# The Terrible Legal Advice Thread **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 21, 2022, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-terrible-legal-advice-thread/959894 "2022-02-21T19:55:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2022, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-terrible-legal-advice-thread/959894/101 "2022-04-18T17:02:01Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > Especially if you kill your accountant. My uncle was a certified public accountant and offered to look over my taxes once. He told me it would be a waste of money to have an accountant do my taxes for me, and I should save my money for a really good lawyer. I feel like that doesn’t qualify for this thread, because that was pretty good legal advice. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2022, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-terrible-legal-advice-thread/959894/102 "2022-04-18T19:59:17Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Do not believe that he owes you anything at all after six months [checks thread] Well, after _nine_ months you may be entitled to child support. (… if you win custody, which I imagine is likely for a mother seeking custody of a newborn. But he may get visitation rights. And it’s not really your money, it’s for the kiddo.) ~Max ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-terrible-legal-advice-thread/959894/103 "2022-04-20T14:53:09Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I read this one in _The Onion_ ; when you’re doing your taxes, claim self-defense. If it works for murder, it’ll probably work for tax evasion. About 15 years ago, I was doing our tax returns. I wanted my husband to review them - as you’re supposed to both sign, and say you confirm it’s all correct etc. He said there’d been rulings about “innocent spouses” who didn’t know what the other spouse was doing, tax-wise, and thus avoided jailtime. I pointed out “And if I go to jail, who’ll get to stay home and take care of the kids??”. He very diligently read every line of the return. > [@Bill\_Door](#): > > My uncle was a certified public accountant and offered to look over my taxes once. He told me it would be a waste of money to have an accountant do my taxes for me, and I should save my money for a really good lawyer. I feel like that doesn’t qualify for this thread, because that was pretty good legal advice. Huh. If your taxes are complicated enough that a lawyer could reasonably be expected to get involved, I would heartily disagree with the uncle. That said, the couple of years where our taxes have been a bit unusual (medical deductions, stock sales), I did ping my brother (tax accountant) with a couple of questions, did them myself with TurboTax, and paid TT the extra “if I get audited, you handle everything!” fee. Not entirely sure how that works in terms of if you do get audited, and you have to produce paperwork etc. - I guess you give that to the TurboTax people, and you don’t see the IRS people face to face at all, but you have to pay any taxes due. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-terrible-legal-advice-thread/959894/104 "2022-04-20T15:31:58Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > Huh. If your taxes are complicated enough that a lawyer could reasonably be expected to get involved, I would heartily disagree with the uncle. It was more like my attitude of, “If they don’t audit you once in a while; you’re just not trying hard enough.” that made him expect legal trouble to arise. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-terrible-legal-advice-thread/959894/105 "2022-04-25T02:46:59Z")
> [@Max\_S](#): > > Well, after _nine_ months you may be entitled to child support. Speaking of child support, I’ve read any number of theories from men who think they know the One Neat Trick to getting out of child support payments. These include refusing to sign the birth certificate, surrendering parental rights, assuming joint custody means no child support, skipping visitation, quitting their job so they have no income, hiding their income, assuming the spouse remarrying removes the obligation, moving to another state, and (I’ve really seen this recommended) deliberately becoming incarcerated. I’m not saying that some of these can’t factor into reducing or removing child support obligations in some circumstances. But there’s no magic bullet, and any change to child support has to go through the courts on the basis of what’s in the best interest of the child. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-terrible-legal-advice-thread/959894.md?page=5)