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Spokane tax attorney
Tax problems in Spokane County tend to arrive from a different direction than those on the west side. Most of them start with a small business, and most of the rest start with a return that simply never got filed.
Rice Tax Law PLLC represents Spokane-area taxpayers in federal tax disputes: examinations, liens and levies, Trust Fund Recovery Penalty assessments, and litigation before the United States Tax Court. Representation can be handled entirely remotely, which keeps the cost down and does not require a day away from the business, though in-person meetings are available when needed.
Where Spokane tax problems actually come from
Unpaid payroll deposits
The most dangerous problem a small Eastern Washington business can have. When withheld taxes go unpaid, the IRS can assess the Trust Fund Recovery Penalty personally against owners and officers, converting a company debt into a personal one that bankruptcy will not discharge.
Worker classification
Construction and trucking operations that treat crews as contractors can face years of back employment tax assessed at once, along with penalties.
Long-running collection
Balances that built across several years, notices that escalated, and a case that arrives at a levy on wages or a bank account. The pattern here is collection rather than examination.
Non-filers
Returns that were never filed, followed by substitute returns the IRS prepared without any deduction or credit the taxpayer was entitled to. The balance is almost always overstated.
A substitute return is not your return. Where the IRS filed on your behalf, the balance includes no deductions, no credits, and the least favorable filing status. Filing the actual returns frequently reduces the figure substantially before any negotiation begins.
The Idaho line
A great many households in the Spokane area work on both sides of the state boundary, and the resulting returns are more complicated than most people expect. This firm handles the federal side of those matters. It does not practice Idaho law, and will say so where a question is genuinely one of Idaho state tax.
Also common here
- Early retirement distributions taken during a difficult stretch, with the tax and the additional ten percent never withheld
- Schedule C examinations involving vehicle, home office and cash receipt substantiation
- Offers in Compromise and Currently Not Collectible status where income genuinely will not support payment
- Washington Department of Revenue B&O tax audits arriving alongside a federal examination
How the firm works with Spokane clients
Primarily remotely, across Spokane County and the surrounding region — the South Hill, the North Side, Spokane Valley, Liberty Lake, Cheney and Deer Park — with in-person meetings available when that is a better fit. The attorney handling your matter spent more than thirteen years inside the IRS.
What to do now
If a levy has already landed, note the date the bank received it, because a twenty-one day clock is running. Otherwise find the notice number and the date printed on the letter. The notice tool will tell you which deadline governs.
Payroll deposits behind?
This is the exposure that becomes personal. Send the quarters involved and any letter you have received. No charge for the first conversation.
If your notice has a date on it, start now.
Send a general description of your situation. Please do not include Social Security numbers, account numbers, or documents in a first message.