Tax Lawyer Job Description

The requirements for tax lawyers involve detailed knowledge on tax laws coupled with strong communication skills and negotiation tactics. The job description of a tax attorney includes helping taxpayers and businesses (of all sizes) on various tax related issues like income tax, estate, excise, property, gift tax along with advising on state, federal, local as well as foreign taxes. The lawyer puts together documents on tax liabilities based on past and future transactions. They also create tax saving plans and counsel on preparations involved in tax activities.

Great Income Tax

The job of a tax attorney also includes investigating legal cases for a specific area of business law. The lawyer needs to develop an image of probable legal issues or the effect of recent rules and regulatory or legislative changes. They help clients in issues associated with the Internal Revenue Service by negotiating with the IRS for the client’s benefit. At times the lawyer might not be able to escape the penalties that might the client has been ordered to pay. They are usually able to reduce the penalty to the minimum and bring about substantial improvement in the client’s financial condition. It is a part of the job description for a tax lawyer to offer counsel to the client regularly to keep them aware of the kinds of problems which might arise in the future with regard to the IRS or taxes.

A tax attorney needs to keep up-to-date on the changes to tax laws and IRS regulations and put in enough effort to excel in this specialization. A good tax lawyer will be able to understand the information given by the client and devise strategies to solve any financial problems which might arise.

The job description of tax lawyers includes the following criteria :

• With regards to education qualification, a tax lawyer should be a Juris Doctor (also known as JD or Attorney at Law) as well as have some financial and accounting understanding, being a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) or having an undergraduate background in finance is often given preference.
• An experienced tax lawyer needs to have contributed substantially in the field of US tax planning, both federal as well as state. Experience can be gained by working in a law firm or being self-employed.
• Along with excellent communication skills and negotiation ability, a tax lawyer must be able to interact with many people like officials in the corporate tax department, senior people in the finance department of the law firm as well as many officials in the Internal Revenue Service, public accountings and other related firms.
• Handle evaluation, risk assessment and counseling on various complicated tax problems.
• Execute project related tax research and analysis based on Federal and State tax laws.
• Undertake tax basis calculations and other related tax studies.
• Counsel the client on the consequences of new and updated federal and state tax laws that affect the client’s business.
• Maintain the tax records and keep up with all filing deadlines related to taxes for the client.
• Maintain confidentiality of records and tax information for the business.