EIN and Invoice Itemization

[ericleve]

I recently did an amended return for a client who is going through a bitter separation. The court ordered her to amend her return and allow her ex to claim one of their 2 children as a dependent. She did her own return initially, but came to me for the amended return because she wanted to make sure things were done correctly. Her ex has been ordered by the court to reimburse her the fee for the amended return.

I did the work and presented the invoice, which my client paid me for, no problem. She in turn presented the invoice to her ex, and his lawyer, and they do not "agree" with the price, even thought the court order did not stipulate they needed to pre-approve the preparer or the fee.

So after all that, here are the questions:

1) Am I required to give the ex's lawyer my EIN, even though the invoice was well below $600.00?

2) The lawyer wants an itemized copy of the invoice, am I required to supply this to him or should I give it to my client and have her provide it?

I have no problem giving the itemized invoice because it is all legit, I am just worried about privacy issues and whether I need to be the one sharing this with a third party.

Also, the request for the EIN seemed strange to me. Your thoughts on this are well appreciated.

[veritas]

The attorney did not pay the bill.

So no EIN. Plus the request should be done with a W9.

Secondly I would send the attorney a bill for "researching" your invoice if he insists. I learned that lesson from my ex-attorney.

[Roland Slugg]

My thoughts pretty much echo the ones from veritas above.

Don't forget who your client is ... the woman/wife. You should deal ONLY with her ... not her husband, and not her husband's lawyer.

[ericleve]

Thanks

That pretty much was what I was thinking, but I just wanted to verify that thinking. Thank you.