IRS Crackdown on Abusive Basis-Shifting Transactions: Key Issues for Taxpayers and Managing IRS Examination

Mr. Stein specializes in tax controversies, as well as tax planning for individuals, businesses and corporations. For more than 25 years, he has represented individuals with sensitive issue civil tax examinations where substantial penalty issues may arise, and extensively advised individuals on foreign and domestic voluntary disclosures regarding foreign account and asset compliance matters. Mr. Stein is well respected for his expertise and judgment in handling matters arising from the U.S. government’s ongoing enforcement efforts regarding undeclared interests in foreign financial accounts and assets, including various methods of participating in a timely voluntary disclosure to minimize potential exposure to civil tax penalties and avoiding a criminal tax prosecution referral. Mr. Stein is a frequent lecturer at national and regional conferences on topics including tax compliance sensitive issues, IRS examinations, State and Federal worker classification issues, etc. 

Mr. Toscher has been representing clients for more than 35 years before the Internal Revenue Service, the Tax Divisions of the U.S. Department of Justice and the Office of the United States Attorney, numerous state taxing authorities and in federal and state court litigation and appeals. Mr. Toscher enjoys a unique combination of solid criminal defense experience and extensive substantive tax experience to assist individuals and entities subject to sensitive government inquiries. He has considerable experience as lead counsel in defending criminal tax fraud investigations (both administrative and grand jury investigations) as well as in defending criminal tax prosecutions (both jury and non-jury). Mr. Toscher’s tax practice includes a wide array of substantive areas including income taxes, estate taxes, employment taxes, sales taxes and property taxes. He is routinely involved in sensitive issue or complex civil tax examinations and administrative appeals on behalf of wealthy individuals and their closely held entities as well as large corporations involving both domestic and foreign tax related issues.

Mr. Horwitz has over 35 years of experience as a tax attorney specializing in the representation of clients in civil and criminal tax cases, including civil audits and appeals, tax collection matters, criminal investigations, administrative hearings and in civil and criminal trials and appeals in federal and state courts. He has served as a member of the Executive Committee of the Taxation Section of the State Bar of California and was Chair of the Taxation Section for 2015-2016 year.  Mr. Horwitzwas previously Chair of the Tax Procedure and Litigation Committee of the State Bar Taxation Section. Prior to joining Hochman Salkin Toscher Perez P.C., Mr. Horwitz was with a boutique tax controversy firm in Orange County, where he represented clients in civil and criminal tax cases in the U.S. Courts of Appeal, U.S. district courts, California superior courts, and before the Internal Revenue Service, the California Franchise Tax Board, the Board of Equalization, the Employment Development Department and the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board. He has been a speaker on tax matters at the UCLA Tax Controversy Institute, the Annual Meeting of the Taxation Section of the California Bar and the California State Bar Annual Meeting. Mr. Horwitz has authored articles on tax law that have appeared in diverse publications, including Tax Notes, the Federal Lawyer (the publication of the Federal Bar Association), and the California Tax Lawyer.  His monograph in “Responsible Persons and Fiduciary Liability” was published in the Proceedings of the New York University 75th Institute on Federal Taxation.  Mr. Horwitz was an invited delegate to the 2015 U.S. Tax Court Judicial Conference.  He is a member of the Planning Committee of the UCLA Tax Controversy Institute. Mr. Horwitz is a member of the bar in California and in Illinois. He is admitted to practice in the United States District Courts for the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Courts of Appeal for the Seventh, Ninth and Federal Circuits, the U.S. District Courts for the Central, Southern, Northern and Eastern Districts of California, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims and the U.S. Tax Court. He was named a Southern California Super Lawyer 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.