Wood & Porter is one of the nation's premier boutique tax firms concentrating in areas of specific interest to trial lawyers, insurance companies and others concerned with tax issues related to settlements and litigation
Tax law expert Rob Wood wites in Forbes "If you face a tax audit and can legitimately point to the statute of limitations to head off trouble and expense, you should. Why should you have to prove you were entitled to a deduction (or have to find and produce yellowed receipts) if it is simply too late for the IRS to make a claim?
Given the importance of the statute--both to heading off audit trouble and to knowing when you may be able to throw some of those receipts away--it is surprising how few taxpayers are statute savvy."
Tax Law Channel host Rob Wood discusses structuring legal fees...a versatile tool only available to contingent fee lawyers.
If an attorney has a contingent fee arrangement with a client, the lawyer may enter into a structured legal fee arrangement under which the defendant, instead of paying the attorney’s fees for the case in a lump sum at the time of settlement, can fund an arrangement that pays the fees over time. As discussed below, payments under a structured legal fee arrangement have been held to not be taxable until actually paid to the attorney. Structured legal fee arrangements are designed to level out the peaks and valleys that generally characterize the fluctuating income of plaintiffs’ attorneys. These arrangements let lawyers defer paying taxes on their fee income. Structuring legal fees is a good way to spread out income, reduce income tax burdens, provide for retirement, or contribute to estate planning.
A structured fee arrangement will generally be funded by an annuity purchased by an assignment company. That company purchases the annuity with funds provided by the defendant in the case—funds that would have paid the lawyer’s fee. Properly set up, a legal fee structure takes the lump sum that would otherwise go to the client and puts it to work in a tax-deferred annuity. The lawyer pays tax only as he or she receives the periodic payments. For example, instead of receiving a $500,000 lump sum, the lawyer might receive $70,000 a year for ten years. The extra $200,000 in this example is attributable to the tax-deferred return on the money.
With all the talk of tort reform in Washington, plaintiffs’ lawyers may feel discriminated against by Congress in various ways. Even so, they are entitled to a benefit no one else receives: the ability to structure their legal fees. Indeed, contingent fee lawyers are the only ones who can structure legal fees.
Rob Wood writes in a recent edition of 'Tax Notes" ..."Claims for wrongful termination, sexual harassment, and various forms of discrimination (especially race, gender, age, and disability) have burgeoned over the last few decades. To a lesser (but still significant) extent, litigation over the tax treatment of the resulting settlements and judgments has also been active."
The IRS has released a memorandum titled ‘‘Income and Employment Tax Consequences and Proper Reporting of Employment-Related Judgments and Settlements."
In March of this year the IRS announced a program called "tax amnesty, voluntary disclosure or offshore income settlement.. The orginal deadline of September 23 has been extended to October 15. With so little time left, Rob discusses the 10 things you must know about this amnesty deal.
Rob Wood, host of the Tax Law Channel and partner at Wood and Porter in San Francisco discusses the IRS's offshore accounts amnesty deadline coming p Oct. 15.
Attorney Rob Wood joins Mark Wahlstrom on this weeks Speaking of Settlement to discuss the release of new regulations and clarification on Section 104 and Section 130 damages. If you are a trial lawyer, settlement professional or tax professional you will want to know what this revision to IRC Section 104 is all about.
Rob Wood writes in the Los Angeles Daily Journal..."Some say the US v.Textron ruling eviscerates the work-product protection in the tax area and may threaten to extend beyond taxes and IRS collections."
(NY Times) This fall, law students are competing for half as many openings at big firms as they were last year in what is shaping up to be the most wrenching job search season in over 50 years.
For students now, the promise of the big law firm career — and its paychecks — is slipping through their fingers, forcing them to look at lesser firms in smaller markets as well as opportunities in government or with public interest groups, law school faculty and students say.
The frenzy has even pushed the nation’s top firms, a tradition-bound coterie, into discussing how to reform the recruitment process with an earnestness that would have been unthinkable just years ago.
Friday, November 20, 2009 at 05:11PM 
