Tax Court Lawyers in Greenville
A tax court is a venue that authorizes legal disputes relating to taxes to be resolved in an orderly, efficient manner.
At the national level, we have the United States Tax Court, which has locations all over the country. This means that there is an U.S. tax court in or near Greenville, North Carolina.
Federal tax court is the place to litigate all disputes arising out of tax law, if the relevant tax obligations has not already been paid. While other federal courts, such as the U.S. District Court or the Court of Federal Claims, can hear tax matters, they can only hear tax cases after the tax has been paid.
Tax Court Procedure in Greenville, North Carolina
Claims dealing with tax law can come from any dispute that has to do with one's duty to pay taxes in Greenville, North Carolina. This normally happens when the state or federal tax authorities allege that someone has failed to pay their taxes, and therefore owes the government money. If the taxpayer disagrees, a tax court has to resolve the issue.
The judges who preside over U.S. Tax Courts are appointed by the President. They serve terms of 15 years. When their terms expire, the vast majority of these judges are simply re-appointed by whichever president is in office at the time, so most tax court judges effectively serve for life, or until they retire.
Tax courts in the U.S. have a few unique features. Perhaps most notably, people who are not admitted to practice law in North Carolina, or in any other jurisdiction, are authorized to represent clients in tax court. However, non-lawyers must take, and pass, a fairly difficult exam to demonstrate that they have an in-depth understanding of U.S. tax law. If someone is already a lawyer, however, they can practice before a tax court without taking this exam.
Usually, when the IRS sends a taxpayer in Greenville, North Carolina a notice of deficiency, indicating that they owe back taxes, the taxpayer has 90 days to file a claim in federal tax court to dispute this notice. If a claim is not filed in a timely manner, the taxpayer could lose his or her right to contest the tax bill at issue.
Do I Need a Greenville, North Carolina Tax Attorney?
Although the law lets certain non-lawyers represent parties before tax court, tax law is very complicated and often difficult to understand - to the point that almost all attorneys who practice tax law practice it exclusively, simply because maintaining competence leaves little time to learn any other area.
So, if you need to go to tax court, for whatever reason, you should obtain the counsel of a good tax attorney in Greenville, North Carolina. While a non-lawyer who's licensed to practice before the tax courts may well give you perfectly competent representation, there are still advantages to hiring a lawyer. The main advantage is that lawyers are far more regulated in their profession than most non-lawyers. So, if a tax attorney severely damages your case due to negligence or incompetence, you will have considerable legal recourse against them.