For Arizona Taxpayers - Why use a local tax attorney to help you deal with the IRS?
Licensed Attorneys, Certified Public Accountants, and "Enrolled Agents" are allowed to represent clients in front of the Internal Revenue Service. Licensed Attorneys are automatically allowed to be admitted to practice before the U.S. Tax Court. CPAs and Enrolled Agents must pass a rigorous exam.
Anyone on the other hand, can own a business that "sells" tax controversy and resolution services to taxpayers nationwide. This ability to "sell" tax resolution services with little oversight has led to a tremendous amount of misinformation about a taxpayer's ability to deal with overwhelming tax debt.
I receive a number of calls from taxpayers who are certain, based on an ad or telephone sales pitch, that they will be able to simply settle their tax debt for a very small amount.
Many who call have paid the company, went through the process, and failed.
Not only have they failed, they don't really understand why, and probably paid a large sum for the opportunity.
Attorneys have as a profession become the butt of many jokes. Many are quite funny. Most attorneys I know however are smart, hardworking and have the best interests of the client at heart.
For these reasons as well as the following, I always encourage taxpayers to talk to a real, live, licensed, experienced, and local tax controversy attorney before deciding what to do about their tax debt.
1. Lawyers Are Regulated
Attorneys have all sorts of legal obligations placed on them by various regulatory systems that have been set up to ensure the highest standards of representation. These include state ethics rules, and IRS rules of practice. No CPA or Enrolled Agent is held to a standard as high as an attorney. Tax controversy businesses are unregulated. These regulations ensure that most attorneys are as mentioned above, hardworking and conscientious.
