Ethics and Equity
An accountant friend of your tell you that he "almost never" does any tax research because he believes that "research usually reveals that some tax planning idea has already been thought up and shot down". Besides, he points out; most tax returns are never audited by the IRS.
Can a tax advisor who is dedicated to reducing his client's tax liability justify the effort to engage in tax research? Do professional ethics demand such efforts? Which approach would a client prefer?
Furthermore, a friend of yours who is a philosophy major overhead this conversation and declares that all tax research is "immoral." She says that tax research enables people with substantial assets to shift burden of financing public expenditures to those who "get up every morning, go to work, play by the rules, and pay their bills."
How do you respond?