Tax Practice: Audits and Tax Controversies

Taxation

Taxation Practice Areas

Audits and Tax Controversies
Legislation and Regulations
Nonprofit Tax Issues
State Tax Litigation
Tax Planning and Compliance
Transportation Taxation

Audits and Tax Controversies

We represent clients on diverse federal income tax issues, including eligibility for tax exemption, deductibility of charitable donations, methods of accounting, inventory methods and valuation, advance payments for goods and services, foreign currency transactions, capitalization of expenditures, corporate reorganizations, allocations between related parties, like-kind exchanges, and partnership issues, as well as factual issues of valuation, unreported income and penalties.

We have successfully handled audits involving income tax exemption, federal estate and gift taxes, federal transportation taxes, and federal and state fuel taxes, and state sales and use taxes.

Legislation and Regulations

We provide comprehensive representation on issues of federal tax policy, including representation before the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee, the Joint Committee on Taxation, the Treasury Department, the IRS, and the Office of Management and Budget.

Nonprofit Tax Issues

In recent years, a focus of our tax practice has been on the tax issues faced by nonprofit organizations. ZS&R represents a number of the largest nonprofit organizations in the United States. At a time when the tax-exempt status of many entities is under scrutiny, we have devised and implemented successful strategies before the Administration, the Congress and the Judiciary to defend and maintain tax-exempt status. We also assist clients in planning specific transactions and general corporate and financial structures to maintain their exemption, and to minimize unrelated business income taxes and other federal, state and local taxes. We are intimately familiar with the issues affecting nonprofits, including the topics of the moment -- political activities and lobbying -- as well as the more common issues of commercial activities and insider benefits. A key part of our work for our nonprofit clients is to examine in detail their methods of operations to identify any potential problems or deficiencies and then devise and implement appropriate modifications.