Illinois IRS Tax Attorney

IL Tax Landscape

Illinois imposes a flat 4.95% individual income tax, and the Illinois Department of Revenue (IDOR) enforces it through one of the tightest federal-state data-sharing arrangements in the country. When the IRS adjusts an Illinois taxpayer's return, IDOR receives the change and issues its own assessment for the same year, so a federal problem almost always becomes a state problem too. IDOR files state tax liens, levies wages and bank accounts, and runs its own penalty-relief and settlement process through the Board of Appeals, none of which is bound by an IRS outcome. Chicago adds a further layer of city taxes and business obligations for owners in the metro area. Federal exposure in Illinois tracks its economy. Commodities and options traders around the Chicago exchanges face complex Section 1256 contract, wash-sale, and constructive-sale reporting that the IRS matches against broker statements. Technology, consulting, and financial-services employees receive RSU and option income that produces cost-basis mismatches and CP2000 notices. Chicago's large Polish, Mexican, Chinese, Korean, and Indian communities hold foreign accounts that trigger FBAR and FATCA reporting. Downstate, farm operations from Springfield to the Mississippi face examination of crop-insurance proceeds, equipment depreciation, and estimated-tax issues, and the state's manufacturers, restaurants, construction companies, and staffing firms are frequent targets for payroll-tax delinquency and the Trust Fund Recovery Penalty. The IRS Chicago field office at 230 S. Dearborn handles examination and collection for one of the largest taxpayer populations in the Midwest. Because IRS practice is federal, Segal, Cohen & Landis represents Illinois clients in audits, appeals, Offers in Compromise, installment agreements, lien and levy releases, and Tax Court matters from Beverly Hills, coordinating the IDOR assessment that follows so a federal resolution is not undone at the state level.