After working in accounting as a college graduate for a few months, Regina Resch-Schneidewent said she realized she did not want to simply add and subtract numbers for a living. She said she wanted to help people understand the complex world of taxes.
So Regina decided to pursue the highest degree of education and became a U. S. Tax Court Practitioner counsel, licensed by the U.S. Tax Court. She said there are about 850 of these federally licensed tax attorneys in the country with her credentials and only three in the state of Texas.
Originally based in Washington, D.C., Tax Facts has practicing tax court attorneys who help both businesses and individuals in financial management, tax preparation and planning. The company also provides state and federal representation in tax-related matters across the country.
Regina and her husband, Mark Schneidewent, own and run the company’s south office at 5164 Village Creek Drive, Ste. 200, in Plano. She and Mark, who serves as the operations director, serve clients from throughout the U.S. with a focus on the southern region and the Dallas-Forth Worth area.
“We are here to help the taxpayers understand the underlying situation: what were their responsibilities? What are their responsibilities in the future? What transpired? How can it be fixed? How can it be resolved?” Regina said.
About 70 percent of her clients are business owners and corporations seeking representation in federal tax court. Regina is also an enrolled agent by the U.S. Treasury.
“We don’t give a false impression that their tax will be released down to zero--that they would have to pay nothing,” Regina said. “We explain things to them the realistic laws and what can be done to help them.”
“If people talk[ed] about it, they would learn much more and enhance their understanding and help their family [and] friends.”
—Regina Resch-Schneidewent, Tax Facts
Many times people ignore the letters they receive in the mail from the Internal Revenue Service. Once the pile gets larger, they realize they need help from an expert in filing their taxes or rectifying an error on their previous tax claims, Regina said.
“It depends on how many notices they threw in the drawer before they contacted us,” Mark said. “A lot of people let those [letters] pile up.”
Many business owners and individuals also seek a tax attorney when their reduction claims do not line up with their expenses. Often, business owners do not have all of the receipts to substantiate a claim and the IRS starts sending them notices. Regina advises everyone to keep a meticulous record of all expenses they are planning to claim as deductions, such as mileage, meals and office supplies.
A line item on a bank statement is not enough proof, she said. Saving a scanned copy of itemized bills on one’s computer can be the proof the IRS needs in case of an investigation.
“This happens very frequently with businesses. They lack the appropriate records to substantiate their expenses,” she said.
Regina said her aim is to simplify the complex tax codes a taxpayer is expected to know, understand and follow. Given the thousands of pages of code, however, taxpayers can become intimidated and are often ill-equipped to handle a financial crisis created as a result of misinformation, she said.
Getting the right help from an expert can help reduce the penalties associated with erroneous reduction claims, Regina said.
“These are also things that people don’t just talk about. People don’t sit at a restaurant table and discuss, ‘Hey! I have IRS tax problems,’” she said. “If people talk[ed] about it, they would learn much more and enhance their understanding and help their family [and] friends.”
