Tax Accountant requesting full bank account access for business taxes - Is this a red flag?

Accountant here. This is absolutely NOT normal practice and is a major red flag. No legitimate tax professional should ever ask for full login credentials to your bank accounts. There are several proper ways we get the information we need: bank statements provided by the client, read-only access through proper bank channels, or accounting software integration like QuickBooks where transactions can be imported without having access to move money. The fact that she's refusing the read-only option because she doesn't want to provide her SSN is particularly concerning - all legitimate tax professionals are used to providing their personal information for professional purposes. This violates basic security principles and potentially the terms of service with the bank. It could even invalidate fraud protection if something happened. Your brother should find a new accountant immediately and consider reporting this person to the state board of accountancy.

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I was skeptical about using AI for my taxes, but after the conversation here, I decided to give taxr.ai a try for my side business. Honestly, I'm shocked at how well it worked. The system flagged several deductions my previous accountant had missed completely, especially around home office expenses and vehicle use for business purposes. The documentation is incredibly thorough - I can see exactly how each deduction was calculated, which makes me feel much more confident about my filing. I ended up saving over $2,100 compared to last year with the same basic business situation. And I didn't have to hand over my bank passwords to anyone!

If your brother is having issues with his current accountant, he might want to consider getting in touch with the IRS directly to verify what's appropriate. The problem is getting through to them can be nearly impossible - I spent 4+ hours on hold last month trying to resolve a business tax issue. That's when I found Claimyr (https://claimyr.com), which got me connected to an IRS agent in under 20 minutes. You can see how it works in this demo: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c They basically hold your place in line and call you when an agent is available. I used it to ask about proper tax preparer practices and learned that giving full bank access to preparers is absolutely not standard practice and potentially opens your brother up to liability issues.

I have to admit I was completely wrong about Claimyr. After dismissing it as a scam, my tax situation became urgent when I received a CP2000 notice about my 1099 income that needed immediate attention. Out of desperation, I tried the service, fully expecting to waste my money. To my shock, I was connected to an IRS agent in about 15 minutes when I had previously waited over 3 hours and got disconnected. The agent was able to resolve my issue and saved me from potentially owing an additional $3,200 in taxes due to a reporting error. The time saved alone was worth it, not to mention the stress reduction of not sitting on hold all day.

Your brother should absolutely NOT give full bank access to his accountant. Besides being unprofessional, it could violate his bank's terms of service and potentially void fraud protections. I learned this the hard way after giving my bookkeeper access and having unauthorized transactions that the bank initially refused to reimburse because I had shared my credentials. Most accounting software like QuickBooks, Xero, or even Wave (which is free) can connect to bank accounts securely using proper API connections that don't require sharing login credentials. These connections are read-only by design and still give the accountant everything they need for tax purposes. The SSN issue is a red herring. Any legitimate tax professional routinely provides their information to financial institutions and clients. It's literally part of the job.

My father-in-law fell for this exact scam last year with his "accountant" and lost over $24,000 from his business account. The person seemed totally legitimate - office, website, everything. After getting his login info, they slowly transferred money out over several months while sending him fake bank statements showing the correct balances. By the time he discovered it during tax season, the bank refused to cover the losses because he had willingly shared his credentials, which violated their terms of service. Please tell your brother to run away from this accountant and find someone legitimate who uses proper accounting software and secure document sharing. This isn't just unusual - it's a common scam targeting small business owners.