Black and White or shades of grey

"Our accountant is always black and white. He has no shade of grey"
Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
My accountancy background forces me to say "it depends"!

If you want your accountant to give you clear, unambiguous and definitive advice, it's probably a good thing if they just give you black/white answers - sometimes. In my experience, most people don't want wishy-washy advice. They don't want their accountant to sit on the fence. I was taught to always give my clients advice even if the arguments were finely balanced. It's what clients pay for.

The alternative view comes from those who want to have their options left open so that they can decide what choice to make themselves.

Let's assume, for instance, that you want to know if you can claim tax relief for the money that you might spend on a particular item. A 'black and white' accountant will give you a definitive answer - yes or no.

A 'shades of grey' accountant will probably ask more questions before giving you an answer. And his answer may be 'it depends'. Indeed it might well depend on whether your motivation for buying the item is genuinely business related or whether you are also likely to enjoy significant non-business use of it too.

Does your accountant know whether you want straight 'yes'/'no' answers or whether you would prefer him/her to check the context of your questions and then offer you good advice - which may involve leaving the final decision upto you?

And of course you might prefer a different approach in response to different questions.