Legal Question in Business Law in Tennessee

I recently started working for a small business accounting company. One of our clients is going through a divorce and has a small business. He is the 100% shareholder. He requested that we don't send his wife the corporate returns. His wife is a legal assistant at a law firm. She asked for their tax records. The owner of the accounting company had me send their joint returns but told me to tell here that the corporate returns were sent to the shareholder. We got the husband's approval after the wife's divorce lawyer threatened us with a subpoena, fines, etc. I received a subpoena 2 days ago requesting all of his tax records. We are putting a packet together in hopes of getting out of the middle of this. My question is how far can the wife take this with our company? All we have done is file his companies taxes for 5 years. He does his own books, payroll, etc. How much is too much before the company I work for can seek legal action of their own. It seems as if we can only give what we have and after that it starts to border on harassment and prevents the normal operation of our business and the attention we need to give our other clients. Looking for legal advice to try and get the best possible outcome for myself being the name on the subpoena and the company. I don't see any reason as to why we should be drug through the mud of their divorce.


Asked on 10/17/13, 8:47 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
James R. Becker, Jr. Becker Law Firm

Really, the only thing the wife (or her attorney) can do is require you to produce the records that are subject to the subpoena. Once that information is produced, that is usually all there is for your involvement. It is possible that someone could be required to give some form of testimony explaining what the records mean, but that is the extent of it.

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Answered on 10/17/13, 9:49 am


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