Client Confidentiality Case Study

Now the following information is well documented and is presented for your review and edification. Do not try to fight the IRS in federal court, you will not win. The deception runs rampant throughout the executive, legislative and judicial branches.

Some of our service users have profound learning disabilities and their level of comprehension and understanding is very limited, however they communicate constantly.

Confidentiality is a concept of vast importance for professionals in the medical field. It is a professional obligation in this field and is considered to be an ethical concept that falls in line with integrity, compassion, veracity, charity, and fidelity as explained in both the International Council of Nurses Code for Nurses (1973) and the American Nurses Association Code of Ethics (1985). However, in today’s ever growing world of technology and demand for information, challenges continue to arise that force doctors and nurses to reexamine virtues such as confidentiality.

Code Summary: Code Section 7525 discusses the rights of confidentiality that a taxpayer would have between his or her tax practitioner that is a federally authorized tax practitioner. In order to be a federally authorized tax practitioner, the practitioner must be authorized to practice before the Internal Revenue Service. The code section states that the communication between the taxpayer and the tax practitioner with respect to tax advice is protected under the same confidentiality protections that would exist between a taxpayer and an attorney. Some exceptions to this confidentiality do exist however. A taxpayer and tax practitioner are not protected if the details of the communication involve tax shelters, which is an investment strategy

This information is being furnished to the Internal Revenue Service. If you are required to file a tax return, a negligence penalty or other sanction may be imposed on you if this income is taxable and you fail to report it.

Code section 7525 generally gives taxpayers protections of confidentiality with respect to tax advice. Since there is no accountant-client privilege under the common law, code section 7525 states that the confidentiality privilege that applies to a communication between a taxpayer and an attorney is applied to a communication between a taxpayer and an accountant as well. Although accountant-client privilege is derived from attorney-client privilege, the protection of the discussion between an accountant and a taxpayer is more limited. For example, code section 7525 provides protection for communications between a taxpayer and a federally authorized tax practitioner, which means that the tax practitioner should be a certified public accountant (CPA); however, all active attorneys are federally authorized tax practitioners. Furthermore, there are two more limits on what matters and communications are covered by code section 7525. First limitation is that accountant-client privilege just applies to noncriminal tax matters before the Internal Revenue Service and noncriminal tax proceedings in federal court, and it does not apply to written communications between a taxpayer and a CPA in regards to the promotion of a tax shelter. For example, an opinion letter that was written by a CPA to a client in connection with a tax shelter is not privileged under code section 7525.

In preparing or signing a return, a member may trust the information furnished by the taxpayer or by third party. Nevertheless, tax preparers cannot ignore the information to be incorrect, incomplete or inconsistent. Further, tax preparer should certain the tax returns related information and consider any confidential limitation that imposed by any laws or rules. Even though there is no need for a member to exam the supporting data, the member is required to encourage the taxpayer to provide correct supporting data. Besides, a member should use a taxpayer’s returns for one or more prior years in preparing the current year tax return whenever

Assist in gathering data and analyzing information for preparation and completion of annual federal and state income and franchise tax returns including quarterly federal and state estimated payments as well as extensions

Upon observation of Precious I became aware of many differences between she and I. I am an upper middle class, 34 year old Caucasian woman. Conversely, Precious is a 17 year old African American woman who lives in poverty. Additional observations about our differences are that I was raised without abuse in my home, while she suffered abuse her whole childhood. Moreover, I observed some less obvious differences between the client and myself. For instance, Precious is socially withdrawn and quiet, where as I am confident and extroverted. Furthermore our education level is very different. Precious struggles with educational delays and just achieved a seventh grade reading level, while I have my bachelor’s degree and am working toward my master’s degree.

The ethical requirements protect confidential information and only disclose such information as mandated by law or where committed by law for a valid purpose (APA, 2005). In this particular case, the social worker chose not to break confidentiality without her clients consent because there was not a valid purpose in doing so according to her code of ethics in her profession. Had she complied with the court order, she would have gone against her professions ethical code and could have faced punishment and possible loss of licensing. The justice system could not force the social worker to testify because there was no imminent danger involved.

Sec. 10.28 of the Treasury Department Circular No. 230 states that the practitioner must return any records of the client that are needed for the proper compliance with his or her tax obligations. The practitioner may not refuse to comply with this section even if the client has not paid for the services provided. In such case the practitioner may only return the documents necessary for filing of the return but must still provide a reasonable access to any records the client may need in order to comply with the Federal tax obligations. “Any records” include all electronic and written documents previously provided to the practitioner by the client as well as any information prepared by the client or a third party in the process. This term also

Seidman addresses an IRS summons issued to an accounting firm for documents related to work the firm performed for a corporation under IRS investigation. Among the documents the IRS requested was a log containing the identities of investors in potentially abusive tax shelters. The investors petitioned to intervene and assert that revealing their identities was a violation of the tax advice privilege. The Seventh Circuit affirmed the district court’s denial of the investors’ claim, holding that the investors failed to show that confidential communications would be revealed if their identities were disclosed to the IRS. Because federal regulations require that accounting firms maintain

Everyone is entitled to confidentiality unless they give permission for someone else to see their information or they can no longer make decisions on their own (for example, if they are confused or comatose). A federal law, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act applies to most health care physicians and its guideline, known as the Privacy Rule. The Privacy Rule sets specific rules regarding privacy, access, and disclosure of information. For example, HIPAA specifies the following:

“With liberty and justice for all.” Now this all too familiar clause is often forgotten like the toils of soldiers on the battlefield, repeated ad nauseum throughout the echoing literature left by our founding fathers and throughout the annals of history. America has been shown to persevere through the greatest of trials truly reflecting the American patriot’s desire to not only uphold freedom, equality, justice and humanity, but also to remember the faint yearning whispers of the oppressed crying out “Let freedom ring!” According to Michmerhuizen the Attorney-Client Privilege means “The concepts of lawyer confidentiality and Attorney-Client Privilege both concern information that the lawyer must keep private and are protective of the

Question 10. 10. (TCO 11) The privilege of confidentiality applies to a CPA tax preparer concerning the client’s information relative to (Points : 2)