Tax Lawyer in El Paso, TX
Some tax problems are arithmetic. Others are legal exposure wearing the costume of arithmetic. El Paso Tax Law provides attorney representation for audits, appeals, and any matter where what you say to the wrong professional can be used against you. Call (915) 465-9303 for a free case review.
Why Legal Privilege Changes What You Can Safely Say
Almost everyone facing a federal tax problem talks to an accountant first. That instinct is sound for the numbers and dangerous for everything else, and the reason is a rule most taxpayers have never heard of.
Internal Revenue Code section 7525 created a limited confidentiality privilege for federally authorized tax practitioners, which includes CPAs and enrolled agents. It sounds like the protection an attorney provides. It is materially narrower. The section 7525 privilege does not apply in criminal proceedings at all, it does not extend to tax shelter matters, and it generally does not cover work done in preparing a return as opposed to giving advice. Attorney-client privilege has no criminal-matter carve-out.
Play out what that means. You sit down with a preparer and explain that for three years you left a meaningful share of your income off the return, because it came in cash and you assumed nobody was tracking it. You have just made a disclosure to a witness. If the matter later turns criminal, that professional can be compelled to testify about the conversation, and their working papers can be subpoenaed. The same disclosure to an attorney is privileged.
This is not a hypothetical distinction in a border economy with a large cash-paid workforce. Construction crews, restaurant staff, landscaping and cleaning services, independent trucking, and cross-border trade all generate income that is legitimately earned and imperfectly documented. The gap between what was earned and what was reported is often the product of disorganization rather than intent. But the IRS does not begin by assuming which one it is, and the professional you tell first determines whether that conversation is protected.
Where an accountant remains indispensable, an attorney can engage one under a Kovel arrangement, extending privilege to the accountant's work as an agent of counsel. That is a specific engagement structure, not something that happens by default. Getting the order of operations right at the beginning is frequently the single highest-value decision in the whole matter.
Matters That Call for a Lawyer Rather Than a Preparer
Not every tax issue needs counsel. A clean balance owed on an accurately filed return is often best handled through the resolution programs directly. The following are the situations where the legal question is the real question.
- Examination and audit defense. An auditor's questions are not neutral information-gathering. Answering them without counsel means you decide, unadvised and in real time, how much scope to hand over. Representation means the auditor's questions come to the firm and the responses are considered before they are given.
- Unreported or under-reported income. Where the history includes income that did not make it onto a return, the exposure is not only the tax. It is the civil fraud penalty at 75 percent of the underpayment, and in a narrow band of cases, criminal referral.
- Collection Due Process appeals. A Final Notice of Intent to Levy carries a 30-day window to request a hearing. That request preserves the right to challenge the collection action and to seek judicial review. Missing the window forfeits both.
- Trust fund recovery penalty defense. When a business fails to remit withheld payroll taxes, the IRS can assess the trust fund portion personally against owners, officers, and bookkeepers. Personal liability for a corporate debt is a legal determination, and it is contestable.
- Innocent spouse relief. Separating your liability from a spouse or former spouse involves adversarial fact-finding about knowledge and benefit, frequently alongside a family law matter.
- Cross-border filing exposure. Foreign account reporting obligations carry penalties that are calculated on account balances rather than on tax owed, which is how a modest account becomes a serious problem.
- Appeals and Tax Court. When an examination concludes badly, the next steps are the Independent Office of Appeals and, if necessary, a Tax Court petition within 90 days of a notice of deficiency.
Border Region Circumstances the Standard Playbook Misses
A firm practicing here encounters fact patterns that a national call center is not built to recognize, and misreading them is expensive.
Binational households are the clearest example. A family may hold United States citizenship or residency on one side, Mexican residency on the other, income arising in both countries, and a home held in a Mexican trust structure. United States persons are taxed on worldwide income, so income earned in Ciudad Juárez is reportable regardless of where it was banked. Foreign account reporting obligations attach to accounts most people think of simply as their bank. Neither the income nor the accounts are hidden in any meaningful sense; they are just unreported by someone who did not know the obligation existed. Correcting that proactively is a very different proposition from being found.
Import-export and maquiladora-adjacent businesses present the second pattern. Payroll rises and falls with production schedules set at a plant across the international bridge, and when a quarter goes badly, the payroll tax deposit becomes the bill that gets skipped, because it is the one with no vendor calling to complain. That specific decision is what produces trust fund recovery penalty exposure, and it is why an operating company's tax problem so often becomes the owner's personal tax problem.
Military households at Fort Bliss are the third. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act keeps a servicemember's state of legal residence fixed through duty-station moves, and the Military Spouses Residency Relief Act extends comparable treatment to a spouse. That produces returns where the family lives in Texas, is domiciled somewhere else entirely, and has a spouse whose employment income changed states mid-year. Preparers unfamiliar with the interaction file it wrong, and the correction is legal work.
Businesses in the county carry a state-level obligation as well. The Texas Comptroller requires a franchise tax report from taxable entities even when revenue falls under the $2.65 million no-tax-due threshold and nothing is owed. Entities that quietly stopped filing lose their right to transact business in the state, which surfaces at the worst time: when the company needs to execute an agreement with the IRS and cannot demonstrate good standing.
Reconstructing Six Years of Cash Income for a Lower Valley Contractor
The Situation
A framing contractor working job sites between Socorro and the Alameda Avenue corridor had filed nothing since 2018. Most of his crew was paid in cash, most of his own draws arrived the same way, and his records were a mix of deposit slips and a notebook. The IRS had already prepared Substitutes for Return for four of the six years, assessing roughly $214,000 by allowing no business deductions whatsoever.
Our Approach
Counsel was engaged before any accountant, so the reconstruction of the income history was performed under privilege. Six original returns were prepared and filed to replace the Substitutes for Return, claiming the material and subcontractor costs the IRS had disregarded entirely. Bank deposit analysis and supplier invoices substantiated the expenses. First-time abatement was requested for the earliest qualifying year, with reasonable cause argued for two more.
The Outcome
The assessed balance fell from roughly $214,000 to approximately $47,000 once the actual deductions were recognized. Penalty abatement removed a further $9,400. The remaining balance was placed into a 72-month installment agreement at a payment the business could sustain, and the enforcement action that had been pending was withdrawn.
Client name changed. Results vary based on individual circumstances. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.
How a Representation Matter Proceeds
Every engagement follows the same opening sequence, because the order protects you.
- Privileged intake. The first substantive conversation happens with counsel, before any accountant is brought in, so that the full history can be discussed safely.
- Power of attorney and transcripts. Form 2848 is filed and the complete account transcripts are pulled, establishing what the IRS has assessed, when, and how much collection-statute time remains.
- Exposure assessment. The file is evaluated for the issues that change strategy: fraud indicators, trust fund exposure, foreign reporting gaps, and any deadline already running.
- Compliance and correction. Missing returns are prepared and filed, and inaccurate assessments are challenged with original returns where Substitutes for Return have inflated the balance.
- Position and negotiation. The matter is argued at examination, at Appeals, or with the assigned revenue officer, depending on where it sits.
- Resolution and closure. The agreed outcome is documented, and any lien or levy release is pursued to completion rather than left to process itself.
Credentials, Scope, and Straight Answers on Fees
The firm has served the region since 2020 and limits its work to federal tax controversy, which is a deliberately narrow practice. Attorneys admitted in Texas are licensed and regulated by the State Bar of Texas, and practice before the IRS is separately governed by Treasury Department Circular 230. Consultations are conducted in English and Spanish.
On cost, published rates for tax attorneys nationally run roughly $200 to $500 per hour, and defined-scope work such as a levy release or an offer in compromise is commonly quoted flat. This firm scopes the fee after the transcripts are reviewed, because quoting before anyone has read the file is guesswork dressed up as a quote. Be cautious of any firm that quotes a settlement figure over the phone; the Taxpayer Advocate Service is direct about the fact that acceptance depends on a documented reasonable collection potential, which nobody can calculate without your financials.
Where a matter is genuinely a collection problem rather than a legal one, the firm will say so and point you to the collection defense work instead. Clients come from across the county and southern New Mexico, and the analysis differs by state line, which is covered on the Doña Ana County page and for the west side of the city.
What Clients Ask About Legal Representation
When should I hire a tax lawyer instead of handling the IRS myself?
Handle it yourself when the return is accurate, the balance is modest, and you can pay it within the standard installment terms. Bring in counsel when any of four things is true: the IRS has opened an examination, there is income that did not make it onto a return, a business has unpaid payroll tax, or you have received a notice with a deadline on it. The common thread is that each of those creates a decision where saying the wrong thing costs more than the tax. A free consultation will tell you which category you are in, and the honest answer is sometimes that you do not need to hire anyone.
Is attorney-client privilege really different from what my accountant offers?
Yes, and the difference is specific rather than a matter of degree. The accountant privilege under Internal Revenue Code section 7525 excludes criminal proceedings entirely, does not reach tax shelter matters, and generally does not cover return preparation work. Attorney-client privilege carries none of those exclusions. If your history contains anything you would not want read aloud, the order in which you talk to professionals matters more than which one is cheaper.
Can a tax lawyer here help with both my United States return and my Mexico income?
This comes up constantly in the border region. United States citizens and residents are taxed on worldwide income, so earnings from work or property in Mexico belong on the United States return regardless of where they were paid or banked. Separately, foreign financial accounts can trigger reporting obligations whose penalties are calculated against account balances rather than tax owed, which is how a modest account becomes a serious exposure. The firm handles the United States side and coordinates with Mexican counsel or contadores where the matter requires it. Voluntarily correcting unreported foreign income is treated very differently from being discovered.
Does hiring a lawyer stop the IRS from contacting me directly?
Largely, yes. Once Form 2848 is on file, IRS personnel are directed to route communication through your representative. Calls to your home and your workplace stop, and a revenue officer who shows up at a business is redirected to the firm. This is one of the most immediate practical benefits, and it takes effect as soon as the form is processed rather than when your case resolves.
What is the trust fund recovery penalty, and can it really reach me personally?
When a business withholds income and payroll taxes from employee wages and does not remit them, that withheld money is considered held in trust for the government. The IRS can assess that trust fund portion personally against any responsible person who willfully failed to pay it, which can include owners, officers, bookkeepers, and sometimes an office manager who signed checks. Corporate structure provides no protection here. The determination turns on responsibility and willfulness, both of which are contestable, and it is worth contesting before the assessment is made rather than after.
How long does an audit take, and what happens if I lose?
A correspondence audit on a single issue can close in a few months. A field examination of a business commonly runs a year or more. If the examination concludes with a proposed adjustment you disagree with, the matter goes to the Independent Office of Appeals, which is a separate function from the examining agent and resolves the large majority of cases. If Appeals does not resolve it, a notice of deficiency issues and you have 90 days to petition the Tax Court. Losing at examination is a stage, not an ending.
I got a letter saying the IRS filed a return for me. Is that binding?
No, and this is one of the more valuable things to know. A Substitute for Return is prepared by the IRS with no deductions, no dependents, no business expenses, and the least favorable filing status available. The resulting assessment is almost always dramatically higher than the real liability. You retain the right to file an accurate original return for that year, and doing so frequently reduces the balance substantially. The contractor case study above is a straightforward illustration of the size of that gap.
A free consultation is a protected conversation.
Bring your notices and your questions. You will get a direct assessment of your exposure and what the next deadline actually is.