Tax Attorney Duties and requirements
A tax attorney is a legal counsel who investigates legal cases for business law and counsel clients. The attorney is also in charge of communication with the Internal Revenue Service and the corporate finance departments. A right tax attorney specializes in various forms of taxation such as direct and indirect taxes.
These attorneys offer advice on all matters related to tax, whether corporate, company related, or even confidential issues. Domestic or international taxation is also part of their field. Generally, most of their advice is taken into action as clients believe this to be the most useful information and the correct way to go.
This, therefore, requires the attorneys to be well equipped with essential knowledge on these fields bearing in mind intricacies of federal, state and local taxes and taxing regulations. Furthermore, when tax issues arise we normally look up to these attorneys to give us the way forward on the problems. This requires the attorneys to stay up to date with the current regulations and tax laws in order for them to come up with various plans that will solve the client’s tax problem. These attorneys also keep accurate records on the tax rates and information on his/her client.
Tax attorney Assists Clients In All Audit Issues
They give their legal advice on audits and bank levy issues. They prepare a schedule for all tax returns and audits, maintaining knowledge of all data concerning the two issues. It is also their responsibility to analyze all present transactions for acquisitions and maintain knowledge of all accounting standards. These attorneys do their research on various tax issues. This research is bound to help them prepare audits and give proper calculations involved in providing all foreign credits. Tax attorneys keep the confidential record for their clients.
Information Security And Planning For Audits
The attorney is bound by law not to share this information with any other party as it will be unlawful and he/she may be charged. Most clients have faith in the tax attorneys as they keep their most valuable documents. i.e. finance documents. With access to these documents, tax attorneys are supposed to keep them updated and remind the client of the deadlines that have been set in place by the IRS. This will help the client to evade penalties that are imposed due to not filing the taxes in time.
In a case of penalties or misunderstanding between the IRS and the client, then the tax attorney is supposed to represent his/her client. It is the work of the attorney to plan on how to handle tax issues in the company. The attorney is supposed to work with the management and give correct timing for the taxes to be filed. Furthermore, they are required to plan for audits that happen regularly in the company. These audits may be internal or external. The attorney is supposed to design a plan on how the audits will take place and ensure all the documents required are in order. This he also does for the tax returns.
Update Financial Information
The tax attorney is also responsible for the updating of financial information of the client. As earlier stated, the attorney is supposed to be well updated and informed of the current land laws regarding tax, hence, he/she is supposed to ensure that the client’s documents are in order and fall under the required regulations for revenue.
Qualification To Become A Tax Attorney
For one to qualify to become a tax attorney, one undertakes various graduate courses. Although an undergraduate degree must not be related to the field, a business-related course will ensure the fellow gets extensive knowledge on the financial issues he/she is going to face in the course of the career.
After the completion of the undergraduate degree, the postgraduate is supposed to go for a law-related course, more so, tax-related. Putting the years of basic study to a minimum of seven. Accounting is supposed to be majored upon as it will give the student further knowledge on financial issues and how to prepare the data. Accounting also helps the student know how to organize keep the financial records.
A Masters of Taxation course follows after the undergraduate course. This enables the attorneys to major on the tax regulations of the land and knows how to do their work in regards to these regulations. The course gives the students the option of choosing whether to generalize or just specialize in one area. Generalization will give the student a touch of every aspect in every field while specialization will enable the student to focus on one area and become good in it, knowing more and a lot on the specified field.
Areas like general business taxation may be specialized in and hence making one become well informed on the field. Other than this specialties, there are courses that are taken by every law student. Courses such as federal income taxation are supposed to be done by every student. At the completion, a bar exam is done to ensure the attorney is licensed to conduct the duties of a legal tax attorney. Read, How to choose a Tax attorney for filing taxes and dealing with tax related issues.