Tax Attorney in Ann Arbor, MI

No. Ann Arbor does not impose a municipal income tax — unusual among Michigan cities of its size. Detroit imposes 2.4% on residents and 1.2% on non-residents; Grand Rapids, Lansing, Saginaw, Flint, Pontiac, and roughly eighteen other Michigan cities also adopted local income taxes under the Uniform City Income Tax Act. Ann Arbor City Council studied adoption on multiple occasions but did not proceed. The state-level 4.25% flat income tax under MCL §206.51 still applies to Ann Arbor residents on Michigan-source income, plus the federal 1040 with the IRS. Property tax is collected by the City Treasurer and the Washtenaw County Treasurer.

It depends on the source. Under IRC §117, qualified scholarship amounts covering tuition and required fees are excludable from gross income for degree candidates. Amounts paid for room, board, or as a stipend for services (teaching, research, or other work as a condition of the award) are taxable wages. IRS Publication 970 walks through the analysis. The Form 1098-T you receive from U-M is informational only — it does not control whether the stipend is taxable. Many graduate students treat the entire stipend as tax-free and receive a CP2000 notice a year or two later. The fix is usually amended returns and, if penalties were assessed, a reasonable-cause request citing the §117 classification confusion.

Two reasons recur. First, if your postdoc is paid as a non-employee fellowship rather than as a W-2 employee, the institution does not withhold income tax under standard IRC §3402 wage-withholding rules. You receive the gross amount and owe the entire federal liability when you file. Second, if you are a non-resident alien on J-1 status, withholding under IRC §1441 may be lower than your effective rate, especially if a tax-treaty exemption applied in year one but expired. The fix is quarterly estimated payments under IRC §6654 going forward and a §6651 reasonable-cause request for prior years where the misunderstanding was non-willful.

If you are a U.S. tax resident (a green-card holder, U.S. citizen, or someone who meets the substantial-presence test) and your foreign accounts aggregate over $10,000 at any single point during the year, yes — FinCEN Form 114 (FBAR) is due. The threshold is aggregate, not per-account. IRS Form 8938 (under IRC §6038D) has higher thresholds and is filed with the 1040. For years you missed, the Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures — Domestic or Foreign — allow non-willful filers to come back into compliance with reduced penalties. Willful non-filing exposes you to severe penalties; the right path depends on intent, and that is a determination an attorney should make, not the taxpayer.

Ann Arbor cases are tried in Detroit at the Theodore Levin U.S. Courthouse, 231 W Lafayette Boulevard, Detroit MI 48226 — roughly 40 miles east. The U.S. Tax Court holds no permanent Ann Arbor session. A petitioner designates Detroit as the preferred place of trial on the petition under Tax Court Rule 140. Sessions are scheduled on rotation rather than monthly. Small-tax-case procedure under IRC §7463 is available for deficiencies of $50,000 or less per year. The court has expanded remote-trial options since 2020, which means some Ann Arbor petitioners now attend via Zoom for Government rather than driving to Detroit.

The Michigan Tax Tribunal is a dedicated state-tax court established under MCL §205.701 with offices at 611 W Ottawa Street, Lansing. It hears appeals from Michigan Department of Treasury final assessments, property-tax assessment appeals from local boards of review, and disputes over the Michigan Business Tax, sales tax, use tax, and individual income tax. The petition window is 60 days from the date of the final assessment under MCL §205.735a — one of the shorter state-tribunal windows in the country. The Entire Tribunal handles matters over $20,000; the Small Claims Division handles smaller disputes with simplified procedures. Litigation in the Entire Tribunal requires representation by a Michigan-admitted attorney, which is why VTL refers tribunal litigation to local counsel while continuing federal-IRS work directly.

Two questions overlap. First, if you are a U.S. tax resident with Japan-domiciled bank accounts (and many Toyota TC engineers retain Japanese checking and savings accounts during the U.S. assignment), aggregate balances over $10,000 trigger FBAR filing under FinCEN Form 114. Second, the IRC §911 Foreign Earned Income Exclusion applies to U.S. tax residents earning income abroad — if you are returning to Japan for a portion of the year and meet the physical-presence or bona-fide-residence test, a §911 election may exclude foreign earned income up to the annual cap (roughly $126,500 for 2024, indexed annually). Tax-equalization agreements common at Toyota and Denso make the analysis dependent on contract terms; a §911 election may shift the economic benefit between you and the employer. Pull the equalization agreement before electing.

If you rent the home for fewer than 15 days in the calendar year, IRC §280A(g) — the "Augusta rule" — lets you exclude all rental income from gross income, and you cannot deduct rental expenses. Michigan Stadium hosts seven home football games in a typical season, so an owner renting two nights per home game lands at 14 nights — right at the threshold. Add a basketball-weekend rental or a graduation-weekend booking and you cross the line, at which point the entire year becomes reportable. Allocation rules between personal and rental days control deductions under §280A, and depreciation recapture issues compound on sale. Track rental days carefully; the 14-day line is not negotiable.

Yes. A levy under IRC §6331 reaches property and rights to property held by or for the taxpayer, including 403(b) and 457(b) accounts that U-M faculty and staff hold with TIAA, Fidelity, and other vendors. The IRS may levy on the present right to receive a distribution if the taxpayer is at least 59½ or has separated from service. Pre-59½ accounts are reachable when distributions are available without restriction (typically post-separation). The 21-day hold under IRC §6332(c) applies, so a properly-filed CDP request or accepted CNC suspends the levy before the custodian remits. Brokerage levies on biotech RSU positions held outside the retirement plan are immediately reachable; pre-vest restricted positions are narrower under IRC §6331 because they are contingent.

Yes. IRC §7345 authorizes the IRS to certify "seriously delinquent" tax debt — currently $62,000 for 2026, indexed for inflation — to the State Department, which may then deny passport renewal or revoke an active passport. The certification reverses when the debt is paid, an IA is in place, an accepted OIC is in force, an active CDP hearing is pending, or Innocent Spouse Relief is in process. For U-M faculty attending conferences abroad, postdocs returning home for family visits, and Michigan Medicine physicians on international medical missions, revocation exposure is operationally serious. Decertification typically processes within 30 days once a qualifying resolution is in place.

Federal tax-resolution fees vary by matter complexity. A straightforward Installment Agreement typically falls between $1,500 and $3,500. A full Offer in Compromise with Form 433 financial analysis runs $4,000 to $7,500. Audit defense depends on the audit type and the number of issues. A U.S. Tax Court petition with case workup and trial preparation generally starts at $6,000 and rises with case complexity. Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures (the FBAR catch-up filing for the U-M international community) typically run $4,000 to $8,000 depending on the number of years and accounts. VTL provides a written fee quote after the free consultation. Cal Bar Rule 7.1 prohibits comparisons claiming we are cheaper or faster than competitors without verifiable substantiation, so we do not market on price.

Yes. Communications between you and a licensed attorney for the purpose of seeking legal advice are protected by federal common-law attorney-client privilege, subject to the usual exceptions (crime-fraud, waiver, third-party presence). The narrower federally-authorized tax practitioner privilege under IRC §7525 applies to non-attorney CPAs and EAs but does not extend to criminal-tax matters or to written tax-shelter communications. An attorney handling your tax case retains the broader privilege that survives criminal investigation, which matters significantly if a civil audit shifts to a Criminal Investigation Division referral — a real risk in willful FBAR cases.

Yes, generally. IRC §6331(k)(1) suspends levy action while an offer is pending and for 30 days after a rejection, plus during any timely-filed Appeals review of a rejection. The IRS will not levy on you while a processable OIC is being evaluated. However, the IRS may still file a Notice of Federal Tax Lien during the OIC pendency to protect its position — the lien is not a levy. CSED is also tolled during pendency, which can matter when the original ten-year clock is close to expiring. A poorly-prepared OIC that gets returned (not rejected) does not provide the same protection — processability matters, and Forms 433-A(OIC) and 433-B(OIC) must be technically complete.

For administrative work at the Michigan Department of Treasury — informal conferences, responses to assessment notices, MI-2848 representation, payment plans — an out-of-state attorney can represent you under Treasury rules with a properly-executed power of attorney. For litigation at the Michigan Tax Tribunal Entire Tribunal level, Michigan bar admission is required, and we refer to local Michigan counsel for that step while continuing federal-IRS work directly. Small Claims Division matters under $20,000 in dispute allow taxpayer self-representation. Many Treasury disputes resolve at the informal-conference stage without ever reaching the Tribunal.