What are the benefits of providing only tax services, no auditing?
McMillan: In the non-audit arena, there’s just a lot of work that’s not getting done. The regulations today to do special work [such as tax consulting] for audit clients are very substantial. Sometimes it takes weeks to get back to a client about whether or not you can even do the special work. And often the clients call you because they want something right away. Our model doesn’t have that because the one business we will never get into is the audit business. Considering your former connection with Arthur Andersen, is the avoidance of audit partly an effort to get away from those ghosts? No. Arthur Andersen, for all the years I was there, had the highest quality scores in the audit business. The Enron disaster was very unfortunate, and sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. But I’m not worried about that. The reason not to go into the audit business isn’t because the audit business is bad, but being with the auditors is bad. It isn’t about avoiding audit. Audit is the boom busines
