With tax season right on your doorstep, it may be very tempting to follow Wesley Snipes's example and declare yourself a tax denier, and not pay your income taxes on the grounds that you believe you don't owe them.
While that may be fine to believe in your own mind, you can't live that way in the real world. Here, if you fall behind or fail to pay your taxes, you could find yourself facing considerable jail time and heavy fines. And if the tax rates increase, you could end up owing the IRS more than you make, which will make paying off everything you owe virtually impossible.
Paying tax in a gray area
Most people have ordinary jobs with salaries that have withholding. As such, they rarely get into deep trouble with the IRS, unless they get in over their heads with gambling or something similar.
However, if you run a business or are self-employed, you could find yourself in a gray area outside the typical paycheck-withholding system. Maybe you didn't realize what taxes you had to pay or when you needed to file your return, or something weird just happens. It could be just an honest mistake, but it's one that could cripple your business.
The next thing you know, you've got the IRS sitting outside your door. They've seized one of your bank accounts, and they're going after everybody who has any connection to your business in an effort to get their money back.
Why you shouldn't try to deal with the IRS yourself
The first problem many people run in to is that they don't understand that everything they say to any IRS employee is being memorialized. It is possible that IRS personnel could mistake what a person says, which could even result in an indictment for making a false statement to a federal officer. If you're already a year or two behind, why risk getting into more trouble by interfacing with the IRS yourself?
Tax law is an extremely complex field. For more than 100 years now, tax lawyers have been finding ingenious ways of helping their clients avoid tax, and the tax writers have come up with equally ingenious ways of eliminating those loopholes. With all that legislation on the books, it takes somebody who specializes in tax law and keeps up with it on a regular basis to know what to do when the IRS comes calling.
What to look for in a tax lawyer
Hiring a tax lawyer is perhaps the most important decision you'll have to make when dealing with the IRS. If you hire a lawyer with insufficient training and experience, he can take your money and not even know what he's doing. When you're already behind on taxes, this lack of experience can get you into even deeper trouble.
Most people go to accountants about tax problems. Unfortunately, accountants are not trained in how to handle real litigation. They also have only a very limited confidentiality privilege, a huge problem when you're dealing with the IRS because you've fallen behind.
Look for a lawyer who has a specialized degree in taxation, and preferably graduated from a nationally recognized law school like the NYU School of Law. You should also look at peer-reviewed ratings like those published by Martindale-Hubbell, or seek recommendations from judges and other lawyers. When you're dealing with the IRS, you need a tax lawyer who knows what he's doing, and has the credentials to back it up.
If you're too far behind on your taxes, the only person you can talk to about fixing it is a tax lawyer. Don't put your livelihood at risk by declaring yourself a tax denier or trying to interface with the IRS yourself. If you're behind on your taxes, find a reputable tax lawyer today and save yourself and your business.
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