Discussion:CPA needed to Certify a Schedule C

In the throws of a divorce, my soon to be ex-spouse is now raising the issue of "monkey business," with respect to how I maintain my books. This is pretty ironic considering that I have been filing both business and personal returns for 10 years, and she never had a problem before. "Hell hath no fury greater than a woman scorned," or something like that. I can't say I blame her, since the gravy train is now leaving the station.

In any event, due to the large stakes at hand, I have decided that it is necessary to have my 2005 Scedule C certified by a Las Vegas CPA. In the event that a Las Vegas CPA has no interest in this, I will accept someone to do this remotely, provided that they prepare a statement to the Court on their credentials, experience and methodologies.

I am not looking for a "yes man," here! I want someone to scrutinize my accounting based on acceptable accounting practices. I currently use Quickbooks 99 with the upgraded patches. It should work fine on later versions.

I am currently an LLC which files as a sole proprietor. However, due to my former life as an S-Corp, I also maintain the discipline of reconciling the return with my balance sheet. It's all good, and my rounding is 1!

If there are any takers out there, please email me at isovegas@yahoo.com.

Thanks

GK

PS - I need this fast. The trial starts next Tuesday, but does not finish until next Friday.

The way you are going about this raises so many red flags:

1) Divorce with big bucks involved.

2) Asking the question through an internet forum where there may not even be an LV CPA rather than getting referrals from friends or even opening up the LV yellow pages.

3) If there are no LV CPAs in said forum asking for a non-LV CPA to certify your Schedule C, again rather than getting referrals from friends or even opening up the LV yellow pages.

4) The short time frame you give - how is a CPA (especially a non-LV CPA) going to verify the veracity of the numbers on your Quickbooks file? Just because something reconciles to the dollar doesn't make it correct. You could have left a million dollars off both the tax return and the balance sheet. The implication of being so close to the court date is that you have tried to get LV CPAs using the methods above, but once they have seen your books and supporting documentation, they won't certify your Schedule C.

What's the danger? The CPA certifies your Schedule C and your books aren't clean. Your wife finds out and sues both you and the CPA. The state board of accountancy gets involved if the wife's attorney is smart.

Again, everything may be above board, but the way you are going about this raises lots of red flags. That being said, there are some CPAs out there who will risk their license for a few bucks.

P Gatto offered an excelent advise. My humble opinion. Talk to her to find a reasonable agreement. Be generous Explain her that if complicate legal issues need to be handle by lawyers that will cost a leg and an arm for both of you. Also, worst case scenario: If something happen, she will share her burden in the tax liability .

Thanks for the advice. Fortunately, your suspicious nature is not representative of most of the people I have talked to on this site.

From the perspective of the person being asked to do what you are asking, in the manner you are asking, I MUST "think of the worst case scenarios". And, the reason I could do it "without even trying" was in the way you were asking. Your duty would be to alleviate those VERY REAL concerns. How? For starters, by telling us:

    1) why you have waited so long; and

    2) why you are not asking local people to certify the Sch. C

Now, think further about it. This is an internet forum full of anonymity. People can make any claim they want to. Additionally, many professionals come here to learn themselves. An inexperienced person may read your post and not realize what the issues are; therefore, my concerns would be instructive to that person.

From the way you responded after reading what the liability of a professional would be if you are not being honest, coupled with the fact that in another thread you changed the facts from the above where you are the "gravy train" to the point where your wife now makes more money than you, AND then did not address the inconsistency in either thread after I raised it, well frankly . . .