Vol. 28, No. 2 #1 (April 2005). Practicing Law vs. Preparing Tax Returns: A Calculated Decision.

• Author: By Mary Angell

Wyoming Bar Journal

2005.

Vol. 28, No. 2 #1 (April 2005).

Practicing Law vs. Preparing Tax Returns: A Calculated Decision

WYOMING LAWYER April 2005/Vol. XXVIII, No. 2 Practicing Law vs. Preparing Tax Returns: A Calculated Decision By Mary Angell

Several attorneys who could be CPAs spoke with the Wyoming Lawyer recently. While they find their backgrounds helpful in their law practices, they agreed they're happy not to be crunching numbers today. "A lot of accounting practice is just doing a lot of returns, and I didn't find that particularly exciting," said Cheyenne attorney Scott Meier. "Now I do mostly estate planning and business planning. No day is ever the same. There's always something new."

Meier, with Hickey and Mackey, was a CPA for 12 years. He worked for Coopers and Lybrand (now Price Waterhouse Coopers), a large accounting firm based in Denver, Colorado, and Dallas, Texas, before deciding in 1993 to attend the University of Wyoming College of Law.

While he is still a member of the Wyoming Society of CPAs, his status is inactive.

"I don't hold myself out to the public as a CPA who does audits or tax returns," he said. "I have a few select clients I do tax planning for, but I don't do the tax crunch."

Although John Masters, now an attorney with the Cheyenne firm of Hathaway and Kunz, was once a CPA, now he doesn't even do his own taxes.

"There's a misconception that because you have gone through accounting school you know tax code, that you read it every night before you go to bed or something," Masters said. "That's not true. Accountants more frequently deal with business."

"Fifty years ago, it was fairly common for attorneys to do tax returns for their clients because fewer people needed to file a return," he said. "And those who did consulted their family lawyers."

"A lot of older attorneys regret having lost that element of business," said Masters. "I don't. Taxes are very complex. Unless you're going to spend a lot of time doing taxes or doing one small area of tax law, it's very tough."

Masters graduated with honors from UW with an accounting degree in 1975 and passed the CPA exam the same year. He worked for McGladrey, Hansen and Dunn in Casper for less than three years.

"It was a large regional firm and a good group of people," he said. "I spent the years doing taxes during tax season, and the rest of the year...