What’s it like to be a lawyer married to another lawyer? I get asked that a lot. I suspect Ashley L. Case does, too. Ashley is a shareholder at Tiffany & Bosco, P.A. in Phoenix and focuses her practice on the areas of estate planning, tax, probate, and trust administration. While my husband’s practice focuses on a different area of law, Ashley’s husband, Darren Case, is also a trusts and estates attorney like her. I have to think that makes for interesting dinner conversations.
Here’s what Ashley had to say:
1. Where are you now?
Sitting in my office preparing for the looooong night ahead of me!
2. What’s your official title and what does it mean?
I am a Shareholder Attorney. I am the “professional association” equivalent of a “Partner”, since that is how T&B (Tiffany & Bosco) is structured.
3. Freetime: book, audiobook or podcast?
Book, without a doubt! I get enough screen time as it is.
4. Tax is a huge subject. What’s your area of special interest?
Trusts and estates.
5. What’s the last movie you saw?
Love, Simon on an airplane (where I sobbed like a baby, much to the chagrin of the stranger sitting next to me).
6. What college did you attend and what did you study?
I attended Arizona State University (GO SUNDEVILS!!!) I studied Marketing with a minor in Mass Communication.
(Author’s note: Ashley also attended Chapman University School of Law for law school, and is currently attending Boston University’s Graduate Tax LL.M. program, graduating in May of 2019.)
7. Go to pick-me-up: Coffee or tea?
Chocolate, please. 🙂
8. What’s the best tax or financial advice that anyone ever gave you?
“Anyone may arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the treasury. There is not even a patriotic duty to increase one’s taxes. public duty to pay more than the law demands.” – Learned Hand (although regrettably, he did not give me this advice personally, we missed each other by about 20 years)
9. What’s the best thing on TV right now?
I don’t watch much TV. The last show I really got into was the Office…in law school.
10. If you weren’t working in the tax profession, what would your dream job be?
Ballerina/cheerleader/author
11. If you had the opportunity to make one change in the tax code – an extra credit, a disallowed deduction, whatever – what would it be?
It would be quite the undertaking, but it would be great to see a Rule that required the IRC to be restyled for easier understanding. This was recently completed for the Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure in which they cleaned up archaic provisions, fixed formatting (so there weren’t so many giant blocks of text), updated unintended inconsistencies with language/definitions, etc. The new Rules are much easier to read.
12. Favorite food, snack or candy during tax season (or other busy time)?
“Go Raw” Organic Chocolate. Delicious, but it still allows me to pretend I am being healthy.
13. What was the biggest surprise in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act?
The elimination of the personal exemption/increase of the standard deduction.
14. What’s one way that the tax profession has changed since you’ve begun practicing?
The estate tax exemption just keeps creeping up!
15. If Uncle Sam handed you a big tax refund check right now, what would you do with it?
Travel! I currently have my eyes on France, Belize, and Switzerland.
16. What would I be surprised to know about you?
I’m a thrill-seeker! Just this year I have gone bungee jumping, skydiving, I made partner at my law firm (yes, this was a thrill-seeking endeavor), learned to throw an ax, and hiked the tallest mountain in Arizona by myself.
17. When it comes to IRS, what’s the bigger compliance challenge: pass-through entities, cryptocurrency or offshore?
Cryptocurrency. Technology is incredible and I don’t think we’ve even scratched the surface of what it’s capable of or how it can be abused.
18. And, other than Taxgirl, what’s your favorite tax-related resource?
TaxProf Blog.
Thanks, Ashley!
You can find out more about Ashley from her website here.
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