Accounting Malpractice:
My Accountant Screwed Up My Taxes.
What Can I do to Protect Myself?
Mar 12, 2010
You’ve had the same accountant for decades. He’s always been someone you could trust to handle your finances, but mistakes can happen. Were they done on purpose and, if so, what can you do about it?
First of all, it’s important to understand what’s happening. Accounting malpractice happens when there’s been an omission, error, or any kind of deviation from the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, or GAAP, that results in the loss of money for the client or something worse.
Under the law, an accountant has committed malpractice in several ways, including steering away from the GAAP or when the accountant’s negligence has caused significant damages or some other negative outcome for his or her clients.
Let’s look at the deviation first. There are standards that are recognized as professional, proper procedures in accounting. Under these standards, accountants have duties to their clients to follow these standards in preparing tax returns and other financial reports. Clients should have the expectation of getting an honest and fair accounting of their finances which follows tax and other laws. There can be simple negligence in which an unintentional error is made or there can be gross negligence when the accountant purposely deviates from these standards for whatever reason.
Legally, however, more than just a mistake needs to be made in order for an accountant’s actions to be deemed malpractice. It must be proven that there are negative ramifications, such as legal or financial. Before considering a malpractice lawsuit, you may want to think about how much it will cost to take the matter to court in comparison to what you actually lost financially.
Some mistakes that can be considered malpractice include: billing fraud, manipulating reports for personal gain, and advising or giving bad information on tax laws.
These types of lawsuits are often complicated and can take a long time to resolve because of the forensic investigation that must be done in order to prove your case. That can be devastating to your finances if your money has been lost to an unscrupulous accountant. There is help for those who need the money now from a lawsuit you’d most likely win in the future.
It’s called lawsuit funding and it can provide money within a day or two for everyday bills or expenses.
A leader in lawsuit funding is Lawsuit Hotline because it has experience in this arena and has a large network of funders from which to draw your advance. With its vast resources, you can be approved for advances for more than $1 million, and all it takes is a 2-minute application and a review of your case by the funders’ underwriters.
These underwriters will determine the strength of your case and determine whether it’s a winnable one. They will use the lawsuit and related documents to make its decision. There is no credit check and you don’t even have to be working in order to get an advance. It all depends on your chances of winning.
This is a good option for people who have been financially harmed by their accountant and need cash right away. And it’s as easy as visiting Lawsuit Hotline.com.