2019 Tennessee Code
Title 62 - Professions, Businesses and Trades
Chapter 1 - Tennessee Accountancy Act of 1998
Part 1 - General Provisions
§ 62-1-115. Accountant's records as personal property.
(a) Subject to § 62-1-116, all statements, records, schedules, working papers and memoranda incident to or in the course of rendering services to a client, made by a licensee or a partner, shareholder, officer, director, member, manager or employee of a licensee, except the reports submitted by the licensee to the client and except for records that are part of the client's records, shall be and remain the property of the licensee in the absence of an express agreement between the licensee and the client to the contrary. No such statement, record, schedule, working paper or memorandum shall be sold, transferred or bequeathed without the consent of the client or the client's personal representative or assignee to anyone other than one (1) or more surviving partners, stockholders, members or new partners, new stockholders or new members of the licensee, or any combined or merged firm or successor in interest to the licensee. Nothing in this section should be construed as prohibiting any temporary transfer of working papers or other material necessary in the course of carrying out peer reviews or as otherwise interfering with the disclosure of information pursuant to § 62-1-116.
(b) A licensee shall furnish to a client or former client, upon request and reasonable notice:
(1) A copy of the licensee's working papers, to the extent that the working papers include records that would ordinarily constitute part of the client's records and are not otherwise available to the client; and
(2) Any accounting or other records belonging to or obtained from or on behalf of the client that the licensee removed from the client's premises or received for the client's account. The licensee may make and retain copies of the documents of the client when they form the basis for work done by the licensee.
(c) Nothing in this section shall require a licensee to keep any working papers beyond the period prescribed in any other applicable statute.
