Recently I had a discussion with an individual about US Tax Court Practitioners in order to learn about this designation. What I discovered was this category of Court Practitioner was created to allow special dispensation to Non-US Lawyers (such as Enrolled Agents, CPAs and International Tax Attorneys) to gain access to the US Tax Court to represent taxpayers. As a member of the US Tax Court, US Tax Court Practitioners have the ability to litigate matters before the US Tax Court on behalf of their taxpayer clients. In order to qualify as a US Tax Court Practitioner you must pass a very difficult US Tax Court Bar Exam set by the Judges of the US Tax Court which takes place once every second year. What is not generally known is that since its inception in 1942, less than 300 US Tax Court Practitioners have ever passed and qualified to be admitted as a US Tax Court Practitioner. Apparently, it is a mighty difficult Bar Exam to pass!
In order to pass the US Tax Court Bar Exam, the person writing the Bar Exam must obtain a minimum of 70% in each of the four major areas that are examined. These four areas are focused on Federal Tax, US Tax Court Procedural Rules, Laws of Evidence and Ethics. It is not unusual that only about 6% to 7% of those who write the US Tax Court Bar Exam every second year will succeed. For that reason, I decided to determine who has passed the US Tax Court Practitioner Bar Exam and contacted their headquarters in Washington DC to find out who these people are at www.ustaxcourt.gov. What I discovered is that they do not list the 300 or so members of this exclusive group on any site but you can verify membership by calling the US Tax Court at 201.521.0700.
Now that I had tracked down how to verify a US Tax Court Practitioner, I needed the name of one and discovered Dr. Daniel Erasmus was a member of TaxConnections and a US Tax Court Practitioner. I then called the US Tax Court number mentioned in this post and asked to verify his credentials and that he was in fact admitted to the US Tax Court as a US Tax Court Practitioner. Dr. Daniel Erasmus was verified as admitted to the US Tax Court as a US Tax Court Practitioner. What is interesting about Dr. Daniel Erasmus is that he forms strong relationships with Enrolled Agents and CPAs around the United States in order to assist them with tax related problems they encounter with their taxpayer clients. He provides solutions to Enrolled Agents and CPAs that they may not even be aware of which enables them to solve difficult and complex tax problems for their clients. We are delighted to have Dr. Daniel Erasmus in our TaxConnections community and if he is reading this blog post today he will find out that I verified his credentials for this post today 🙂
Kat Jennings, TaxConnections, CEO and Founder and Advisory Team provides three areas of services: 1) Internationally recognized, retained executive search services for multinational corporations, public accounting firms, and law firms; 2) Introductions of sellers to buyers of small and medium size accounting firms; and 3) Provide brand building and education services that support and prepare accounting firm owners to buy/sell an accounting practice. We focus on educating the journey to sell a practice and how to increase firm revenue prior to any sale. Our program ensures you start years prior to a sale by learning what is expected of you during the selling process, and introducing firm Partners to cross selling opportunities that are easy to implement and reduce your workload at the same time. We introduce you to value added connections to smartly grow revenue in your accounting practice.
Kat Jennings has been retained by organizations worldwide to locate tax professionals with highly specialized tax knowledge and expertise. She has a thorough understanding of the tax business community, with a proven record of stellar performances matching professionals with organizations. Bringing two parties together to work successfully is the art of understanding personalities, cultural fit, expectations by both parties, flexible or inflexible work environments, understanding what drives and motivates each party, and revolves around the personality and ethics of each executive team.
Kat is a widely recognized expert in high level, tax executive search, as well as connecting buyers and sellers of accounting firms. TaxConnections provides and educates small to medium size accounting firms owners and Partners how to prepare and sell their firms so they can build a succession plan for their retirement. With larger firms seeking to acquire smaller accounting practices, there is a real need to help firm owners prepare to be acquired. Most firm owners are unaware they are not ready to sell when they decide to retire. TaxConnections educates firm owners’ what they need to do years in advance of selling an accounting firm practice.
Senior tax executives expect the utmost privacy when being introduced to multinational organizations about a new tax opportunity under consideration. Having said that, companies searching for a new head of tax expecting tax executive candidates to submit their resume through a resume portal, will never see a full slate of outstanding tax executives available due to a candidates’ desire for greater privacy. This is why privacy focused Uber Tax Recruiters consistently outperform in-house recruiters on tax executive searches.
We offer our clients a Performance Retainer Agreement arrangement so their HR department can still recruit and compete with the tax candidates we present on Head of Tax searches. The client pays us a partial fee upfront, and if they find a candidate they deem better than we introduce to them, we forfeit the final fee. Most of the time, they love and prefer our private introductions to tax executive candidates better than what they source through their own resume portals.
When we represent selling/buying small to medium-sized firms, firm owners/partners also demand greater privacy when considering the sale of their practice. TaxConnections provides a safe place to discuss their business needs, elevate their practices’ online reputation, and increase revenue through new streams of business development by outsourcing work and partnering with other firms. Over three decades, we have worked tirelessly to build relationships between firm owners most organizations rarely have access to in the world of tax. There are numerous possibilities you may never have considered previously to bolster the value of your practice and service offerings.
As a globally recognized consultant to multinational organizations, accounting firms, and law firms searching for tax expertise, Kat has been retained by public accounting firms, law firms, and corporations worldwide including Apple Computer, AC Neilson, Accenture, Agilent Technologies, Allergan, Alza, American Express, American Media, Aon, Baker & McKenzie, Barclays Bank, Bechtel, Cargill, Carl Zieuss Vision, Century Aluminum, Chevron, Clorox, Citigroup, Commercials Metals, Constellation Energy, Countrywide, Del Monte, Deloitte Touche, DFS, DLA Piper, E&J Gallo Winery, Electronic Arts, Ernst &Young, Fox Entertainment, Fremont Investments, General Electric,General Motors, Herbalife, Hewlett Packard, Hyatt, Intel, Jones Lang LaSalle, Kimco Realty, KLA Tencor, Koch Industries, KPMG, Levi Strauss, Liberty Mutual, LKQ, Loews, Logitech, Lucas Film, Maersk, McKesson, Nalco, Newell Rubbermaid, Nissan, Oracle, Orbitax, Pacific Gas & Electric, PwC, QAD, SAIC, SanDisk, Sanmina, Sempra Energy, SONY, Synopsys, Ticketmaster, Trimble Navigation, Toyota, Univar, Wal-Mart, Wells Fargo, Vertex, Yahoo, Xilinx, and many more not listed here.
Contact Kat at 858,999.0053 Office/858.232.4415 Cell or kat@taxconnections.com to request a private consultation regarding the sale of your practice, adding top talent to your organization, or merging your practice with another firm owner with a book of business. The possibilities are endless; if you have a dream of a new vision for your professional life; we will scout opportunities throughout the market to make it happen.
1 comment on “What Is A US Tax Court Practitioner?”
Kat: I enjoyed the article. The reason why there are so few specially admitted Tax Court Practitioners is that an Attorney At Law can apply for admission to the Tax Court. Since the Rules of Evidence and Litigation principles are taught as part of Law School, being a trained lawyer is very important in the US Tax Court or any Court.
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