Tax Lawyer
Income tax planning structures business operations and personal finances to minimize tax liability. Choices about business entity type, salary versus dividend distributions, capital gains timing, and investment selection all affect tax outcomes. Some structures are clearly tax avoidance—legal reduction of tax liability. Others might cross into tax evasion—illegal concealment or misrepresentation. The line between aggressive tax planning and illegal evasion requires careful navigation. Tax planning should reduce liability while maintaining defensible positions if scrutinized by tax authorities.
GST compliance involves registration, tax collection, return filing, and input tax credit claims. GST complexity creates compliance burden for businesses—multiple return types, monthly filing deadlines, invoice matching requirements, and complex input credit rules. Non-compliance creates penalties, interest, and potential criminal liability. Businesses need systems for proper GST compliance—tracking taxable transactions, collecting appropriate tax, filing returns timely, and maintaining documentation supporting input credit claims. GST disputes often involve classification issues, input credit denials, and valuation questions requiring both tax law knowledge and industry understanding.
Tax assessments involve scrutiny of filed returns by tax authorities. Assessment proceedings can result in additional tax demands based on disallowed deductions, income additions, or revised valuations. Responding to assessment proceedings requires both legal arguments about tax law interpretation and factual evidence supporting claimed positions. Some assessment issues involve straightforward application of tax provisions. Others require complex arguments about business purpose, fair market value, or transaction characterization. Assessment outcomes depend significantly on quality of response and documentation provided.
Tax disputes proceed through multiple levels—assessment, appeals before Commissioner (Appeals), appeals before Tribunal, and further appeals to High Court and Supreme Court. At each level, disputes can be resolved through settlement or fought through to decision. Tax litigation strategy requires balancing litigation costs against dispute amounts and success probability. Some disputes warrant fighting through all levels. Others are better resolved through settlement or payment even if legally defensible positions exist. Tax litigation is investment decision—cost and time of fighting versus benefit of winning versus cost of settling.
Transfer pricing affects multinational businesses and domestic related-party transactions. Transfer pricing rules require arm's length pricing for transactions between related entities. Tax authorities scrutinize related-party transactions for artificial profit shifting. Transfer pricing documentation, benchmarking studies, and advance pricing agreements help manage transfer pricing risks. Transfer pricing disputes involve both economic analysis and legal arguments. Companies need transfer pricing advisors who combine tax law knowledge with economic and business understanding to structure related-party transactions defensibly.
Tax notices require timely response with appropriate documentation and legal arguments. Ignoring tax notices or providing inadequate responses creates defaults leading to adverse consequences. Some notices are routine information requests. Others indicate serious scrutiny or challenges to filed positions. Response strategy depends on notice type and underlying issues. Notices require quick assessment of risks, gathering supporting documentation, and crafting responses that address authority concerns while protecting client positions. Tax notice response is part legal argument, part factual presentation, and part relationship management with tax authorities.
