In the past two years from June, 2009 to June 2011 the focus of
Robert Alan Jones law firm RAJ Ltd P.C. has shifted
from primarily criminal tax defense to primarily civil tax defense
and recovery of taxpayer funds improperly held by the
Internal Revenue Service. There were two primary reasons for this
shift.
First, the economy including the national housing market
had collapsed into a continuing severe recession and many ordinary
citizens who had not previously experienced financial difficulties
were unable to keep up with payment of their debts including
payment of personal and business taxes. However, the IRS pursued
them vigorously. Second, on about June 1, 2009 the United States
Tax Court issued its reconsideration decision in Hartman,
Lewis, and Liu vs. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, (T.C.
Memo. 2009). This decision reaffirmed that clients of this firm
including Mr. Larry Hartman and hundreds of others were entitled to
sanctions against the IRS and refunds of many thousands of
dollars for each affected taxpayer.
However, the payments were far from automatic. Initially, this
firm had to persuade the IRS not to appeal which might have delayed
matters for years. Next, the firm had to persuade the Tax Court to
expedite the refunds without waiting for related cases to reach
final decisions on appeal. Additionally, the firm was required to
set up procedures agreed to by the clients, and consented to by the
IRS and the Court for verifying, handling and disbursing hundreds
of refunds totaling millions of dollars.
All of this has been done successfully with the aid of the
firm's superior accounting and administrative staff.Since the
beginning of October, 2010 the firm has processed,
collected and paid out some $13,000,000.00 in client
IRS refunds to up to one hundred clients and at
least $14,000,000.00 remains in process for an additional one
hundred clients.
Thus the focus of the firm has transitioned to
civil tax defense of clients, protecting their
funds and recovery of amounts incorrectly held by the IRS. In
addition the office has added a young attorney Michael Terry
whose primary area of practice is now bankruptcy.
This area is also federal in nature. The ties between tax
problems and the need for bankruptcy, and the need for a tax
specialist to consult in bankruptcy are obvious and adds
extra emphasis to civil tax defense practice.
