Tax Lawyer –Virginia, Maryland, D.C. and Pennsylvania
We help clients manage and resolve overwhelming
tax problems, and would be glad to assist
you in any way we can. You don't have to
face the government alone.
Our hard-won
experience in dealing with the IRS leads
many other lawyers and accountants to
refer their clients to us for help with
such problems. Our efforts are informed
by many years of experience both
in private practice and with the IRS itself.
As a tax attorney and former IRS
special agent, Mr. Haynes assists clients
in Virginia, Maryland, Washington D.C.,
as well as throughout the country.
We routinely handle complex and difficult
cases involving IRS seizures,
tax levies and garnishments, federal
and state tax liens, innocent spouse
issues, collection due process hearings,
IRS audits and appeals, offers in
compromise, requests for abatement
of penalties, IRS tax fraud and failure
to file investigations, payroll tax
delinquencies, trust fund recovery
penalties, and allegations of white
collar crime including tax evasion,
willful failure to file, embezzlement,
bank fraud, currency
structuring and money laundering.
How can we help you?
Living with overwhelming
tax debts can destroy your personal
and financial life. But tax problems
that seem insurmountable can be resolved
with diligence, creativity, and experience.
We enjoy nothing more than helping
clients solve these painful problems
and giving them a fresh start, free
of their IRS fears and concerns. It
can be done.
We extend a 15%
courtesy discount to active duty and
retired military personnel, law enforcement
officers, firefighters and teachers.
We respect, appreciate and value your
service to our country.
The D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue announced an amnesty program to run from August 2, 2010, to September 30, 2010. During the amnesty taxpayers can resolve their unpaid D.C. tax liabilities with no civil penalties, and without the fear of criminal prosecution. In cases in which penalties have already been assessed, these penalties will be abated upon payment of the tax and the related interest. Most kinds of D.C. tax are eligible, including income tax, sales tax, payroll tax and personal property tax. Taxes for tax year 2009 are not eligible, but taxes for all prior years are eligible, and can be settled under the program at a substantial savings.
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The Maryland and Virginia tax agencies implemented brief amnesty programs last fall, and both are now over. Indeed, Virginia is adding a 5% penalty to all taxes that could have been settled under the amnesty and were not. And so collection action on all delinquent state taxes has resumed, with Virginia being particularly aggressive in seeking to collect taxes from many years in the past. (We complained about this policy, which unfairly targets taxpayers for taxes so old that no one could be expected to still have records. Read Mr. Haynes’ letter to the Chairman of the Virginia Senate Finance Committee [link], and the response from the Virginia Department of Taxation [link]. Maryland has not added any new penalties, but its interest rate continues to be a whopping 13%. Both Virginia and Maryland have offer in compromise programs, and with the conclusion of the amnesty programs, this is often the best means to reduce or eliminate penalties. If you owe back taxes to Maryland or Virginia, please contact us for assistance.
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The IRS’s recent initiative aimed at “encouraging” the disclosure of previously hidden offshore accounts is also over. The settlement program was due to expire on September 23, 2009, but was extended to October 15, 2009. The IRS is now struggling to work through the backlog of cases submitted during the amnesty program, and in many cases is unfairly changing the rules after taxpayers made their submissions in reliance on the program as the IRS explained it in its previous pronouncements. The IRS has vowed to actively pursue criminal charges in new offshore cases, including many that would have been covered by the IRS’s decades old voluntary disclosure policy, and even if information about the taxpayer has not already been provided to the IRS by banks that are now cooperating with the IRS, such as UBS and other previously secretive Swiss financial institutions. READ MORE >>
Be Careful Who You Hire
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August 23, 2010: California Attorney General Files Fraud Complaint Against Roni Lynn Deutch. In the category of “be careful who you hire,” the California Attorney General’s Office has filed a $34,000,000 fraud complaint against TV infomercial “tax resolution” promoter Roni Deutch, in what the complaint calls a “heartless scheme” to swindle thousands of dollars from people with tax collection problems. The complaint alleges that Deutch misleads consumers by promising to reduce their debts to the IRS. Instead, she takes large, up-front payments from them but provides little or no help in reducing their tax bills. Deutch allegedly spends $3 million a year on advertising, much of it on late-night TV, using false testimonials from clients who claim her firm saved them thousands of dollars in tax debts. In her “boiler room,” callers seeking help are subjected to high-pressure sales tactics and misleading information, including claims that the firm has a 99 percent success rate in dealing with IRS. Through her scheme, Deutch escalates costs for clients by placing them in an endless loop of requests for duplicate documents that increases her fees, and increases penalties and interest her clients owe to IRS, according to the Attorney General. The complaint and request for preliminary injunction are available at http://ag.ca.gov/cms_attachments/press/pdfs/n1978_complaint.pdf and http://ag.ca.gov/cms_attachments/press/pdfs/n1978_pi_brief.pdf.
BJ
Haynes is a tax and IRS lawyer who assists clients with tax problems,
IRS problems, tax liens, tax audits, tax returns, tax evasion, tax fraud,
tax court, IRS audits, IRS levies, IRS criminal investigations. The law
office of Burton J. Haynes, PC practices in all states including Virginia,
Maryland, and Washington DC with both civil and criminal tax problems.
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