Tax Attorney & EA

There is no legal definition of a tax attorney. While some states may certify some attorneys as particularly skillful with respect to tax matters, any lawyer can call himself a tax attorney.

If he's a qualified attorney at skilled at some area of tax law, I don't see why not. Though that doesn't mean he is qualified to do everything that some other tax attorneys are.

Stu

wrote

It's simply an attorney who handles, or specializes in taxation. Usually they'll also be CPA's, maybe used to work for the IRS, or have other specialized experience. You'll usually see the designation after their name, "JD, CPA" or some nonsense.

You usually don't get a tax attorney for a DUI case.

Almost anyone with a law degree that wants to take on that work.

Quite often the ideal path is to get your accounting degree, then apply to law school.

I could see where someone with a law degree could qualify for an EA designation.

Are you asking because you are considering becoming one, or because you need to hire one? More details might result in a better answer.

With due respect, I don't think the previous replies got this quite right regarding the EA part of the question. It would be very uncommon for one who is already an attorney to become an EA, since it would add or change nothing regarding their ability to practice (represent taxpayers) before the IRS.

An attorney can do anything an EA can do, plus more. For example, both can represent you at an IRS audit, but AFAIK only the attorney could represent you in Tax Court or any of the other courts that hear tax-related cases. Or, with both you have a client confidentiality privilege, but if your tax issue is a criminal one, only an attorney can maintain the privilege, not an EA.

Circular 230 identifies four type of practitioners: Attorneys, Certified Public Accountants, Enrolled Agents, and Enrolled Actuaries. If you are one of the other three, you can automatically practice before the IRS based on your professional standing. As for the fourth category, anyone can become an EA by passing a written examination and a basic background check by the IRS (Form 23). Some former IRS employees, from what I understand, can also automatically become EA's.

Given that the barrier to becoming an EA is lower than the others, I suspect there are more of them, therefore in the marketplace you could probably engage the services of an EA more cheaply than those of a tax attorney for the same work. Heck, even the store-front tax prep chains have EA's in their employ. Of course, in an audit I would always value experience and resources much more highly than just a professional designation.

-Mark Bole

In practice that is right. In theory, a law license in one state may not be transferable to practice in another state.

The National Association of Enrolled Agents

estimates there are approximately 45,000 currently active EAs. That's far less than the number of CPAs and far far less than the number of lawyers.

But not all CPAs practice accounting or even tax, and many lawyers do not practice taxation or, if they do, often specialize in select areas of tax such as estates and trusts. You would have to get a count of how many CPAs and attorneys practice say, individual income tax representation or preparation.

I would agree that EAs would generally charge less than CPAs or attorneys, but would not base it on sheer numbers. I believe that EAs need to do more to get the EA profession known to the general public.

The "big gorilla" national tax prep firm has a policy of encouraging their tax preparers to study for the EA exam, and lets them take internal courses at no cost if they become EAs. They do not apply this policy to non-EA CPAs or attorneys however.

I've heard in the rumor mill (i.e. unconfirmed) that there's only about

10,000 attorneys that practice taxation of some form. There's also about 230,000 CPAs, but I don't know how many of them do/don't practice taxation.

In addition to what has been posted already, only an attorney is licensed to give legal advise. Which, it seems to me, includes interpreting statutes, regulations, and case law. How this plays out in practice is probably different, which is why non tax attorneys (including IRS personnel), often get things so wrong. ;)

You might even say you are empowered to do so!