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Individual Tax Services Agreement

Dear Client:

Re:  2010 Personal Federal and state income tax return agreement
 

We appreciate the opportunity to work with you. To minimize the possibility of a misunderstanding between us, we are setting forth pertinent information about the services we will perform for you.

We will prepare your 2010 Federal and Oregon individual income tax returns from information you furnish us and we may process them with an outside computer service. For an additional fee, we will prepare any other state returns (or returns for any other state) you request from us. We will not audit or otherwise verify the data you submit, although we may ask you to clarify some of the information. We will furnish you with questionnaires to help you gather and organize the necessary information for us, in order to keep our fee to a minimum.

We must receive all information to prepare your return by March 25, 2011, to ensure that your return will be completed by April 15, 2011. If we have not received all of your information by March 25, 2011, and your return is not completed by April 15, 2011, you may be subject to late filing or late payment penalties.

It is your responsibility to maintain, in your records, the documentation necessary to support the data used in preparing your tax returns, including but not limited to the auto, travel, entertainment, and related expenses and the required documents to support charitable contributions. If you have any questions as to the type of records required, please ask us for advice in that regard. It is also your responsibility to carefully examine and approve your completed tax returns before signing and filing them with the tax authorities. We are not responsible for the disallowance of doubtful deductions or inadequately supported documentation, nor for resulting taxes, penalties and interest.

For tax years beginning in 2000, the IRS has provided that an individual taxpayer and his or her spouse, if applicable, may authorize the IRS to discuss the taxpayer’s tax return with the person who signed the taxpayer’s return as the return preparer. The authorization is granted by checking the “yes” box in the signature area of the tax return. By checking the “yes” box, you are granting the IRS permission to contact our firm with questions that may arise during the processing of your return. You would also be granting our firm the permission to (1) provide the IRS with any information that may be missing from your return, (2) call the IRS to inquire on the processing of your return or on the status of your refund, and (3) respond to any IRS notices that you have provided to our firm relating to mathematical errors, offsets, and return preparation. Please note that our firm will not receive separate copies of IRS notices; therefore, you must provide our firm with copies of any notices you receive from the IRS. Once elected, the authorization cannot be revoked. The authorization is valid for one year after the due date for filing the tax return.

We are responsible for preparing only the returns listed above. Our fee does not include responding to inquires or examination by taxing authorities. However, we are available to represent you and our fees for such services are at our standard rates and would be covered under a separate engagement letter.

We will use our judgment to resolve questions in your favor where a tax law is unclear if there is a reasonable justification for doing so. Whenever we are aware that a possibly applicable tax law is unclear or that there are conflicting interpretations of the law by authorities (e.g., tax agencies and courts), we will explain the possible positions that may be taken on your return. In accordance with our professional standards, we will follow whatever position you request, as long as it is consistent with the codes, regulations, and interpretations that have been promulgated. If the IRS should later contest the position taken, there may be an assessment of additional tax plus interest and penalties. We assume no liability for any such additional penalties or assessments. In the event, however, that you ask us to take a tax position that in our professional judgment will not meet the applicable laws and standards as promulgated, we reserve the right to stop work and shall not be liable to you for any damages that occur as a result of ceasing to render services. In this case we will be entitled to retain your deposit to reflect the work done on your return.

If we are asked to disclose any privileged communication, unless we are required to disclose the communication by law, we will not provide such disclosure until you have had an opportunity to argue that the communication is privileged. You agree to pay any and all reasonable expenses that we incur, including legal fees, that are a result of attempts to protect any communication as privileged. In addition, your confidentiality privilege can be inadvertently waived if you discuss the contents of any privileged communication with a third party, such as a lending institution, a friend, or a business associate. We recommend that you contact us before releasing any privileged information to a third party. Our privacy policy can be accessed on our website.

Interim billings may be submitted as work progresses and expenses are incurred. Our minimum fee is $250 for the personal income tax return. We require a deposit of $175.00 at the time we begin preparation of your tax return. The remaining balance will be payable upon completion of the tax returns. Any other billing arrangements will be agreed upon before we start the work. Costs to collect, including reasonable attorney’s fees, will be added to any outstanding invoices. We reserve the right to stop work for non-payment, if applicable, and we shall not be liable to you for any damages that occur as a result of ceasing to render services, including penalties and interest.

It is our policy to keep records related to this engagement for 6 years. However, Baker & Company, P.C. does not keep any original client records, so we will return those to you at the completion of the services rendered under this engagement. When records are returned to you, it is your responsibility to retain and protect your records for possible future use, including potential examination by any government or regulatory agencies. You should also retain documents that support items carried over into open years, such as cost basis information, nondeductible IRA's, net operating losses, etc. By your signature below, you acknowledge and agree that upon the expiration of the  6-year period we shall be free to destroy our records related to this engagement.

If any dispute arises among the parties, they agree to try first in good faith to settle the dispute by mediation administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Rules for Professional Accounting and Related Services Disputes. All unresolved disputes shall then be decided by final and binding arbitration in accordance with the Rules for Professional Accounting and Related Services Disputes of the AAA. Fees charged by any mediators, arbitrators, or the AAA shall be shared equally by all parties. In agreeing to arbitration, we both acknowledge that, in the event of a dispute over fees charged by the accountant, each of us is giving up the right to have the dispute decided in a court of law before a judge or jury and instead we are accepting the use of arbitration for resolution.

If the above fairly sets forth your understanding, please sign the enclosed copy of this letter and return it to us.

Also, please indicate, by circling the appropriate response in the following sentence: I hereby grant/do not grant (circle one) limited authorization for your firm to contact the IRS on our/my behalf as discussed in the above letter. If you fail to indicate a response, it is our firm’s policy to mark the box that DOES grant authorization.

We are pleased to have you as a client and look forward to a long and mutually satisfying relationship.
 

Click here for Corporate Tax Services Agreement