As you probably know, staying on the right side of the tax man isn’t just advisable, it is considered essential if you want to make your life run as smoothly as possible. Don’t believe us? Just ask Al Capone. Whereas staying on the right side of the IRS is incredibly important, that doesn’t stop people leaving it until the very last minute to do and submit their taxes themselves, causing a great deal of unnecessary stress in the process.
First off, what is a tax lawyer?
Put very simply, a tax attorney, or lawyer as they are sometimes known, is an individual that offers services designed to help their clients navigate through a series of highly complex tax-related issues, laws, rules, and regulations. The idea is to help the clients save money in the long run, avoid legal issues, stay on the right side of the law, and to help the clients enjoy a much easier life as the attorney will do the metaphorical heavy lifting instead.
In basic terms, a tax attorney is an individual that earns a living from dealing with all manner of tax-related issues and providing relevant services to their clients. Whether it’s advice on how to avoid late filing penalty fees, or guidance and legal assistance in the event of an IRS tax audit, a tax attorney does all of the above, and a whole lot more besides tax controversy, audit, appeal, back taxes, unfiled returns, and employment 941 payroll.
When can tax lawyers help?
What don’t they do is more like it. Tax attorneys provide a whole variety of different services when it comes to all things tax-related and IRS related. In truth, the exact services offered by a tax attorney will vary from person to person, and practice to practice, but we can give you a general idea. A few scenarios in which an attorney tax may provide advice include:
When buying a business – If you’re new to the world of business and are looking at buying your first business, a tax attorney will be very useful as they can offer you help and advice to ensure the process runs smoothly, and to ensure that you don’t spend more than you need.
When selling a business – Conversely, if you’re looking into selling your first business, again, a tax attorney will be able to offer you a great deal of help and advice. Whether it’s advice on capital gains tax, depreciation, and other useful snippets of info designed to help minimize tax liabilities, a tax attorney could prove to be extremely beneficial.
When starting a business – Okay, say for example, you want to start your own business, rather than buy an existing one, which steps do you need to take to comply with the hugely complex list of rules and regulations laid out by the IRS? Well, guess who will be able to offer you all of the help and advice you would ever need? Yep, it’s a tax lawyer. Not only will they be able to offer advice when it comes to entity type, they’ll also help with tax exemptions to help you save money whilst you establish yourself.
Leaving property or an inheritance to heirs – Nobody wants to face their own mortality, yet it is something that will come to us all, just like the taxman. This is why it pays to get our affairs in order well in advance, so we can prepare for the future. If you’re looking to leave an inheritance and/or a property to an heir, or heirs, a tax attorney will prove to be very useful as they can tell you everything you need to know.
Offer advice in the event of an audit – We’ll be expanding on what an IRS tax audit means for you a little later on. Take it from us, though, it’s not great and without the presence of a tax attorney, it’s definitely not great. A tax attorney will guide you through an IRS tax audit every step of the way, and they can even act on your behalf in court if things get that far.
Tax controversy, audit, appeal, back taxes, unfiled returns, and employment 941 payroll representation.
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Why hire a tax attorney?
Okay, so we’ve looked at some of the different services tax attorneys provide, but why should you hire a lawyer instead of handling your taxes and books yourself? Well, there are actually lots of reasons. Take a look and you’ll see what we mean.
They’re very reasonably priced – One of the main reasons why people choose to put themselves through paperwork hell when doing their own taxes and filing their own tax returns is because they think that they’re saving money by doing so. In reality, they run the risk of filing late, making a mistake, or not off-setting for business expenses and allowances and ultimately, they actually end up spending more than they needed to. Tax attorneys can set their own rates, but you’ll find that because they’re in such high demand, they are very competitively priced and they offer very affordable rates.
They’ll save you money – If the thought of paying somebody to do something that, in theory, you could so, is putting you off, just remember that tax attorneys will actually save you money in the long-haul. A tax attorney will ensure that you don’t spend more on the IRS than you need to, and they will actually help save you money. They’ll ensure that you avoid penalties and fees, plus they’ll also ensure that you offset your allowances and expenses. They can even help you to potentially make a claim against the IRS if you feel that you’ve paid too much tax. In this instance, they could possibly ensure that the IRS pays you.
They’ll save you time – Time is a precious commodity which few of us are blessed with. If you find yourself wishing that there were more hours in the day then the last thing that you will want to be doing is spending countless hours going through your bank statements, recent transactions, receipts, and invoices when the time comes to submit your annual tax report to the IRS. Even those with a simple business and/or tax situation will still find that the process takes a great deal of time when doing it themselves. Rather than doing your tax report yourself, it would be much easier to hire a tax attorney. Tax attorneys have teams of experts in place who can take care of your tax return for you, in a very short duration of time. As they take care of the tax return for you, this means that you’re free to use your time more effectively.
They make life easier for you – Not only is doing your tax return a time-consuming affair, it is also a very stressful process too. Nobody looks forward to doing their tax return, yet many people still choose to do it themselves, and they cause themselves a great deal of stress in the process. If you dread the thought of tackling your tax return for another year, why not simply hire a tax attorney and have them take care of it for you? They literally do the vast majority of the work, so you can sit back, relax, and focus on other things. The only catch is that you obviously have to pay them, but they’ll likely save you a great deal of money anyways, so it’s win-win.
They can help you if you’re audited – For many, the prospect of being audited by the IRS is an incredibly unpleasant one. People dread the thought of being audited, yet it could happen to anybody, at random, at any given time. If you get that dreaded letter in the mail telling you that you’re being audited, the first step is not to panic. Your second step should always be to contact a tax attorney. A tax attorney can advise you on which steps to take next, they’ll tell you what the audit consists of, they’ll tell you what you need, and they can even communicate with the IRS on your behalf.
They can help in wage garnishment release issues – Okay, we’re all human, and we all make mistakes from time to time. If you find that you’ve owed the IRS money and have not paid, whether deliberately or not, the IRS has the power to garnish your wages. What that basically means is that the IRS can go directly to your employer and take a chunk of your wages each month, until your debts have been cleared. If you’re facing this prospect, contacting a tax attorney is very useful as they can help. A tax attorney can communicate with the IRS in order to resolve the case as quickly as possible. They can come up with a compromise and/or a payment plan that suits both parties, which ultimately means that you don’t have to go down the wage garnishment release route.
They can lift a bank account levy – Another way in which the IRS can potentially get money owed to them by you, is by placing a levy on your bank account. This basically means that they can take money directly from your account, and lock you out of it. This is deliberate as it prevents people from moving funds from one account to another. Needless to say, if this happens to you it can lead to all kind of problems and heaps of stress. Again, a tax attorney would prove very useful if this was happening to you as they would be able to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, without causing any additional stress or wasting any more time.
They can help you to keep your assets – If you find yourself in hot water with the IRS, another way in which they can get money back that is owed to them, is by seizing your assets. Now, this could be assets from your business such as computers, electronics, and furniture, or it could be assets from your home, or even your home itself. Imagine having the home you’ve lived in for years and years suddenly being taken by the IRS because you couldn’t pay back a debt you owed them? Makes you feel sick doesn’t it? Despite this, it has happened to many people in the past, and it will happen in the future. If this is a possibility for you, contacting a tax attorney is the best thing that you can do. A tax attorney will speak with the IRS and come up with a solution that means that the IRS get back a sum that they’re happy with, and you get to keep your home or other assets that you hold near and dear.
They can represent you at court – In some extreme cases, IRS tax disputes have ended up in court. If this is a possibility for you, a tax lawyer will be worth their weight in gold. A tax attorney will be able to legally represent you at court and can potentially help you to win your case.
Tax controversy, audit, appeal, back taxes, unfiled returns, and employment 941 payroll representation.
