Should You Hire a Tax attorney?
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- Category :Taxes
The complex nature of tax laws and tax accounts often makes it essential to hire the services of a tax attorney. In particular, there are certain situations, where hiring an attorney in a planned manner, before being faced with a crisis, is a better option that no doing so. Good tax advice can help you plan your affairs, an having an attorney to represent you can save a lot of headache when faced with a tax audit.
Tax Laws are some of the most complicated laws ever conceptualized by mankind. If that was not reason enough to hire a tax attorney, the personal liabilities and adverse consequences that may follow on making an error in your tax statement should surely make you hire an expert and leave it to him to decide. This does not mean that you need not be aware of your tax affairs. It is just that appropriate expert advice can save you a lot of time and trouble.
Taxes are complicated enough to tempt you with hiring a tax attorney every time you hear the word 'tax'. However, the services of an attorney including those who deal in taxes do not come cheap. So it is important to understand when you should really lean on them to help you out.
If You are a Very Busy Professional
First of all, if you are a very busy and successful professional who has more dollars than minutes to spare, it is better to consult an attorney and get your affairs managed through her.
Usually the professional income allows you to claim deduction on account of expenses, and you will be better off in claiming those deductions with the advice of an expert. Thus, the likelihood is that by hiring an attorney, you will be saving more in taxes than what you might have to pay her for her services. Needles to say that the higher is your income, more beneficial it would to be hire the services of a tax attorney.
If you have a business establishment and hire employees
Second, if you have your own establishment, where you are also hiring some workers to work for you, it is better that you do retain the services of at least a part time tax consultant, unless of course you are already hiring an efficient accountant who can do that job. There are a number of obligations on the part of the employer for deduction of pay roll taxes, social security and withholding of taxes from other payments and you will need expert advice to make sure you do not land in trouble with the tax authorities on these accounts. The payroll tax obligations as well as social security obligations can be not only cumbersome, but also complicated, and the payment of tax adviser’s services would be fully justified by taking off your head. More the number of your employees, more essential these services are likely to be.
When treading in Tax Darkness
Third, if you fall in some special category where you wish to claim certain benefits, but are are not sure as to whether you are on the right side of the law while availing your rights, you should preferably make sure by visiting a tax consultant. At the least it will reassure you and give you peace of mind. Sometimes it can also save you from a lot of potential trouble. This kind of situation can result either when your financial and income status undergoes a change, so that it brings you into a new category, or when the laws and regulations change, such as with amendment of laws, or sometimes, when laws make you eligible for some new benefits. Hiring a tax attorney’s services can help you manage these changes better.
When faced with a Tax Audit
Lastly, when you are facing a tax audit, then you better hire the services of a tax attorney, even if you have not willingly indulged in any tax evasion practices. The reason for this is that the tax code is complicated enough for keeping you on the edge of your seats, and the procedural formalities, the technical issues and your lack of confidence can end up creating a lot of uncertainty and anxiety even if everything is in order. This is one situation where you do not have much option, and will have to choose a tax attorney for yourself, unless of course, you are a tax law wizard yourself.
There are also other times when you need not be bothered about a tax attorney. If you yourself understand the tax code broadly enough to the extent it is applicable in your case, if you have some past experience of dealing with tax authorities and you are not going to be too anxious this time either, if you have your own financial affairs within your grasp and are educated enough to understand tax law, then you can certainly give the tax attorney a slip.
But when you do so, you must be sure about what you are doing!
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