Can you contract out of the law?

Can you contract out of a law? I don't believe you can. This question has come up several times in the past few weeks so I'm addressing it in this blog. I'd be interested to hear from lawyers what they think of whether or not you can contract out of an obligation, after they've read IC-01 CRA's Civil Penalties. There are accountants and bookkeepers out there who think that it's fine to contract out of their obligations and I don't agree.  At least I don't think you can do it without getting stung by Civil Penalties if it's tax law you're contracting out of. Not sure about other laws like employment standards or WCB, but income taxes... well I think you're pretty much not OK contracting out.

Especially, you can't contract out if you're a professional, or a bookkeeper, at least one who has insurance and wants to continue to be covered by the policy.

CRA has a penalty that applies if you attempt to. If you've not read the Civil Penalties IC in awhile, maybe it's time for a visit..

Having a client sign a representation letter claiming you've warned them or reviewed with them the rules and they have chosen to file their returns, ignoring your advice and professional judgement, that's a recipe for disaster. 

Why on earth would you provide someone with advice, and when they don't take it, say, well that's OK, I'll just write down what I told you and that you plan to ignore my advice and I'm going to help you prepare your filing obligations without my professional judgement and I'm going to make you sign this document, so that absolves me of any and all responsibility. 

You're a professional. You have insurance and when the insurance adjuster sees that you've given professional advice which was ignored and you agreed to ignore your own advice, exactly how long do you think that the insurance company is going to want to insure you?

When someone doesn't take your advice, you should stop working for that client. The client is ignoring your advice, that makes them dangerous to your financial and emotional and maybe even physical well-being for all time.

I have three criteria for good clients. 
1) They pay in advance on retainer
2) They pay without complaining
3) They take your advice, they don't ignore it and expect you to continue to serve them

What's interesting is that our government contracts out of its laws when it hires professionals as consultants, it's contracting out of employment standards, employee benefits, and probably attempting to contract out of WCB if it can get away with it. I heard recently that a number of senior CRA contractors were audited by CRA because of the personal services business rules, and their expense claims for business were curtailed as a result. I wonder if anyone ever considered checking on how many laws CRA was contracting out of by hiring professionals on contract rather than as employees. Just sayin'....