When you change cpa's

[Wayne02]

We are considering changing the cpa that has done our taxes for the last four years. Is there any protocol or professional agreements whereby the new cpa requests the clients past records from the old cpa like the doctors do? We of course have all the past records as well and could provide them to the new cpa to copy but I was just curious if tax accountants are set up the same way as physicians in terms of transferring client history?

Thanks

[Ohio dreamer]

When we lived out of the US DH's company paid to have all our tax work done. In the middle of our assignment DH's company changed tax preparers. No records changed hands. We had to start all over again from "scratch" with the new company. I don't know if that is true of all companies, but the new tax preparers (that we did like much better) said that records didn't usually follow the client (which seemed odd to us).

[Alice In TX/MO]

Our CPA doesn't keep copies of our stuff; he gives it back after he's done the prep.

You should have copies of the tax returns in *your* files. That's all you'd need for the new one.

[KIT.S]

The old accountant may not cooperate, so it's best for you to get a copy of your detailed depreciation schedule to give to the new accountant, but most of the rest of the information needed will be on your tax forms, or you will be asked specific questions.

Really, what we usually need most is the depreciation detail.

And we always keep copies of all our client forms and information for at least 3 years for x-clients, and forever for our still-current clients. Shelves and shelves of storage files. It would be very odd for the accountant to not have permanent files. There are peer reviews that inspect files for completeness and accuracy.
Kit