Baltimore Tax Attorney
Frost Law's Baltimore, MD office includes tax, business, and estate attorneys, along with accountants and other professionals. This page covers a few of the practice areas handled here, including IRS tax issues, business tax help, and estate planning, among other tax matters. Please contact us if you have any questions or would like to schedule a confidential consultation with a Baltimore tax attorney or other professional.
IRS Tax Issues
An IRS audit often begins as a fairly ordinary request for records, but it can turn into a much bigger issue depending on what a reviewer finds. A tax attorney in Baltimore can look at your case, respond with what the IRS is asking for, and take the matter to appeals if the audit doesn't resolve in your favor.
Liens and levies are two of the more forceful tools the IRS can use once a tax debt goes unresolved. A lien attaches to your property and can follow you for years, complicating a future sale or refinance, while a levy reaches directly into a bank account or paycheck. We can work to negotiate a lien's release, challenge a levy before it takes hold, or resolve one that's already been filed.
An Offer in Compromise is one way to settle a tax debt for less than what's owed, though the IRS approves only a fraction of the offers it receives. The IRS looks closely at income, assets, and expenses before signing off, which is why offers filed without professional guidance tend to get rejected. A Baltimore, MD tax attorney at Frost Law can assess whether this route makes sense for you and prepare the disclosures the IRS expects to see.
Disputes that can't be resolved through an audit or appeals sometimes end up in litigation, whether that's a petition to the U.S. Tax Court or a refund suit in federal district court after the tax has already been paid. Since litigation tends to take longer and cost more than resolving things administratively, we weigh the odds of settlement carefully before recommending this path, and represent clients through it when it's the right call.
Business Tax Help
Running a business means staying on top of a constant stream of tax obligations, and it's easy for even a well-managed company to slip on something like a payroll tax deposit or a sales tax filing. A tax attorney in Baltimore can help sort out where things went wrong and negotiate directly with the IRS or state tax agencies on your behalf.
We also help with business reorganizations, whether your company is merging with another business, changing its entity structure, or winding down operations entirely. Each of these moves carries its own tax consequences that aren't always obvious upfront, so we review the tax side of a reorganization before it happens rather than after, when fixing a mistake tends to cost considerably more.
Businesses still carrying SBA loan debt from COVID-era EIDL or PPP funding face a decision that depends heavily on where that loan currently stands, particularly with the Treasury Department taking a more active role lately in referring defaulted EIDL loans for collection. A Baltimore bankruptcy lawyer at Frost Law can help you weigh whether restructuring the debt, negotiating a settlement, or filing for bankruptcy protection makes the most sense for your financial picture.
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy isn’t anyone’s first choice, but for a person or business in Baltimore carrying debt that’s outpaced what they can pay down, it can offer a legitimate way to reset. Chapter 7 works by liquidating non-exempt property to discharge qualifying unsecured debt fairly quickly, while Chapter 13 sets up a multi-year repayment plan for filers with steady income who want to hold onto property like a home or a car.
A small business or nonprofit carrying debt it can’t outgrow has different options. Chapter 11 keeps the door open while a court oversees a reorganization plan, though the cost and paperwork can be steep for a modest operation, which is why Subchapter V exists as a shorter, cheaper track built specifically for smaller companies. A Baltimore, MD bankruptcy lawyer at Frost Law can walk through your numbers and help you land on the chapter that actually solves the problem, rather than one that solves it too slowly or too expensively.
Estate Planning
Health care and financial powers of attorney let someone you trust step in and make decisions on your behalf if you're ever unable to make them yourself, whether that's due to illness, injury, or age. A health care power of attorney covers medical decisions, while a financial power of attorney covers bank accounts, bills, and other financial matters. Without these documents in place, your family may need to petition a court for guardianship, which takes time and money that could otherwise go toward your care.
A living will declaration works alongside a health care power of attorney, but it serves a different purpose. Rather than naming someone to decide for you, it puts your own wishes about end-of-life treatment in writing, so your family and doctors aren't left guessing during an already difficult moment. We help clients think through scenarios most people would rather not consider, then put those preferences into a document that holds up when it's actually needed.
A living trust can do more for an estate plan than many people expect. Beyond keeping assets out of probate, a properly funded trust keeps your affairs private and lets a successor trustee step in right away if you become incapacitated. We build trusts around what you actually own, and just as important, we handle retitling those assets so the trust actually functions the way it's supposed to.
Once assets, family members, or citizenship cross a border, international estate planning becomes part of the conversation. A will written with only U.S. law in mind might not hold up elsewhere, foreign property can create reporting obligations that catch people off guard, and estate and gift tax treaties affect what's owed and to whom.
Taxation of Digital Assets
The IRS treats cryptocurrency and other digital assets as property rather than currency, which means most transactions involving them trigger a taxable gain or loss the same way selling stock would. Converting crypto to cash, trading one coin for another, and spending crypto on goods or services each carry their own tax treatment. The IRS has even added a direct question about digital asset activity to Form 1040, along with pursuing exchange records through the legal process. A Baltimore tax lawyer at Frost Law can help you sort out what's actually taxable, catch up on past reporting you may have missed, and respond if the IRS has already flagged a digital asset transaction on a prior return.
Pro Bono
Giving back to the Baltimore community matters to Frost Law, and our attorneys often take on pro bono matters for clients who wouldn't otherwise have access to legal help. If you're dealing with a legal issue and aren't sure where to turn, please reach out and tell us about your situation.
