What Does a Tax Attorney Do? A 2027 Career Guide

A tax attorney is a lawyer who handles tax questions for people and organizations. You might structure a business deal, argue a dispute with the IRS in Tax Court, plan an estate, or advise a company’s executives. You’ll spend more time researching and drafting than filing returns. The path takes a bachelor’s degree, three years of law school, and a bar license, and many tax lawyers add a tax Master of Laws.

What Does a Tax Attorney Do Day to Day?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn’t give tax attorneys their own profile. It places them inside its Lawyers profile, where tax lawyers handle tax issues for people and organizations, help clients through complex regulations, and represent them in court. That’s a broad description, so here’s how the work breaks down for you.

Deal Work and Planning

At a large law firm, tax work can follow the deals. One tax lawyer at a large New York firm described the job on Reddit’s r/tax: the firm’s tax group exists to “support the corporate group on deals.” You’d mark up deal documents for tax issues and keep researching as questions come up.

Bond offerings show how it works. The prospectus has a long section on the tax consequences of buying the bonds, and the tax lawyers draft that section. The same lawyer says you’re a lawyer first, so you’ll draft contract language and research the law more than you’ll crunch numbers.

Disputes With the IRS and in Tax Court

The United States Tax Court is a federal court “with nationwide jurisdiction to resolve disputes between taxpayers and the IRS.” If you like building a case, this is the corner of tax law for you. Inside the IRS, Appeals Officers settle complex cases without litigation when a taxpayer appeals or petitions the court.

Law school clinics let you try this work early. The University of Florida’s Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic lets students directly represent clients in disputes with the IRS. At the University of Denver, the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic represents over 250 clients each year in audits, appeals, collections and Tax Court cases.

Estate, Trust and In-House Work

Estate planning is tax work with a family attached. The Bureau of Labor Statistics files wills and estate planning under general practice lawyers, so you won’t find a separate federal line for it. Many tax LL.M. programs build estate paths anyway, such as Denver’s Estate Planning Path and Georgetown’s Certificate in Estate Planning.

In-house lawyers have a different day. Corporate counsels advise a single organization’s executives on contracts, patents, taxes and union agreements. Tax is one topic among several, and you’d be the person who answers when the company asks whether a plan holds up.

Government Tax Attorney Jobs

The IRS Office of Chief Counsel employs over 1,800 attorneys. You could work in a national office group such as Corporate, International, or Procedure and Administration, or in a field office that litigates Tax Court cases. A separate Criminal Tax office advises IRS Criminal Investigation.

The Justice Department’s Tax Division handles or authorizes most civil and criminal litigation under the internal revenue laws in federal courts. Its attorneys work with the IRS and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices. The IRS also hires law students as interns and externs, which is a low-risk way for you to test the work.

What Skills Does a Tax Attorney Need?

You don’t need to love numbers, but you do need to be comfortable with them. The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists analytical skills, communication skills, research skills and persuasion among the qualities lawyers need. Tax law leans hard on the first and third.

You’ll read the Internal Revenue Code, regulations and court decisions, then explain what they mean for one client’s facts. Clear writing matters because your opinion letters, memos and contract language are the product. If you’d rather not write much, the audit and accounting side of tax may fit better.

How Do You Become a Tax Attorney?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics says becoming a lawyer usually takes 7 years of full-time study after high school, in seven steps.

1. Earn a bachelor’s degree. That’s four years. Most law schools don’t require a specific major, and common ones include law and legal studies, history and social science. Accounting helps, but you don’t have to have it.

2. Take the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). The Law School Admission Council describes the main part as a four-section, multiple-choice test, plus a written essay. Law schools may weigh your score in admissions.

3. Earn a Juris Doctor (J.D.). That’s three years at an accredited law school. Take your tax classes early, and use summers for jobs in firms, agencies or legal departments.

4. Pass the bar exam. Most states also want an admitting board to find that you have the character to represent others. Each state’s highest court sets its own rules, so check yours.

5. Build tax experience. New attorneys usually start as associates on teams with experienced lawyers. Some graduates take a one- or two-year judicial clerkship first. Georgetown calls a Tax Court clerkship one of the most useful credentials a new tax lawyer can acquire.

6. Consider a tax Master of Laws (LL.M.). More on that below.

7. Get admitted to the Tax Court if you’ll appear there. Attorneys file an application, a $50 fee and a certificate of good standing dated within 90 days.

The IRS also runs a volunteer externship for law students that asks for 12 to 20 hours a week. First-year students in their second semester, second-year and third-year students, and graduates in LL.M. programs at least half time can apply. It’s unpaid, so plan around that.

Do You Need a Tax LL.M. to Practice Tax Law?

No, and the people in the field disagree about how much it helps. A large-firm tax attorney, asked whether a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) license or an accounting background matters, wrote on r/LawSchool: “You don’t need a tax LLM. You also don’t need a CPA/Accounting background. Both are nice but not must have.”

A tax lawyer with his own firm, who moved over from litigation, sees it differently. He says the degree “will help you get your foot in the door, but without any experience it can be tough.” Put the two views side by side and the practical advice is the same: get real tax work on your record early, in a clinic, an externship or a first job, with or without the degree.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics keeps it simple. It says tax lawyers “may choose” to earn the degree after the J.D. Some employers go further. The IRS Honors Program is a competitive entry route into Chief Counsel. Its 2026 posting for General Attorney (Tax) roles required an LL.M. candidate or graduate at both grades it offered. Recent graduates could also keep their eligibility while studying in a tax LL.M. program.

Which Tax Specialties Can You Study?

Tax LL.M. programs let you point your electives at the work you want. Boston University offers concentrations in estate planning, general business taxation, international taxation and financial services. The University of Miami lets you concentrate in business tax, international tax, or high net worth tax work.

Villanova lists certificates in estate planning, employee benefits, state and local taxation and international taxation. Georgetown pairs its degree with certificates in employee benefits law, estate planning and international taxation. If cross-border work appeals to you, our list of international taxation master’s programs shows more options. Choose electives with a job in mind, because those are the courses an interviewer will ask about.

What Do Tax LL.M. Programs Look Like?

Our LLM in Taxation list has 22 programs at 19 schools. Twenty are LL.M. degrees for lawyers, and two are Master of Studies in Law degrees for non-lawyers. The median is 24 credits, and 16 of the 22 offer part-time study. Eleven are delivered fully online, four are hybrid, and seven are on campus only.

Cost varies widely. Across the 12 programs with a total tuition figure, the median is $37,835. Our guide to what a tax LL.M. is walks through credits, formats and price. Here are five programs that show how different the hands-on side can look.

Villanova’s course catalog describes its Tax Court course as simulation-based training patterned on what the Office of Chief Counsel gives new lawyers. At Georgetown, the adjunct faculty include officials from the IRS, the Treasury Department and the Justice Department, plus Tax Court judges. You can read the Georgetown LL.M. in Taxation review for the details.

What Does a Tax Attorney Earn, and What’s the Outlook?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has no tax attorney line, so Lawyers is the closest match. Every figure here covers all lawyers, not tax lawyers alone. The median wage was $159,670 in May 2025. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $78,360. The highest 10 percent earned more than $351,600.

Employment is projected to grow 5 percent from 2025 to 2035, faster than average, with about 28,700 openings a year. Many of those openings come from lawyers who retire or switch occupations. The state table below shows lawyer pay in every state, and our tax attorney salary page breaks pay out by setting.

What’s the Work Life Like?

Most lawyers work full time, and some work more than 40 hours a week. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says the work can be stressful around trials and deadlines. That matches what the New York tax lawyer wrote: a normal day runs about 10am to 7pm, with a late night about once a week.

Self-employed lawyers may have flexibility in setting their own schedules. If you don’t like working against deadlines, try a clinic or an internship before you commit three years to law school. You’ll learn quickly whether you enjoy the pace.

Should You Choose Tax Law or Accounting?

You can end up in tax from either side. Accountants and auditors prepare returns and plan for clients, and lawyers draft, argue and advise on legal positions. Our CPA vs tax attorney guide compares the two paths side by side.

If you’re still weighing options, read the overview of jobs a master’s in taxation leads to and the tax accountant career guide. Pick the path that fits how you like to work and how much schooling you’re ready for. Then look at the best master’s in taxation programs if the accounting side wins.