To ensure a smooth flow of transactions and to avoid confusion and mistakes, every financial organization is required to appoint a designated accountants and legal advisers. Accountants will keep track of the financial transactions and ensure that the organization follows appropriate set of rules and regulations. A tax attorney is more of a legal adviser.
They are usually hired by organizations to guide them through the maze of taxation and help them to decide whether to make a particular transaction or not. These accountants and legal advisers will ensure that the organization follows the rules and regulations that are specifically laid down by the government and are applicable in any given situation.
The tax attorneys are also required to ensure that the organization does not violate any existing laws. The following table helps in differentiating the accountants and legal advisers. Accountants Legal Advisers Tax professionals are legally required to be registered with the government authorities, hence their speciality is the tax law. Tax law can also be considered as the business law.
They are not generally involved in matters of general administration and policies. A tax accountant’s main task is to ensure that the taxes, which are taken on, are properly charged to the right party. As mentioned, the tax attorney can take any decision regarding taxes in most of the cases. The main difference between an accountant and a tax attorney is the professional nature of each. They are both important aspects of an organization and a successful relationship between both of them is extremely important.
Tax professionals like accountants and lawyers play a very important role in the global economy. So, we must always remain aware of what the laws say, even though we are not dealing with any legal issues. The most important difference between an accountant and a tax attorney is that while an accountant will ensure that the tax and other necessary taxes are paid on the basis of their calculations and research, tax attorneys will not make any calculations and their job will be more for advising on the basis of the client’s need and making a recommendation about it.
Tax lawyers are more likely to have received a degree in a relevant field, as well as have studied more tax law and are employed by a law firm. Most lawyers specialize in specific areas of the law, including criminal law, probate and estate law, tax law, or business law. In addition to having a degree in a field relevant to taxation, tax lawyers also have to pass the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) Examination, obtained their Tax Law Specialist (TLS) designation and passed a specialty exam, all of which tax accountants are required to do. How much do lawyers charge? With the passage of the Tax Reform Act of 1986, federal income tax rates were changed dramatically. As a result, the number of tax attorneys more than doubled over the next 15 years.
Now, there are over 300,000 tax lawyers in the U.S. With this abundance of tax attorneys in the market, how can you find a skilled one who will represent you? How much does a tax lawyer cost? The average hourly rate is $250 per hour, but this doesn’t mean that a tax attorney will cost you this much. First, an hourly rate does not provide you with a complete picture of how much a tax lawyer will charge you for his or her services.
For example, the average hourly rate of $250 does not take into consideration the following variables:
• Whether the work will be performed on a contingency-fee basis
• Whether the attorney will make a pre-settlement offer
• Whether you will provide pre-settlement documents • Whether you will give an attorney a retainer
• Whether there will be a trial • Whether the attorney will charge for travel time
• Whether the attorney will charge for hours spent on a particular matter
• Whether there will be future fee enhancements
• Whether there will be fees or taxes incurred during the appeal
• Whether the attorney will take a contingency fee For these and other reasons, don’t be lulled into a false sense of security thinking that a $250 hourly rate will keep your legal costs to a minimum. The following list of five variables that affect the price of hiring a tax lawyer will help you decide whether to hire one or not:
• Pre-settlement costs – A pre-settlement offer from the IRS to its tax clients is a rare occurrence. Most times when a taxpayer needs a tax attorney, it is because the IRS is disputing the taxpayer’s position. Because the IRS has already invested a lot of time and resources into the matter, they are reluctant to reconsider a pre-settlement offer to a taxpayer they believe they have a good case against. So, if the IRS is offering you a pre-settlement offer, make sure you talk to a tax attorney about your rights as a client under the Internal Revenue Code, in addition to the terms of the pre-settlement offer. By hiring a tax attorney, you have a much greater chance of getting the maximum result in your case.
• Case value
• Attorney’s billing rate
• Experience
• Time frame to final settlement or judgement
• The client’s net worth When hiring a tax attorney, you want to make sure that you are hiring a tax attorney who has lots of experience and can help guide you through the process of filing your tax return and determining your correct tax liability.
If you are interested in more details about how tax attorneys could assist you with tax debts, give a call at (888)489-4889 for a free consultation today.