A tax attorney may help on making elections at time of business formation. A tax attorney may also help with planning the tax portion of a transaction. However, a CPA is who is going to typically be preparing tax return forms.

@Chris K. This is super helpful!

@Amy Ranae: In most cases, tax attorneys will have kind of specialty. Some attorneys may focus on representing litigation against the IRS. Some attorneys may specialize on estate planning for folks that need to think about federal estate taxes. Some attorneys may specialize in a non-tax area of law (e.g. real estate, corporate, etc.). but decided to get an LLM degree because they felt it could improve their existing practice. If you are comfortable, I would suggest that you expressly discuss the ideas and advantages you read about with your CPA. While many folks like to think that CPAs know all fields of taxes, that's rarely the case. So a CPA that handles volume work for personal tax filings may have different knowledge level than a CPA that mostly represent investors. In my experience, the best way to maximize your relationship with CPAs and Attorneys is to ask many questions and expressly make them aware of what you would like to accomplish. So if you have a specific deduction that you think should apply to your circumstance, let your CPA know and see what he or she has to say. If you find that they are consistently lacking in knowledge, then it might be a time for you to move on. But often times you will find that they have some other reasons as to why they didn't take advantage of certain ideas. It's then up to you to compare the pros and cons.

A tax attorney litigates on aspects of tax law, while a CPA specializing in tax prepares returns and acts as an advisor on the financial implications of transactions. As a blanket statement, a tax attorney will cost more and many tax attorneys do not prepare returns. Based on your needs, a CPA with expertise in real estate should be sufficient. Below are two pertinent articles. The first explains more of the differences. The second provides questions to ask of a CPA before engaging them to do your work. Let me know if you have any questions. http://work.chron.com/tax-attorney-vs-cpa-2022.htm... https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2015/03/0...

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Updated about 8 years ago on 01/30/2017. Most recent reply

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Amy RanaePoster

Real Estate Broker
Maple Grove, MN

Tax, SDIRAs & Cost Segregation

Tax attorney vs cpa?

Amy RanaePoster

Real Estate Broker
Maple Grove, MN

Posted January 29, 2017 07:46

I feel like I need more info on taxes. I've been working w a cpa for a few years who I really like but I feel like I'm missing out on some of the tax advantages that should be available to me that I've read about in books recommended on here. Any insights on tax attorney vs cpa? What do they offer differently? Advantages of one over the other? I'm an agent making a high income on commission with one rental property that I made about 15k in improvements on this year. Thanks!!

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