Tax Matters

"The power to tax involves the power to destroy”, wrote Supreme Court Jus­tice John Mar­shall in the land­mark 1819 case of McCul­lough v. Mary­land. The McCul­lough rul­ing held that a state had no power to impose a state tax on the oper­a­tions of fed­eral gov­ern­ment. The same state­ment may be made in the present time, almost 200 years after the writ­ings of Jus­tice Mar­shall. But, the dif­fer­ence between now and then are the sheer num­ber of dif­fer­ent tax­ing agen­cies stand­ing in line with each respec­tive hand held wide open and ready to reach into one’s pock­et­book dur­ing life and at death. We are taxed at the fed­eral, state, county and city lev­els for income tax, sales tax, prop­erty tax, use tax, fuel tax, con­sump­tion tax, alco­hol tax, cig­a­rette tax, occu­pancy tax and death tax.

The fed­eral and state tax statutes, codes and rules are volu­mi­nous, com­plex and intim­i­dat­ing. The state tax codes and rules vary from state to state and from county to county within the states. The fed­eral, state and local law­mak­ers have given the tax­ing agen­cies broad and sweep­ing pow­ers. The gov­ern­ment at all lev­els employs thou­sands of peo­ple whose sole func­tion is to assess and col­lect taxes. Vol­ume after vol­ume of reg­u­la­tions and case law gov­ern how the tax laws are admin­is­tered and interpreted.

Tax law is not prac­ticed by the weak of heart or by one defi­cient in skill, knowl­edge and intel­lect. We advise, coun­sel and rep­re­sent tax­pay­ers and other clients in all tax mat­ters. We stand beside our clients and fight the Tax Man, whether it be the Inter­nal Rev­enue Ser­vice or the State of Texas Comp­trol­ler or one of the many other local agen­cies respon­si­ble for prop­erty tax collection.

Do you have questions or do you want to make an appointment in this area?

Call us at (972) 712-1515 or use our contact form.