Short answer
A practitioner's website has one job: let a property owner or a tax adviser find out who you are, what you do, what you can show for it, and how to reach you, without being misled about any of it. That means a real name and background, a plain description of the work, evidence in the form of a redacted sample or a description of your file, a credential displayed the way its issuer allows and verifiable where the issuer verifies it, and contact and privacy practices you actually follow. It also means no claims of government approval, no guaranteed results, no manufactured testimonials and no percentages presented as outcomes. Advertising law applies to practitioners like anyone else, and Circular 230 adds rules for those who practice before the IRS. This article walks through the decisions. It is general education, not legal advice.
What the site must do
| Visitor | Wants to know | What the page shows |
|---|---|---|
| Property owner | Who you are, what a study is, whether to call | A named practitioner with background; a plain explanation; a way to ask a question without a sales funnel |
| Tax adviser | Whether your file will hold up | A description of your method in the IRS guide's terms; a redacted sample or the elements you deliver; your reviewer arrangement; your role in an examination |
| Referral source or firm | Whether you are real and insured | Entity name, location, insurance available on request, credential verifiable |
| Anyone | How to reach you and what you do with their data | Contact details; a privacy notice you follow |
What the site must not claim
Advertising must be truthful, not misleading and substantiated. For a cost segregation site that rules out:
- Government approval. No practitioner, method or credential is approved by the IRS or any agency for this work. Say instead what the IRS guide describes and how your work meets it.
- Promised or typical results. A percentage or a dollar figure presented as what clients get is a claim about typical results, which must be substantiated or qualified; a promise of a result is not a claim you can substantiate. Describe what a study does and let the adviser project the result for each client.
- Manufactured or unrepresentative testimonials. The FTC's Endorsement Guides require testimonials to reflect honest opinions and typical results, or to disclose that they do not, and require disclosure of material connections. A testimonial from a client who received an unusual result, presented as ordinary, is a problem; an invented one is worse.
- Credential inflation. "Certified" means a named body assessed you under its published scheme and the credential is in good standing. Membership is not certification. A certificate of completion is not a credential.
- Licensing claims. No cost segregation license exists. A Professional Engineer or CPA license is that profession's license and should be described as such.
- Misleading solicitation. Practitioners who practice before the IRS are bound by Circular 230's solicitation rules, which prohibit false, misleading or deceptive statements.
Displaying a credential truthfully
- Use the issuer's exact name and the credential's exact title. Not a paraphrase.
- Link to the issuer's verification page so a visitor can check standing. NBCSS credentials, for example, are verified at the public verification page, and credential status comes only from verified records.
- Keep it current. If a credential expires, is suspended or is revoked, the badge comes down. A verification widget that updates or removes the badge when status changes, such as the one NBCSS provides, does this automatically; a static image does not.
- Do not display a membership as a credential. "Member, NBCSS" is a true statement; "NBCSS-certified" is true only for CCSS holders in good standing.
- Follow the issuer's display rules. Issuers restrict how their marks are used. Read them.
Content that earns trust
- Your method, in the IRS guide's terms. Documentation, site visits, take-offs, legal analysis, asset list, reconciliation, preparer identification. Say what you deliver and what you do not.
- A redacted sample with the client's permission, or a description of each section of your report.
- Your reviewer arrangement. Advisers notice.
- Your role in an examination. State it, because the engagement letter will.
- Plain explanations of what a study does, who is qualified to prepare one, and when to involve the adviser. Educational content written for the reader, not for a search engine, is what advisers forward to clients.
- Corrections. A way to report an error, and a habit of fixing it.
Decisions to make
- Domain and ownership. Register the domain in the practice's name, in an account you control, with renewal on your calendar. If a vendor builds or hosts the site, you keep the domain.
- Hosting and portability. Know how to export your content and move it. A site you cannot leave is a liability.
- Contact. A form that goes somewhere a person reads, an email address, a phone number if you will answer it. State response times you can meet.
- Privacy. A notice describing what you collect, why, with whom it is shared, and how long you keep it, and analytics that respect it. Client documents never pass through a marketing form.
- Accessibility. Text that can be read, contrast that works, forms that can be used with a keyboard. Advisers and owners include people who need this, and it is part of doing the job properly.
- Maintenance. Someone updates the credential display, the sample, the team page and the privacy notice when they change.
About vendors and owned services
Website vendors advertise to practitioners, and professional bodies sometimes offer their own service. NBCSS offers an optional website service under separately approved terms, and it discloses that ownership wherever the service is mentioned; its affiliate terms require the same disclosure of any commercial relationship. Whatever you use, the tests above are the same: your domain, your content, a truthful credential display and a privacy notice you follow. A template does not make claims true, and no template ranks a site in a city by itself.
Keeping the site honest over time
A site is accurate on the day it launches and drifts afterward. Credentials expire or are renewed, team members leave, the sample report ages past the current rules, and a testimonial that was representative in one year is not in the next. Put the site on the same review calendar as the practice's templates: at renewal of each credential, at each change in staff, after each change in the bonus depreciation rules or the IRS guide, and at least once a year for everything else. Record what was checked and when. A regulator, a client or an adviser who finds a stale claim does not distinguish between neglect and intent, and the fix is the same either way: the site says only what is true today.
A launch checklist
- Named practitioner and background, accurate and current.
- Method described in the IRS guide's terms; sample or report description.
- Credential displayed exactly, linked to verification, updated automatically or by a named person.
- No approval, guarantee, typical-result or testimonial claims that cannot be substantiated.
- Contact that reaches a person; privacy notice that matches practice.
- Domain in your name; export tested.
- Someone reads the site as an adviser would, and as a regulator would, before it goes live.
What people ask on Reddit and other forums
The searches that lead people to these threads are usually phrased "cost segregation website", "marketing a cost segregation practice", "display credentials on website".
Practitioners on r/smallbusiness and in "cost segregation reddit" threads ask what they may say on a website and how to show a credential. From the sources below:
"Can I post client results?" Only truthfully and with substantiation: results must be typical or disclosed as atypical, and clients must consent to being identified.
"Can I say IRS-compliant or government-approved?" No provider, method or credential is approved by any government agency for this work. Describe what the IRS guide expects and how your work meets it.
"How do I show my credential?" Exact issuer name and title, linked to the issuer's verification page, kept current, and never a membership presented as a certification.
"Will a website bring clients?" A truthful, useful site helps advisers and owners decide to call. No site guarantees clients.
Questions people also ask
Can I show client results on my site?
Only truthfully and with substantiation: results must be typical or the atypical nature disclosed, and clients must consent to being identified. Most practitioners describe what a study does instead.
Can I use the NBCSS logo?
Members and credential holders may use marks as the display rules allow. Membership may be described as membership; only CCSS holders in good standing may describe themselves as certified.
Should I list my fees?
Optional. If you do, list what they include and what changes them, and never tie a fee to a promised saving.
Do I need a privacy notice?
If you collect any visitor information, yes as a matter of good practice, and in some jurisdictions as a matter of law. Follow what it says.
Will a website bring clients?
A truthful, useful site helps advisers and owners decide to call. No site guarantees clients, and any vendor who says otherwise is making the kind of claim this article warns against.
Sources
- https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/advertising-marketing — FTC, Advertising and Marketing business guidance.
- https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/ftcs-endorsement-guides-what-people-are-asking — FTC, Endorsement Guides: What People Are Asking.
- https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/pcir230.pdf — Treasury Department Circular No. 230: §10.30 Solicitation.
- https://nbcss.org/standards — NBCSS standards and governance: verification, ethics and records.
- https://nbcss.org/affiliate-terms — NBCSS Affiliate Terms.