In this week's episode, Travis discusses Tax Attorneys vs CPAs - Which one can provide the best IRS help when I need to solve a tax problem?
In this week's episode, Travis discusses Tax Attorneys vs CPAs - Which one can provide the best IRS help when I need to solve a tax problem?
Well, it's definitely been a challenging time lately due to recent events, the IRS gave us extensions and some leniency while they were shut down. Anyway. Well, no more. Take it from us here at Travis Watkins tax, the IRS is back and they're back with a vengeance. I mean, somebody's gonna have to pay back those government stimulus pro right. Well, there's good news. The IRS's fresh start initiative is still around, and guess what? It's operating much better than we even expected. Lots of our clients are paying less sometimes substantially less than they owe with the help of the initiative and Travis Watkins tax. It truly is a once an in a lifetime chance to wipe the slate clean and get back into the tax system. Do you want some help with your taxes right now? I want you to call 8 4 4 9 5 8 1 1 7 8 and set up a time to chat with us about your tax problems and getting them fixed today. Don't wait around any longer. There's a window here that may soon close where the IRS sees enough economic recovery, generally, to cut back on these historic deals and you don't wanna miss out on that. Call us here at(844) 958-1178, or log onto Watkins podcast.com and be sure to mention the fresh start initiative. So we know to give you first priority in getting you handled immediately.
Speaker 2:IRS problems are scary, but they don't have to be. Travis Watkins has been helping trouble tax payers with customized plans to negotiate with the IRS and stop immediate threats to their livelihood so they can get a good night's sleep again since 1999. Now here's Travis,
Speaker 1:Everybody, Travis Watkin tax attorney, talking to you today about, uh, the differences between two types of professionals that can talk to the IRS on a taxpayer's behalf, the tax attorney versus the CPA or certified public accountant, uh, which one can provide the best IRS help when I need to solve a tax problem. That's the question that we get all the time at my office at Travis Watkins tax and thought this was, would be a great time to kind of break that down for everybody. We're talking about IRS health professionals, in other words, which, uh, professional is the best one to hire when I owe the IRS and want to save on taxes. So to be clear here, full disclosure, I am a tax attorney. I am somewhat biased. I'm not a CPA, but I've done thousands of tax resolution cases. And I think I've seen, you know, enough to know kind of what the difference is as it relates to tax resolution folks, um, to be clear even more, we're talking about tax resolution, prospects and clients that are in trouble with the IRS right now. Um, in other words, we're not doing tax planning, those ships have already sailed. Um, we are talking about being in the throws of a IRS problem with, at the IRS. Okay. So look at everything under that lens and hopefully that's you, if you're watching this video, um, these again also are very general things. These are not, uh, across the board things. They are observations of a tax attorney myself that, uh, has been in the trenches with the IRS, uh, for over 20 many years. And this is what we've seen. We're talking about five different types of professionals here really that are, uh, able to talk to the IRS on a S behalf there's tax attorneys. Of course, there are these certified public accountants CPAs. There are a class of professionals called enrolled agents. We're not talking about those folks today. There are also, uh, enrolled retirement plan agents not talking about them. There are enrolled actuaries as well. That's five. We're not talking about those folks. We're talking about tax attorney versus CPA today. All right, let me talk to you first about what are the similarities between, uh, the tax attorney and the CPA. First of all, we're talking about very well educated, well schooled, I guess, uh, folks, people that have, uh, been through, uh, plenty of, uh, learning at the I or at the, uh, college level, first of all, and then taking a, an exam to, uh, to be able to talk to the IRS. The CPA does 150 hours of college credit and passes the uniform CPA examination. That's got four parts, it's got auditing and atta business environment and concepts, financial accounting, and reporting and regulation. Okay. That's what the, uh, CPA has to go through in order to be able to represent a taxpayer, the tax attorney. On the other hand, in my state, at least we have to have, uh, a college degree, gotta have three years of law school, and you've gotta take a two part bar examination. The first part is the multi-state bar examination. That's the, uh, a multiple choice test that everybody that's taking the bar exam on particular day in America is all taking this at the same time, although different orders in the tests, it tests knowledge over everything that we learned in law school, including, uh, civil procedure contracts towards all those things that we, that we learned in law school day two, uh, the bar examination is usually a state specific law examination. Some states, uh, they have three part or three days of bar examination, such as Texas. They have an similarity between the tax attorney and the CPA is that both can talk to the IRS for a taxpayer to co to accomplish IRS help. And that means something beyond just calling the IRS phone number or IRS customer service phone number to obtain IRS customer service, uh, which most taxpayers could do on their own if you've got the time to talk to them and the patients to be hung up on cetera, et cetera at the IRS. So again, that's what we're talking about here. Both types of tax professionals can talk to the IRS on taxpayers' behalf third, most CPAs and tax attorneys deal with self-employed individuals. When we're talking about tax resolution W2, a earners don't seem to get in nearly as many entanglements with the IRS at this level. We're usually talking about people that own their own businesses or 10 99 folks. So that's the last similarity between the, the, uh, CPA and the tax attorney. Let's talk about the differences. Um, in my experience, CPAs have been, um, they are capable of dealing with tax resolution of course, and able to talk to the IRS. Although it's been my experience that they are, uh, better for issues, tax issues related to, uh, tax planning, uh, sometimes forensic type accounting. In other words, um, looking historically at something, uh, going back in someone's financial, uh, past and, uh, solving the problem, solving an issue in that regard also audits they're all, um, fairly skilled at audits. In other words, the mechanics of a tax problem. And what I mean by that, usually when we're, when we're talking about tax in the tax resolution environment, CPAs are, are just much better when, when there's numbers at issue. In other words, I don't owe with a tax is the, uh, taxpayer's position. And it's going back in time and figuring out what the arguments are. Um, and, and the actual proof to show that either a tax isn't owed or less tax, uh, should be owed attorneys on the other hand tax attorneys deal with in this niche, in this, in the tax resolution niche, we deal with, um, situations where most of the time the tax itself is not at issue. In other words, I'm not as a tax payer saying that I don't know the tax, that's a foregone conclusion at this point again, it's we deal with folks usually when, uh, when we know that there's a tax owed and the taxpayer is in trouble, they're looking for alternatives to collection. In other words, looking for something short of Levy's liens, uh, seizure of assets, cetera. So CPA better for things that relate generally to, uh, I don't know, the tax attorneys better at things I owe the tax, but there's some argument for why the IC there can't collect it all in the time that has to collect it, or there should be some other alternative, like a partial pay installment agreement, for instance, and offer and compromise some type of IRS settlement. Hey podcast, while it's fresh on your mind, go to Watkins podcast.com. If you need some help with a tax problem, or you're ready to start getting back on track with your company's financial future, through our comprehensive bookkeeping services, there's a simple forum on that site to fill out and someone will call you right back with information on how we can help you the call's free, and you might just end up getting a good night's sleep again tonight, again, go to Watkins podcast.com or if you're ready right now, and wanna speak to someone immediately call us at(844) 958-1178 that's 8 4 4 9 5 8 1 1 7 8. Now, back to your podcast, attorneys are just natural advocates in my experience. In other words, we've gone through law school, we've gone. A lot of us have done other, uh, types of law. For instance, I was a, uh, commercial litigator for 10 years before, uh, going all in with tax resolution. I brought with me from that niche, uh, the ability to advocate effectively for a client to write on their behalf, to speak on their behalf and to, uh, to fight the IRS and something that is kind of baked into, uh, the attorney's education and experience something that the CPA doesn't necessarily bring to the table finally, and most important. The difference between tax attorneys and CPAs is that a tax attorney can go to court. And what that means is, uh, the IRS can be held accountable for, uh, any decision or action that it makes because the IRS always looks at high level decisions in terms of, uh, what are the likelihoods, what's the likelihood that we're going to end up in court over this issue that we're, uh, um, making this decision that we're making relating to this taxpayer, and that takes resources from the government that takes, uh, time. Um, it, it takes them away from other, uh, tasks that they're supposed to be administering there at the IRS that they're looking, they're weighing their decisions based on will this tax who may be represented by a tax attorney gonna take us to court. Um, the CPAs, the other designations that we talked about, they are not able, as of right, like an attorney is to go straight to tax court, um, something like 20 or so I think CPAs and other, uh, you know, enrolled agents and all those other things that we talked about, take the exam. You must take an exam at tax court. If you're not an attorney to be able to practice and advocate there. And very few of, uh, the, as other designations actually go through with that. So if you're, uh, hiring a tax attorney, you know, that they have as of right that tool, uh, in, in their, uh, toolbox to be able to represent you and take the IRS to task, hold them accountable in court. Uh, here at Travis Watkins tax, we have both types of professionals. We have CPAs, we have tax attorneys, we have enrolled agents as well. And, uh, all of these designations can practice in all 50 states. Uh, you don't have to make the decision. Should I hire this professional or this type of professional, because we've got,'em all here at our office. And we put those folks to work in, uh, in the best capabilities that they have that I've discussed in order to get the best possible deal for you. If you owe the IRS for more information on this, if you've got further questions or you'd like to talk with us further about, uh, representing you, you with a tax problem, see the information in the description below this will be on several different platforms. So there will be some description there that will give you some contact information to talk to one of our IRS help experts to, uh, get you some help and relief today. All right, well, it's definitely been a challenging time lately due to we events, the IRS gave us extensions and some leniency while they were shut down anyway. Well, no more take it from us here at Travis Watkins tax, the IRS is back and they're back with a vengeance. I mean, somebody's gonna have to pay back those government stimulus programs, right? Well, there's good news. The IRS is fresh. Start initiative is still around. And guess what? It's operating much better than we even expected. Lots of our clients are paying less sometimes substantially less than they owe with the help of the initiative and Travis Watkins tax. It truly is a once and a lifetime chance to wipe the slate clean and get back into the tax system. Do you want some help with your taxes right now? I want you to call 8 4 4 9 5 8 1 1 7 8 and set up a time to chat with us about your tax problems and getting them fixed today. Don't wait around any longer. There's a window here that may close where the IRS sees enough economic recovery, generally, to cut back on these historic deals. And you don't wanna miss out on that. Call us here at(844) 958-1178, or log on to Watkins podcast.com and be sure to mention the fresh start initiative. So we know to give you you first priority in getting you handled immediately, have a great day.