Responsibilities Of A Tax Lawyer

Tax lawyers or tax litigation lawyer as the name would suggest specialize in tax law and handle such issues for individuals and corporations. Let's check out the major responsibilities of a tax lawyer.

1. Tax Advise

This may seem like a minor matter but is rather the classic case of better safe than sorry. Tax is a complicated issue, and although most adults file their taxes on a regular basis they barely understand the inner workings of it. It gets worse when one buys land, starts a new business, partners up with a company, is listed in a relative’s last will and testament, joins the real estate field just to mention a few, this are all factors that will affect the individual’s taxes. Through this changes then comes new taxing responsibility, and if not keen, they may add up and become a serious issue in the future.

Having a tax lawyer to consult and help plan as one is planning their future is a sure way to avoid such problems. The lawyer will give guide and walk hand in hand with the individual to ensure their understand complex things such as contracts tied to either land bought or inherited, or a business and one wishes to start, either in their country or even partner up abroad. The details will be broken down and clearly explaining so that an individual can understand exactly what they are getting themselves into. The short and long term effects of their decisions, and how it would affect them, even in the case of say a tragic collapse of the company.

All these factors are closed tied and directly impact the tax that the individual would be paying, the timeline and consequences in case of being late. Finally the tax lawyer having years of experience give their advise on weather or not the particular venture that one hopes to take is the best idea and would be a great disadvantage as it would double or even triple their taxes yet the income being received is way less. Ultimately, it is more beneficial to have the knowledge before embarking on anyone major decision that would affect one’s taxes, one ignorant move and it could be as bad as bankruptcy.

2. Legal Representation

Tax lawyers also represent their clients either in court, tax agencies or revenue authorities in the case of tax crimes or mishaps. It is the duty of or one’s tax lawyer to talk to their clients and with documented evidence understand the happenings of the case, defend them if innocent and get to the bottom of the matter. If guilty, which is most cases is due to ignorance and negligence, and waiting until everything blew up in their face for the clients it is the duty of the lawyer to come up with a settlement and advise the client on the best way to forward of completely settling all their taxes and newly acquired debts. However in some serious cases such as tax fraud jail time cannot be avoided.

These legal matters include:
Tax audits, this is whereby tax agencies want proof that an individual or corporation have been paying the right amount of taxes. With audits documentation is key. There are three types:

(i) Correspondence, whereby the documents can be sent by mail. Office audits where one takes the required documents to the tax agency and file audit where the agent comes to the office or home, to check documents. In all the above one should have their lawyer present.

(ii) Tax appeals, in the case of errors especially during tax filing, whereby one is being accused for being a defaulter and yet they are not at fault, they have the freedom to appeal. Here the lawyer will let the individual know their appeal rights, what exactly they can appeal and, what to expect during the process. Guidance is key here.

(iii) Tax penalties, these include failure to file taxes, failure to pay, disregard and negligence. Humans again wait until it is too late to take their taxes seriously. In order to avoid such a tax lawyer will help and advise for early payment and any changes in one’s takes, therefore avoiding penalties all together. They all represent them in court.