The Tax Law practice at Offit Kurman advises businesses, owners, executives, fiduciaries, families, and individuals on complex federal, state, local, and international tax matters. The team provides practical guidance across the full tax lifecycle, from planning and structuring to audits, administrative disputes, litigation, collection defense, and appeals.
Tax issues rarely exist in isolation. They often arise in business transactions, ownership disputes, estate planning, employment matters, real estate projects, government investigations, and high-stakes litigation. As part of a full-service national law firm, our attorneys work across practice groups to deliver coordinated legal strategies that address both the tax issue and the broader business or personal consequences.
Tax Planning and Business Tax Counsel
The practice advises clients on tax planning and structuring designed to support growth, compliance, succession, and efficiency. The team helps clients evaluate tax consequences before key business and personal decisions are made.
Services include:
- Federal, state, and local tax planning
- Business tax planning for corporations, partnerships, limited liability companies, and pass-through entities
- Tax planning for mergers, acquisitions, reorganizations, and business sales
- Entity formation, restructuring, and tax efficient ownership planning
- Tax issues in financing, real estate, and investment transactions
- International tax planning and cross-border business issues
- Executive compensation and employee benefit tax matters
- Estate, gift, trust, and succession tax planning
- Charitable giving strategies
- Tax-exempt organization matters
- Tax compliance, reporting, and disclosure obligations
Tax Controversy and Litigation
The firm also represents taxpayers in disputes with the IRS, state taxing authorities, local tax agencies, and other government bodies. The practice handles tax matters at every stage, including pre audit counseling, examination, administrative appeal, settlement negotiations, Tax Court litigation, federal refund litigation, district court litigation, collection proceedings, and appellate matters.
Tax disputes can affect cash flow, operations, reputation, ownership decisions, and long-term planning. Our attorneys work with clients to assess risk, preserve procedural rights, develop the factual record, and pursue the most effective path to resolution.
Representative tax controversy and litigation matters include:
- IRS examinations and administrative appeals
- U.S. Tax Court deficiency litigation
- Federal refund claims and refund litigation
- State and local tax audits, assessments, and appeals
- Collection defense, liens, levies, seizures, installment agreements, and offers in compromise
- Trust fund recovery penalty disputes
- Civil tax penalties, accuracy related penalties, fraud penalties, and reasonable cause defenses
- Promoter penalty investigations and litigation
- Employee Retention Credit audits, disallowances, penalties, and refund disputes
- PPP tax related disputes, forgiveness issues, and government review matters
- Employment tax disputes and worker classification issues
- International tax compliance disputes, foreign reporting penalties, FBAR matters, and offshore disclosure issues
- Tax fraud, evasion, and parallel civil and criminal tax investigations
- Innocent spouse relief and equitable relief claims
- Bankruptcy related tax claims and priority disputes
- Partnership, S corporation, and pass-through entity tax disputes
- Research and development credit disputes
- Excise tax, information reporting, and withholding tax matters
- Real estate, property tax, transfer tax, and probate related tax disputes
Integrated Tax Counsel for Businesses and Individuals
Clients include closely held businesses, entrepreneurs, family-owned companies, executives, investors, partnerships, corporations, nonprofit organizations, trusts, estates, fiduciaries, and individuals. Attorneys coordinate with accountants, financial advisors, valuation professionals, and internal business teams to provide practical and legally sound tax advice.
Whether a client is planning a transaction, responding to an IRS notice, defending an audit, challenging an assessment, managing collection risk, or preparing for litigation, the practice provides guidance designed to protect the client's position, preserve available options, and address procedural and substantive tax issues effectively.
