To the extent attorneys, like other professionals, provide personal financial advice, they are required by federal law to inform their clients of their policies regarding the privacy of client information. Law Firms continue to be bound by professional standards of confidentiality more stringent. We protect the privacy of client information in accordance with these higher standards. In the course of providing legal services, particularly with regard to income, estate and gift tax planning, we collect nonpublic personal information, e.g., information about your income, assets, and future plans, whether from you directly or indirectly in providing services to you.
We do not disclose any nonpublic personal information obtained in the course of our practice to people outside the firm, except as agreed to by you, or as required by law. We retain records relating to professional services that we provide so that we are better able to assist clients and, in some cases, to comply with professional guidelines. In order to guard the nonpublic personal information of clients, we maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards that are consistent with our professional standards.
Attorneys and accountants are subject to IRS rules that govern written federal tax advice, including emails. These rules are contained in Circular 230 (http://www.irs.gov.pub/irspdf/pcir230.pdf) and were implemented to counteract aggressive tax shelters that were marketed with tax opinions, to help avoid penalties on the basis of taxpayer reasonable reliance. The rules set up strict standards under which such a tax opinion can be rendered and can be relied upon to avoid penalties. Most of the time, the tax advice we render is outside of the parameters covered by Circular 230. In most other cases, the cost and time constraints will make such an “expansive” opinion impractical. Therefore, we will assume that you do not want us to incur the time or expense of providing the “expansive” opinion. In such case the rules require that we inform you that such written tax advice may not be relied upon to avoid penalties. As a result, any written tax advice that we give you (including emails) may include the following statement (or one similar to it):
“TAX ADVICE DISCLAIMER: Attorneys and accountants are subject to certain rules regarding written tax advice, including emails. As required by those rules, we advise you that any federal tax advice contained in this communication (including attachments) was not intended or written to be used, and it cannot be used, by you for the purpose of (1) avoiding any penalty that may be imposed by the Internal Revenue Service or (2) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein.”
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