For Accountants
You already know what the client needs. What you need is a lawyer who understands the structure, will give a straight answer on the tax consequences, and will not try to take the relationship.
A significant part of our work is referred by accountants. The arrangement that works is the plain one: you keep the client relationship and the compliance work, we give the legal advice and prepare the documents, and we report back to you.
Why the referral tends to go well
Our principal, Haas Kaplan, is a lawyer and a Certified Practising Accountant who worked in accountancy before practising law. That has two practical consequences for you.
The first is that you do not have to explain the structure. Unpaid present entitlements, Division 7A loan accounts, family trust elections, streaming, small business concessions and the difference between a deed that permits something and a deed that merely does not forbid it are the vocabulary of the conversation rather than the preamble to it.
The second is that we will tell you the tax consequence of a legal step before it is documented, not after. A deed variation that triggers a resettlement, or a restructure that clears the federal hurdle and lands on state duty, becomes your problem at the next lodgment. We would rather raise it with you while it is still a draft.
We are not looking to become the client's accountant. We are looking to be the lawyer you can hand a deed to without a briefing.
What accountants send us
- Trust deed reviews — usually before a transaction, a distribution or a restructure, where the deed needs to be read rather than assumed.
- Deed variations — trustee and appointor changes, foreign beneficiary exclusions, streaming powers, vesting date questions.
- Division 7A loan agreements — usually identified at the accounts stage, and usually against a lodgment day deadline.
- Restructures — where the federal position is clear enough but the duty position and the documents are not.
- Estate planning for business owners — where the will is the easy part and trust and company control is the real question.
- Loan agreements — related-party and family advances sitting in the accounts with no document behind them.
- Business sales — where the structure of the transaction determines the tax outcome.
How we work with you
- You choose the contact point. We deal with you, or with the client, or with both, as you prefer.
- Fixed fees, quoted first. You can tell the client the cost before they commit.
- We report to you. Advice and documents go to you as well as the client unless you say otherwise.
- We stay in our lane. No compliance work, no bookkeeping, no attempt to displace you.
- Co-branded or white-label delivery is available where your firm prefers to present the work as its own.
Before you refer
If you are not sure whether a matter needs a lawyer, call. Some do not. A deed that clearly permits what the client wants, a variation already covered by the amendment power, a loan that can be documented from a precedent you already hold: we will say so, and you can get on with it.
This page describes how we work with accounting practices. It is not legal advice.
Refer a matter, or ask a question first
Call before you refer if it helps. We would rather spend ten minutes telling you a matter is straightforward than take work that does not need a lawyer.