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A
tax attorney specializes in
working with taxpayers to solve their problems with the Internal
Revenue Service (IRS) or state revenue department. In fact, they
generally focus only on tax issues and relief.
A tax attorney can help a
taxpayer in trouble make it through an audit, have fines reduced, liens
removed, and can navigate through
the minefield of small business and self-employment tax issues.
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More on Taxpayer and Tax
Attorney
Many
small business owners consider their tax attorney to be as vital as
their accountant. This is because a good tax attorney can help head off
tax problems before they even begin. He or she can see potential
trouble spots for a business and can advise the owner how to avoid
them.
The
tax law is not only labyrinthine in structure, it also changes nearly
every year. Thus, a good tax attorney will keep up with the latest
changes and can advise clients accordingly. A tax attorney may also be
helpful when setting up trust funds, stock portfolios and the like, so
a taxpayer doesn't run into unexpected surprises on a specific date.
A
person looking for a tax attorney shouldn't call the first one listed
in the phone book. He should look around, ask friends, or even his
personal attorney (if he has one) to recommend a good tax specialist.
As a prospective client, the taxpayer should look for a tax attorney
with extensive experience in dealing with the IRS, in debt management
cases, and in working with real live taxpayers. He should also ask the
attorney for references. The taxpayer should also make certain his tax
attorney is a member of the American Bar Association and the state bar
association. A client should also make sure he knows what his
attorney's rates are, and make arrangements for payment early on in the
consultation process.
If
a taxpayer finds himself in over his head where the IRS is concerned,
he should certainly consult a tax attorney. Tax fines tend to snowball,
and it is always in the taxpayer's best interests to get problems
solved while they are still relatively small ones. Waiting until the
last minute to see a tax attorney could be extremely costly, and might
result in jail time for the taxpayer, as well as higher legal fees.
Money invested in the services
of a tax attorney can be considered a wise investment for a taxpayer.
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(www.wisegeek.com)
Another
thing a tax attorney can do for you is to double check all your returns
and supporting documents and make sure you did not omit anything. Tax
payers are frequently discovering that they have omitted the interest
or dividend payments from their small savings accounts or brokerages.
It can also happen that tax payers entirely forget to declare these
items because the investment company did not send them the required
documents. There should be no undeclared income in your papers and in
case there is you should have all the supporting documents to explain
why it was not reported.
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