Oct. 16, 2014
Hochman, Salkin, Rettig, Toscher & Perez PC
See more on Hochman, Salkin, Rettig, Toscher & Perez PCLos Angeles, Honolulu | Tax controversy, criminal tax matters
Co-counsel in a valuation dispute with the IRS over hundreds of millions of dollars in additional federal estate taxes primarily relating to the late singer Michael Jackson's music properties and name and likeness.
Obtained an acquittal on all counts for James Pflueger in a matter involving alleged federal criminal tax conspiracies relating to personal and corporate taxes, including the use of a foreign bank account and a foreign trust.
Reversed on appeal a Tax Court decision that had denied taxpayer Yakoh Revah the right to apply the doctrine of "equitable recoupment" in order to reduce tax liabilities The work that Hochman Salkin does - representing defendants charged with tax crimes - is so specialized that the story at the firm is their founder, the late Bruce I. Hochman, didn't so much build the practice, he invented it.
In 1956, when he started the firm, "there were tax lawyers and there were criminal lawyers," said partner Dennis L. Perez. Hochman was the first to do both.
Today, the 12-lawyer firm is the largest specializing in the narrow field, he said.
Hochman was "the dean of the tax bar," said longtime partner Steven Toscher. "We're building on a big platform."
Many of the firm's lawyers have backgrounds as Department of Justice or IRS tax prosecutors, U.S. Tax Court judicial attorney-advisers or state tax enforcement officials. Therefore, Toscher said, the attorneys have credibility with government attorneys. "We have a reputation for dealing with them fairly and appropriately. They can trust us," he said.
Just last year, Hochman Salkin won an acquittal on criminal tax conspiracy charges for a client in Hawaii, where the firm has a small branch office. They won even though the client's accountant and co-defendant testified against him. Acquittals are rare in tax prosecutions, Perez said, where the government win rate is about 94 percent.
The firm has always done more than tax-related criminal work, of course. These days, its attorneys handle most any sort of heated tax controversy, including civil litigation brought by taxing authorities and administrative proceedings. It also takes on some other white-collar criminal matters if they are related to or grow out of tax issues.
Many cases involve estate taxes, according to founding partner Avram Salkin. Currently, it is co-counsel in a case pending at the Tax Court disputing how much additional taxes the estate of singer Michael Jackson might owe on the value of his music, name and likeness.
For a while, several lawyers in the firm moved to broaden the kinds of white-collar crime matters they handled beyond tax. But the expansion didn't pan out, Salkin said.
Now, all the firm's work is "tax-centric," Toscher said.
Within that field, however, "we tend to go where the government goes," he said. When taxing authorities decide to focus on a certain issue or scheme, Hochman Salkin goes with them.
In the last few years, as an example, members of the firm have represented hundreds of clients participating in various IRS offshore voluntary disclosure programs. The programs grant amnesty to taxpayers who report their previously undisclosed foreign assets and accounts.
It's a carrot-and-stick sort of program, Perez said. Those who report foreign assets themselves receive amnesty. Those the IRS tracks down do not.
"We've dealt with people on the carrot end and the stick end and on the club end" when the IRS moves to charge the taxpayer with a crime, he said.
The federal government is very choosy about the tax cases it prosecutes criminally, Toscher said. "But once they start a case, they're very thorough. We don't wish that on anybody."
Most of the firm's cases never get that far, he added. "Most of our work ... the public never sees. ... They're resolved before they get to court proceedings."
Overall, the criminal tax and tax controversy work makes for a very interesting practice, Toscher said. "It's stressful, but we get a lot out of it."
- Don J. DeBenedictis
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