Tax Law Blog | IRS Tax Attorneys

Tax penalties present taxpayers with unique issues to consider. Wilson v. Commissioner, T.C. Summary Opinion 2008-91, describes the situation where a tax attorney represents a taxpayer with a tax penalty that was imposed for a tax return prepared by the attorney’s firm. The issue that the case describes is the conflict of interest that the tax attorney has in representing taxpayers in this situation.

In Wilson, the taxpayers failed to report their Social Security income on their federal tax return. The taxpayers had their tax return prepared by Tax Help, Inc. The IRS sent the taxpayers a notice that it intended to increase the taxpayers’ tax liability to account for their Social Security income. The taxpayers submitted an amended tax return to reflect this income and the IRS assessed an accuracy related penalty. The taxpayers filed a petition to redetermine the tax, apparently, arguing that the penalty should be abated.

There are several defenses that taxpayers may assert to ward off accuracy related penalties. The most common defense is that there was no understatement of tax. If there was an understatement, another common defense is that the taxpayer acted in good faith in relying on a professional tax return preparer.

The U.S. Tax Court said that:

Petitioners failed to demonstrate reasonable and good faith reliance on their tax return preparer. In fact, at the trial petitioners’ attorney, who is also an accountant and employed at Tax Help, Inc., did not pursue this defense in any meaningful way but instead rested his case on [a] baseless contention…

The U.S. Tax Court also noted that:

Insofar as they might be indicative of the nature or quality of advice dispensed at Tax Help, Inc., petitioners’ attorney’s contentions tend to call into question whether the return preparer had sufficient expertise to justify petitioners’ reliance.

This is harsh language from the relatively reserved U.S. Tax Court. The issue that this raises is whether, given the facts described by the court, the tax attorney had an impermissible conflict of interest. As an employee of Tax Help, Inc., the attorney may have owed some duty of loyalty to his employer. As a tax attorney for the taxpayer, the attorney also owed a duty to the taxpayers as clients. The tax attorney’s duty to his clients is to be a zealous advocate for the taxpayers, which may have been muted by his duty to his employer. A tax attorney in this position may not be able to zealously argue that his employer was negligent.  An outside tax attorney would be in a better position to make this type of argument.

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Tax penalties present taxpayers with unique issues to consider.  Wilson v. Commissioner, T.C. Summary Opinion 2008-91, describes the situation where a tax attorney represents a taxpayer with a tax penalty that was imposed for a tax return prepared by the attorney’s firm. The issue that the case describes is the conflict of interest that the tax attorney has in representing taxpayers in this situation.

In Wilson, the taxpayers failed to report their Social Security income on their federal tax return. The taxpayers had their tax return prepared by Tax Help, Inc. The IRS sent the taxpayers a notice that it intended to increase the taxpayers’ tax liability to account for their Social Security income. The taxpayers submitted an amended tax return to reflect this income and the IRS assessed an accuracy related penalty. The taxpayers filed a petition to redetermine the tax, apparently, arguing that the penalty should be abated.

There are several defenses that taxpayers may assert to ward off accuracy related penalties. The most common defense is that there was no understatement of tax. If there was an understatement, another common defense is that the taxpayer acted in good faith in relying on a professional tax return preparer.

In these difficult economic times, repaying the IRS is becoming harder than ever.  Installment agreements may be entered into in good faith, but while payments are being made, interest and penalties continue to run.  Every five years, interest and penalties double the original tax.  Most attempts to repay the IRS result in the amount owed increasing, not decreasing, because of this.

Very few people that owe money to the IRS want to be there.  For most, it is a life situation that puts them there - a failed business venture, divorce, medical problems.  But the weight of IRS interest and penalties often makes it impossible to get a fresh start - purchase a home, get remarried, start a new profession.  This economy amplifies the impact.

For those that are out of the system and who come forward, and for those that are in the system but are treading water, forgive interest and penalties if the tax can be repaid over an agreed upon payment plan.

This would bring people back into the system, close the tax gap and stimulate the economy by helping taxpayers get out of debt.

An IRS Tax Attorney will be able to help you escape the wrath of the IRS once and for all.

The Internal Revenue Service is adept at using leverage to intimidate, coerce and bluff taxpayers and their representatives into adverse collection and examination determinations based upon weak legal authority and incomplete or insufficient facts.  The  IRS  will “roll-over” taxpayers and weal representatives who are not familiar with taxpayer rights and lack of knowledge about the nuances of the tax law.  The  IRS  enforced collection actions are extreme, and they mostly abuse the intent of the Congress not to refrain from collection actions that create an economic hardship within the meaning of §6343 of the Internal Revenue Code.

The IRS agent is both “prosecutor” and “jury.” The IRS agent raises issues and comes to conclusions that are presumed to be correct under present law. Also, taxpayers, not the IRS agent, must prove the accuracy of their deductions.

This leverage against a taxpayer applies even if the agent uses incorrect or incomplete facts or makes determinations on erroneous or flawed argument and law. It is not unusual for the IRS to tax extreme positions on the factual and legal issues. The agent can be sloppy and incompetent and still get a large and unjustified tax deficiency. The raw power of the agent’s position and presumption of correctness is intimidating to taxpayers and intimidating to the representatives of the taxpayer who do not have the skill or ability to identify and advocate the factual and legal issues for their clients.  The “intimidation” of the IRS agent is used as a tool to close cases quickly.

Contact Ken Sheppard to Fight the IRS the the RIGHT WAY!

Tax professionals in a local tax practice (CPAs, accountants, enrolled agents, attorneys) have an inherent “conflict of interest” for aggressive representation of any one client because they do not want to antagonize the local  IRS  revenue officer or examiner in a way that will have a negative impact on their other clients.   The  IRS  will take advantage of the timid local practitioner who finds it necessary to generate a positive image for the balance of his client base.

Sheppard Tax specializes in dealing with IRS controversies, problems and issues of every kind throughout the United States .  We have active cases pending throughout the United States .  Having worked within the IRS at a high executive level, we understand the most effective ways to deal with the IRS to advocate a reasonable solution to resolve your IRS problems.

CPAs, accountants, bookkeepers, enrolled agents, and attorneys without a tax specialty may not have the time, experience, education, insight or technical skill to deal with the technical analysis, legal research, identification of issues, interpretative creativity and insight, negotiating skills, knowledge of the IRS , or technical writing ability necessary to effectively prevent avoidable tax overpayments. The person who prepares your tax return may only have six weeks of training, and that training may be limited to how to put numbers into an IRS income tax return. Your bookkeeper is not a tax expert. Your CPA prepares tax returns for approximately three months out of the year and spends the balance of the time preparing books, records, and financial statements. Most, if not all enrolled agents are not tax lawyers. Attorneys may have a general or a specialized practice that does not include tax issues and problems. Nevertheless, accountants, CPAs, bookkeepers, enrolled agents, and non-tax attorneys will usually agree to represent you if you approach them with a tax issue even if they do not have the training or experience to handle difficult, complex, or creative tax issues.  The IRS can be expected to take advantage of those representatives who are not specialists in the tax law and who do not deal with the IRS on a full-time basis.

A tax attorney can do something an accountant cannot do. An experienced tax attorney can thoroughly research a tax statute and master it. He will know its legislative history. He will be familiar with the Treasury regulations and IRS rulings on that statute. He will penetrate the many court decisions involved in the litigation of the tax statute. He will have read tax articles and books that deal with the tax statute. It is improbable that your accountant has the training or experience that would permit him to penetrate the complexity of the tax law on a particular tax issue. It is also not likely that the accountant can take the time out of a busy accounting practice, working with numbers and preparing financial statements, to master the vast array of difficult tax law that bears on a tax statute.

Even worse is the fact that the mind-set of an accountant is to see “black and white” rather than the “gray” because they are trained to be precise with numbers. Tax law is drenched with ambiguity where there is mostly no answer that is right or wrong. Tax lawyers are trained to seek and find the ambiguity in the law (i.e., the “gray”). Tax law ambiguity can be used as a “sword” to attack and IRS position and also as a “shield” to protect the taxpayer.

However, not all tax attorneys are equal just as, for example; professional golfers have difference levels of skill and ability. Tax attorneys have different levels of creativity, insight and skill.

The most important attribute of a good tax attorney is to be “creative” with the tax law. This creativity may arise in many ways. A creative tax attorney will use interpretative skill to find support of a taxpayer position. A creative tax attorney will find a gap in a statute or a regulation (a “tax loophole”) that permits favorable tax treatment in situations not covered by the statute under consideration. A creative tax attorney will be able to identify inconsistencies by the IRS in its published positions or private ruling letters. A creative tax attorney will use interpretative skills to spin facts, case law, regulations in favor of the taxpayer. Creativity is unlimited in its potential to interpret and apply the law or the ability to develop that knowledge through research skills.

Any attorney is a better representative than a non-attorney because “taxes” is based on law written by the Conges and non-attorneys are not trained to research and interpret tax law.  As between two attorneys, a specialist in taxes is a better choice as the result of superior training and experience.  As between to tax attorneys who both specialize in IRS problems and controversies, a firm that has IRS experience, as we do, have better insight to the inner workings of the IRS .  Knowledge of the administrative processes of the IRS is a distinct advantage in choosing your representative.

In explaining what a tax lawyer does that other representatives cannot do, it is helpful to understand what is meant by a legal issue. Legal issues are developed from expert creative analytical, interpretative, and technical research skills.  Technical research includes: determining Congressional intent from the legislative history of the tax law; a search and analysis of the provisions of the applicable provisions of the Internal Revenue Code, Treasury tax regulations, IRS revenue rulings, private letter rulings and procedures and the IRS administrative procedures and guidelines..

The fact that tax law is complex and arcane is well known. This complexity is he reason a qualified tax attorney is in a superior position to protect a taxpayer from overpaying a tax liability - provided that attorney has strong creative, analytical and interpretative skills.  Interpretative and analytical skills involve the sophisticated ability to read tax legislation, regulations, cases and other authority to identify subtle distinctions, ambiguity or supportive facts, issues, and argument.

If the IRS is looking at your personal or business tax returns, it’s time to contact Tax Attorney Kenneth L. Sheppard, Jr., at Sheppard Law Offices.  Mr. Sheppard has built a successful national IRS Tax Resolution practice that includes handling routine as welll as complex individual and business tax issues. He is prepared to help you resolve your tax problems today!