Tax Planning Attorney Dallas, TX
Tax planning is the proactive, legally authorized process of arranging one’s financial affairs to minimize tax liability within the boundaries of federal and state law. It is not tax evasion. The key goals include minimizing the overall tax burden, deferring taxable income, maximizing deductions and credits, structuring businesses efficiently, and engaging in estate and succession planning. Under both federal law and Texas law, taxpayers have a legally recognized right to structure their transactions to reduce taxes, provided such transactions have genuine economic substance and legitimate business purpose beyond tax avoidance. A tax attorney offers distinct advantages over a CPA, financial planner, or self-representation. The most critical advantage of having a tax lawyer in your tax planning corner are concerned with areas; such as, attorney-client privilege, the attorney’s exclusive legal authority to draft binding legal instruments, and the attorney’s exclusive ability to litigate tax disputes in court.
The risks of foregoing qualified legal tax planning are substantial, including accuracy-related penalties, audit exposure, and, in the worst cases, criminal prosecution. Non-lawyers cannot represent taxpayers or others in criminal court. Nor can non-lawyers advise taxpayers or others regarding criminal matters; and tax planning deals with what a taxpayer can and cannot do legally without committing tax fraud or engaging in tax evasion. Both are illegal and, in my opinion, should end the discussion as to whether to hire a lawyer, CPA, or other type of advisor or self-represent yourself.
Why Hire A Tax Attorney in Texas
Tax planning is the deliberate analysis and arrangement of a taxpayer’s financial situation to maximize tax efficiency. It encompasses both prospective advice—structuring transactions, investments, and business entities before they occur—and retrospective compliance review. The U.S. Supreme Court since the early 1930’s has established important principles underlying tax planning. These long-standing principles are that, although, taxpayers may legally reduce taxes through means the law permits, transactions must have genuine business purpose and economic substance beyond tax avoidance to qualify for favorable tax treatment under the statute. Hidden within this SCOTUS guidance is the complexities of tax planning. Courts impose important limits on tax planning. Only lawyers are trained to interpret and apply legal principles and advise others on the law; including tax law.
Tax planning must be distinguished sharply from tax evasion. Legal tax planning operates entirely within the law and relies on deductions, credits, elections, timing choices, and legal entities available under the Internal Revenue Code (IRC). Tax evasion, by contrast, is a federal felony: any person who willfully attempts to evade or defeat any tax “shall be guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof be punished with substantial jail time.
The prohibition on non-attorneys providing legal services—including the drafting of tax-advantaged trusts, entity formation documents, or complex transactional agreements—means that a CPA or financial planner who ventures into this territory does so at legal risk, and any instruments they draft may be legally defective. In Texas, non-lawyers providing legal advice is a felony. Moreover, as for tax planning, the major and probably the most important reason to hire a tax attorney in tax planning is the robustness of the attorney-client privilege. The attorney-client privilege protects confidential communications made for the purpose of obtaining legal advice from an attorney, including tax advice sought from a tax lawyer. The Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Justice Department recognize this attorney-client privilege. This privilege is absolute, survives subpoenas, grand jury investigations, and IRS summonses, and applies in both civil and criminal proceedings.
But in stock contrast, there is no general accountant-client privilege under federal law. SCOTUS has repeatedly stated this. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that sits over Texas federal courts likewise has ruled the limited scope of the accountant-client privilege. Although Congress created a limited statutory privilege for “federally authorized tax practitioner” (including CPAs and enrolled agents) in IRC § 7525, codified at 26 USCA § 7525; this statutory privilege is significantly weaker than the attorney-client privilege in three critical respects: (1) it does not apply in criminal tax proceedings, meaning communications with a CPA are fully discoverable if the IRS refers a matter to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution; (2) it does not apply to communications regarding tax shelters; and (3) it applies only to tax advice, not to the accounting, return-preparation, and financial-advisory work that comprises most of a CPA’s practice. Tax Attorney’s are careful not to give accounting advice or provide accounting services. Tax lawyers serve as lawyers at all times.
Why Choose the Tax Planning Attorneys at Coleman Jackson, P.C. for Representation in a Tax Planning in Texas?
As experienced tax attorneys, we can represent clients in tax planning, estate planning, asset protection, complex trusts, probate and wills administration matters throughout Texas including:
- Drafting binding legal instruments. Tax-advantaged structures trusts; such as, revocable, irrevocable, charitable remainder, grantor retained annuity trusts. Drafting and advising families with respect to wills, family limited partnerships, buy-sell agreements, international tax matters. Advising and counseling business owners with respect to business entity formation documents and compliance with State and Federal laws, such as the Corporate Transparency Act (BOI Reporting Requirements) and other tax related challenges.
- Tax Court litigation and judicial proceedings. Our tax lawyers represent clients in U.S. Tax Court, U.S. Court of Federal Claims and District Courts in the Northern District of Texas and Eastern District of Texas. We also represent clients in the State Courts of Texas in SALT tax matters.
- Legal opinions. Our tax attorneys research tax issues, counsel taxpayer on all sorts of tax issues, and issue tax opinions to individuals, businesses, and other organizations with respect to international tax matters, pre-immigration tax matters, federal tax matters, and state and local tax (SALT) matters.
Need an Experienced Tax Planning Attorney, Counselor and Tax Advocate in Texas?
Contact , today the experienced Texas Tax Planning Attorneys, Counselors and Tax Advocates at Coleman Jackson, P.C. today at (214) 599-0431 for assistance with all of your tax planning needs.
