There’s a saying among the top criminal defense attorneys out there – every person in this country commits some type of crime every day. The criminal code is so huge and so complex and so broad that it is likely that every single person in the United States is committing a crime every single day.

But if you are committing tax crimes, you better watch your step and know when it’s time to hire a criminal tax attorney.

When I talk about tax crimes, for the most part I am referring to federal taxes. There are numerous state tax laws, and subverting them is not a good idea. But, for the most part, state laws and punishments are tiny compared to federal tax criminal penalties. To give you an idea, with most tax crimes in state court, the minimum penalty is a fine. In federal court, the minimum penalty is 5 years in prison, and that’s for each incident!

The time to go out there and find a criminal tax attorney is as soon as possible after you get the call from the IRS. And honestly, if you know what you are doing, the time to talk to someone is before you get caught. Remember, there is attorney-client privilege, and though no tax attorneys are going to tell you how to subvert the law, they can tell you what the penalties are and tell you what the cops will be looking for to catch you.

In the end, this isn’t like hiring a truck accident attorney or motorcycle accident lawyers. You don’t want to wait until after something has happened to begin working to solve the problem. You want to start immediately. The quicker the better. Because when the feds start coming down on you, they tend to come down pretty hard.

Ask any federal criminal lawyers out there and they’ll tell you that although the tax laws aren’t glamorous, they have teeth (think “The Firm” with Matt Damon – Al Capone wasn’t sent to prison for murder, he went for tax evasion and mail fraud). If the IRS is calling you and wanting to talk to you, don’t say a word until you’ve got a criminal tax attorney on your side.