tax planning

how we can help

Business

  • You are starting a new business and are unsure what the differences in entity choice are from a tax perspective: partnership, LP, LLC, C-Corp, S-Corp.
  • You want to plan for retirement and succession planning of your business.
  • A member of your company wants to leave the business, voluntarily or involuntarily, and you need to know the best way to structure the redemption or cross-purchase to minimize tax exposure.
  • Your partnership wants to liquidate assets and you are unsure of the tax implications for each partner.
  • You are considering restructuring your business to take advantage of changes to the tax code.

trusts & estates

  • You have been appointed personal representative of an estate or trustee of a trust and need new tax id numbers in order to open new accounts.
  • You are acting as a fiduciary and want to minimize your exposure to personal liability.
  • You need to prepare fiduciary income tax returns.
  • You need to allocate deductions between the estate tax return and fiduciary income tax return to minimize tax liability for the estate and the beneficiaries.
  • Your spouse or parent died and you inherited real property by survivorship, will or trust and want to ensure a step-up in your tax basis.

IRS Advocacy

  • You are delinquent on payment of your individual taxes.
  • You haven’t filed tax returns in years and want to reenter the system.
  • You have received an intimidating letter from the IRS.

how we work

We do an analysis of the outstanding and any potential issues and explain your options to you in plain English. We also make recommendations based on our knowledge of the relevant tax issues and your long-term goals. We find that our clients often come in to our office believing they need to know how to do X, but walk out realizing that X is only one option available to them to reach their real goals. We are here to provide you with the options available to you, and to make recommendations based on our experience and expertise.

how we charge

All of our attorneys charge by an hourly rate.  We will provide you with an estimate of the cost for your project and an engagement letter that clearly states, in plain English, the billing rates for any attorneys or staff working on your project.  We will update you with progress billings on a monthly basis and if you have any issues with your bill, you can speak directly with your attorney handling the matter.  We will not send you to a different department to discuss your bill because we think that our bills are better explained and understood by the attorney who you are already working with.

Representative cases

  • Our client’s deceased father (non-lawyer) drafted his own intervivos trust, creating a situation where his surviving spouse with advanced dementia would have owed over $100,000 in state estate tax.
  • We successfully appealed the estate tax assessment to eliminate over $100,000 in taxes.
  • Our client’s parents died within several months of each other. We created an opportunity for tax savings through use of both parents’ estates. The heirs saved over $60,000 in estate taxes.
  • Our client, a financial services firm, wanted to reorganize in order to plan for the retirement of its founder. We advised the firm on the most efficient way to structure the entity and avoid unnecessary taxes on phantom income that would otherwise have been triggered for individual partners.
  • Our clients, a medical professional and spouse, had not filed paid or filed income taxes in many years and were in danger of losing his practice and their home. We successfully negotiated with the IRS to save the home from tax sale and enter into an installment agreement. We worked with experienced CPAs to guide the client on best practices to maintain compliance moving forward.
  • The decedent had failed to file income tax returns for over 20 years. We worked with creditors, including the IRS, to disburse an insolvent estate.
  • Our client, a high net worth individual, had several million dollars stolen by a trusted advisor and passed away before resolution of the matter. We worked with a CPA to amend prior income tax returns to secure refunds for the estate.