CPA/client privilege within reach: did you know that, under current Ohio law, you could be forced to reveal the most sensitive information your client has shared with you? Though it doesn't happen often, it could. And that's a problem for CPAs and all Ohioans.

• Author: Benton, Barbara
• Position: Inside THE STATEHOUSE

Many businesses and individuals in Ohio believe financial discussions with their CPA, the person with whom they trust their most sensitive problems, concerns and opportunities, are protected in the same way their conversations with their clergymen or their admissions to their physicians are: through professional privilege.

But they aren't. Professional ethics regulations provide for strict confidentiality, but if push comes to shove and a court action is pursued--perhaps by someone challenging a will or fishing for a competitor's business strategies--that CPA whom the client has depended on for years of personal and/or business financial guidance can be forced, via a subpoena, to tell all.

Nobody would disagree that clients need to be able to fully rely on their CPA for financial advice. But until Ohio law changes, the tax problems, business opportunities, or any other deliberative discussions they want to run by their most trusted financial adviser are subject to subpoena should a civil or criminal case arise. In the meantime, though Ohio CPAs rarely receive such subpoenas, the mere fact that it could happen keeps too many Ohioans from sharing critical details that could impact their financial statements or audit result. Too many people miss opportunities to learn how to expand their business, or get help filing that 2006 tax return they never got around to.

House Bill 578, introduced in May 2008, would fix this problem. Sponsored by Rep. Bill Batchelder (R-Medina) and cosponsored by 13 other state representatives, the legislation will create a...