phone number as well. I wrote down nothing and did not agree to give out any information unless there was a signed disclosure statement. In this case, I think I will require the disclosure statement to be notarized.

Stupid is as stupid does....

No and No. There are no deductions for unreimbursed employee expenses under TCJA, until it sunsets or Congress votes it down. A qualified performing artist is an entertainer/performer, such as a singer, actor, musician, or artist. See the flow chart and Line 10 instructions: https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i2106#f64188v01 Your client can work with his employer to establish an accountable plan for expense reimbursements to receive nontaxable reimbursements that will be deductible by his employer. Win-Win. Help them out by providing information. Here's one source: https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2020/feb/employee-expenses-accountable-plan.html

Before being called as a witness, you would either be deposed, or sent an interrogatory, or possibly both. Since thery are looking for documents, the interrogatory is what is usually used. It gives the person more time to dredge stuff up out of memory. However, in your case you had nothing to do with the documents, are not required to keep copies of clients records and not even required to keep copies of their tax returns. So, get out your copy of Circular 230 and dog ear the pages pertaining to the keeping of records and returns and highlight the pertinent phrases. This should be enough ammunition to send the attorneys looking elsewhere.

From IRB 2012-11 8. Retention of Records Proposed §1.6695-2(b)(4)(ii) required that a tax return preparer must retain the records described in §1.6695-2(b)(4)(i) for the period ending three years after the later of the date the tax return or claim for refund was due or the date it was filed. All tax returns for the LLC's should be kept by the company permanently, not by the preparer. You may not want to volunteer any additional information as others have mentioned.

Make sure to see if your state still allows employee expenses as an itemized deduction. NY decoupled from the TCJA rules and does allow the deduction.

D, My Guru was in yesterday all day cleaning (dusting the insides of) and updating all of my computers. He told me that in 2 years our Window 10 computers will be obsolete junk. I asked him about your issue and he said that most of your Windows 10 programs will work with Windows 11; but it will not be possible to update Windows 10 computers in the future. Therefore, if I were you and buying a new computer, I would opt for Windows 11. He said that he has been using it for 2 years already and he works on a lot of 10 computers; including mine. Just a tidbit for you to mull over.