Want to start a fight? Start talking about taxes. Taxes are too high! Taxes aren’t fair! This is taxed! That is taxed! You can’t even die without addressing the tax consequences – so think about your Utah estate planning. For better or for worse, taxes impact just about every facet of out lives. Before you know it, more than half of everything you earn can be consumed by taxes. Call me crazy, but if I knew I was going to lose half of my income to something or someone every year, I might want to have a qualified attorney on my side who understands the Utah tax code, the federal tax code, and everything else about taxes. So, you might ask what a good tax attorney is worth? He or she could be a worth a sizable percentage of your annual income.
Utah’s tax attorneys deal with levies or taxes that both the state of Utah and the federal government impose on a variety of economic activities. In some cases, your tax burden includes the fact that you own something or live somewhere. Unless you have found a way to live somewhere other than on property, you pay taxes on that either directly or indirectly through property taxes.
The largest and most obvious tax we pay in Utah is the income tax. Depending on how much you make, your total income tax liability can be between 5% and 40% of what you make. However, taxes in America are never that simple. There are literally thousands of tax exemptions you may qualify for from traveling to Africa to buying pencils. Do you make charitable contributions? Own your own home? How long have you owned it? How many kids do you have? Do you ever use your home for your business? Now it’s going to get really complicated, do you own your own business?
With so many moving parts and so many variables, it is not uncommon for people to use the services of a qualified tax accountant or tax attorney. Because taxes can be so complicated and convoluted, it is also not uncommon for the state of Utah or the federal government to conduct audits of individual and business tax returns. When the Utah Tax Commission or the IRS comes knocking, the value of an experienced Utah tax attorney becomes very apparent very quickly.
What about when you die? At least you won’t have to worry about taxes then, right? Wrong! Different portions of your estate may be taxed differently. Many people in Utah have chosen to create living trusts in order to defray some tax liability when they die. Many have chosen to use one of Utah’s estate planning firms in order to thoroughly assess the tax implications of their death so that their wishes after their death will be realized as much as possible. Will your spouse or your kids be able to afford the property taxes on your house after you die? Are they going to have to sell a large portion of your assets, including the house, just to meet the tax liabilities? Talk to one of Utah’s many experienced tax attorneys or estate planning attorneys to find out.
So, when someone asks what a good tax attorney is worth, for some people in Utah, they are literally worth their weight in gold.
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