Key points to consider when choosing an accountant

Where do you turn if you are looking for an accountant? Some suggest asking friends, colleagues and advisers for potential candidates. But before you do that, take time to assess your needs.

Choosing a suitable accountant should be similar to finding any important family or business adviser. From my vantage point as a money manager who got her start on Wall Street as a lawyer, the most important considerations are skill for the job, working habits, ethics considerations and potential conflicts.

The more income and assets one has, the more important these assessments become. These qualities may not be easy to judge, but here are some tips to get you started.

Skill

How can you judge skill? A simple starting point is identifying any special needs you may have.

For example, if you are an executive with a multinational corporation who is in the United States on a business visa, you would choose a firm well versed in U.S. and international tax law, perhaps one of the largest international accounting firms, such as Deloitte, PwC, Ernst & Young or KPMG. A U.S. taxpayer with modest income might choose a tax preparer with a local presence.

Working habits

Your accountant needs to approach his job in a way that matches your needs.

For example, if you want to be able to make a quick call to your accountant during the year, is that acceptable? Will your tax return be filed on time or on extension? Will the accountant you are interviewing do the work, or will it be delegated to someone else in the office? If the accountant is not available, is there someone in the office who can answer your questions?

CPAs

Does your accountant need to be a licensed CPA? That depends on your needs. A certified public accountant has achieved a level of training. passed examinations and is required to keep up with continuing education requirements.

You can verify a CPA license through the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, which is the national professional organization for CPAs in the U.S. The AICPA has over 431,000 members. Qualification requires having a valid CPA certificate issued by the authority of a state; passing the Uniform CPA Exam; completing 120 hours of continuing professional education every three years; practicing in a firm enrolled in an approved practice-monitoring program; and agreeing to abide by the AICPA Bylaws and Code of Professional Conduct.

Individual states also have CPA societies that are independent of the AICPA. To confirm that a CPA has an active license, you may contact the State Board of Accountancy where the individual obtained his or her license.

A list of contact information, found at https://tinyurl. com/y4coymbf, will help you connect to the 55 states and territories. In addition, you can use the NASBA CPAverify tool (https://cpaverify.org/). Note that the tool does not cover every state.

Tax Preparers

Tax preparers do not need to be CPAs. The IRS has a set of professional standards that tax preparers need to adhere to, according to IRS spokesperson Naweed Lemar. Practitioners can be suspended and disbarred from practicing before the IRS. You can find examples of suspensions online

at the website for the IRS’s Office of Professional Responsibility (https://tinyurl.com/y4o48wls). OPR also handles taxpayer complaints against accountants for misconduct while representing the taxpayer.

Interviews

Interviewing an accountant about his or her depth and breadth of knowledge in your specific area of need will give you some comfort about that person’s ability. That’s basic and a must, explained CPA Bill Wilson, principal of Van Brunt DuBiago & Co. LLC, an accounting firm in Stamford, Conn.

When interviewing accountants,

be aware that there may be potential conflicts in the relationship. For example, an accountant may lawfully receive a referral fee from a financial adviser for referring a client. Ethically, the accountant would have to disclose the fee, and you would have to be willing to live with that conflict.

An accountant who has earned the role of trusted family adviser is hard to replace. It’s worth the effort to find one who will fill that role for you and your family for many years to come.