Practicing Law vs. Preparing Tax Returns: a Calculated Decision

• Jurisdiction: Wyoming,United States
• Citation: Vol. 28 No. 2 Pg. 1
• Date: 01 April 2005
• Publication year: 2005
• Pages: 1
• Year: 2005
• topic: Business of Law,Tax Law

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...