Finding a good tax attorney who is competent to handle IRS tax matters can be challenging. There are a number attorneys who claim to provide tax services, yet they have no tax experience or education. The following is a top ten list of desirable tax attorney characteristics that will help taxpayers narrow down their list of potential tax attorneys:

1. The tax attorney has actual IRS experience, meaning that the tax attorney has actually worked for the IRS. If you have a non-criminal tax matter (such as a tax debt, a tax lien, or you need to negotiate with the IRS), then you will want an attorney that has worked for the IRS Office of Chief Counsel. This is the IRS’ legal department. Taxpayers would be well advised to ask their would-be tax attorney whether they have worked for the IRS.

2. The tax attorney has a Master’s of Law in Taxation (often referred to as an LLM in taxation). There is no substitute for an LLM. Tax law requires a dedication to continued study. The LLM shows that the attorney has dedicated at least one full year (on a full time basis) to studying tax law. Taxpayers should seriously consider whether they want to hire a tax attorney who does not dedicate the time to learn about tax law for their clients on a full-time basis.

3. The tax attorney has continued to keep up with the field, as evidenced by articles and publications on tax topics. The LLM degree is the starting point. Tax laws change literally every day (literally, with the possible exceptions to federal holidays). A tax attorney who has not kept up with the changes cannot provide quality tax advice to clients. Clients should use the internet to search for evidence that their would-be tax attorney has kept up with current tax law changes. In many cases a Google search and/or viewing the tax attorney’s website should provide a good starting point (especially if the tax attorney maintains a tax law blog).

4. The tax attorney limits his or her practice to tax law matters. Again, tax law is one of the most demanding areas of the law to keep up with. Many tax attorneys also do business, estate planning and bankruptcy work – all of which are related to IRS tax matters. The tax attorney has to understand these areas as well as tax law in order to properly advise the client on IRS tax matters. But an attorney who does everything from divorces, wills, DWIs, personal injury, AND tax law probably has not kept up with tax law changes. Taxpayers should review the would-be tax attorney’s website to verify that the tax attorney focuses only on tax law matters (Taxpayers should also check for separate additional websites maintained by the would-be tax attorney to advertise their non-tax law related matters).

5. The tax attorney (and their law firm) does not have a TV commercial. Tax attorneys who are able to spend the hundreds of thousands of dollars on TV commercials must be earning hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to afford the commercials. This can occur one of two ways: (1) the tax attorney can be a volume shop, meaning they farm out nearly all of the work to other tax attorneys and they merely take a cut or referral “finders” fee or (2) they charge each client hundreds of thousands of dollars. Taxpayers should decide whether they want to hire either of these kinds of tax attorneys.

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