[vitd]

Indeed you do. Many years ago I had a business. One year the state decided to audit my business. No biggie, I had paid all my taxes as required. Except I hadn't. My business was located near a big box warehouse and you could order on the website and go pick it up. This was when almost all online orders were claimed to be "tax free". I did that for a few hard drives and some other stuff. I ended up owing about $150 in back taxes and penalties because I hadn't manually figured out the sales tax I was supposed to pay and reported it. I was a little annoyed at my accountant whose reaction was, "Yeah, nobody pays that, though technically you're supposed to." Needless to say, I have a new accountant.

[debacle]

That's a strange mentality. Many good accountants will weigh the chance of you getting audited + fined against the ROI of an "oversight."

Your accountant was probably trying to save you money.

[dpark]

> Many good accountants will weigh the chance of you getting audited + fined against the ROI of an "oversight."

"Good" is a questionable descriptor here. I would think that a good accountant should follow ethical rules, which would exclude the possibility of knowingly breaking the law to under-report taxes.

[brianwawok]

Except which accountant will get more business.

a) Hey I have a cousin Vinny. Great account. Knows every single rule and is always ethical. I sleep great at night

b) Hey I have a cousin Jen. Great accountant. She found all kinds of crazy savings, saved me $1000 last year.

People know in their heart they should go for the honest guy. But hey, saving money.. who can pass that up?

[Navarr]

Businesses. People who understand the risk, etc.

Knowingly and intentionally not paying a tax by falsifying records probably does not sit well with the Internal Revenue Service.

IRS can and has disbarred CPAs based on ethics [1].

[1]: https://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/Certified-Public-Accountant...