Tax Attorney in Mariposa County

Yes — in Fresno. The U.S. Tax Court designates Fresno as a place of trial under Tax Court Rule 140. Sessions are held at the B.F. Sisk Federal Building & U.S. Courthouse at 1130 O Street, Fresno 93721, roughly two hours from Mariposa village via Highway 140 west to Merced and Highway 99 south, or via Highway 49 south through Oakhurst and Highway 41 south. Mariposa County petitioners typically designate Fresno on Tax Court petitions, which avoids the drive to San Francisco or Los Angeles for trial. The Court calendars Fresno sessions several times per year.

Both the Treasurer-Tax Collector and the Assessor operate from 4982 10th Street, Mariposa 95338, on the county government campus. The Superior Court is a short walk away at 5088 Bullion Street in the original 1854 courthouse. The Treasurer-Tax Collector handles property-tax billing, collection, payment plans for defaulted property, and the annual tax-defaulted property auction. The Assessor sets the assessed value of each parcel. Disputes over assessed value go to the Assessor, then to the Mariposa County Assessment Appeals Board. Disputes over the amount owed or the bill itself go to the Treasurer-Tax Collector. Prop 13 base-year-value transfers, Prop 19 parent-to-child exclusions, Prop 8 decline-in-value applications, and calamity reassessments for wildfire-damaged parcels under Cal. Rev. & Tax. Code §170 (still active for parts of the 2017 Detwiler Fire and 2018 Ferguson Fire footprints) all route through the Assessor.

Two questions live inside that one. First, the IRC §280A 14-day rule: if you personally use the property for more than 14 days or 10 percent of the days it is rented at fair value (whichever is greater), the property is treated as a residence, and deductions are limited to rental income with carryforward of the excess. Summer-week, fall-color-week, and ski-week personal stays at a Fish Camp Highway 41 cabin or an El Portal Highway 140 canyon-edge rental add up fast. Second, the Schedule E versus Schedule C question turns on whether you provide "substantial services" beyond what a typical landlord provides — daily housekeeping, on-site concierge, breakfast, guided tours. An owner using a property manager and providing only the basics typically reports on Schedule E. An owner running a small-inn-style operation with daily cleaning and breakfast service may end up on Schedule C with self-employment tax exposure. Mariposa County permitting for STRs and the local TOT regime also document personal-versus-rental use in records the auditor can request.

IRC §469 generally treats rental activities as passive, which means losses cannot offset W-2 or other non-passive income unless the taxpayer qualifies as a real-estate professional (more than 750 hours plus more than 50 percent of personal services in real-estate activity) or one of the seven material-participation tests is met. The key wrinkle for Yosemite-gateway STRs is the average-rental-period test under Reg. §1.469-1T(e)(3)(ii): an activity with average customer use of seven days or less, or 30 days or less with significant personal services, is not treated as a rental at all for §469 purposes — it is treated as a trade or business. Many Mariposa STR owners rent in three-to-five-night blocks during peak season, which can place the activity outside the rental classification entirely. From there, material participation is tested under the standard 500-hour test, the substantially-all-participation test, or the more-than-100-hours-and-more-than-anyone-else test. Documentation of hours, tasks, and calendar entries is the case — reconstructed time logs face significant skepticism from examiners.

Several layers apply. First, business-loss treatment on the operating-revenue side — the lost-revenue summer season is a current-year loss against ordinary income, with possible net-operating-loss carryforward under IRC §172 for the resulting NOL. Second, casualty-loss treatment for any destroyed or damaged business property under IRC §165, with the Mariposa County disaster declaration enabling the prior-year election under §165(i). Third, IRC §1033 involuntary-conversion treatment for any insurance proceeds that exceeded basis on destroyed equipment or structures — deferral requires reinvestment in qualifying replacement property within the statutory window, which is two years for business property generally and four years for principal residences in federally-declared disasters. Fourth, IRC §7508A filing-and-payment postponements for the declared disaster window. Fifth, Mariposa County Assessor calamity reassessment under Cal. Rev. & Tax. Code §170 to reduce the assessed value of the damaged structure on the property-tax side. Penalty abatement under IRC §6651 reasonable cause for any compliance lapse during the closure period.

High. California's Dynamex ABC test codified at Cal. Lab. Code §2775 presumes worker-employee status and shifts the burden to the hiring entity to prove all three prongs: (A) the worker is free from control and direction; (B) the worker performs work outside the usual course of the hiring entity's business; and (C) the worker is engaged in an independently established trade. For a Yosemite-gateway tour company paying its guides 1099, the (B) prong is usually fatal — the guides perform the company's core service. Housekeeping crews for an STR or motel operator face the same (B) problem. EDD audits typically go back three years (or longer for unfiled returns), and the assessment includes back UI, ETT, SDI, and PIT withholding plus penalties. Federal IRS issues a parallel SS-8 / Form 4180 reclassification with Trust Fund Recovery exposure under IRC §6672. The federal Section 530 safe harbor is more forgiving than the California ABC test on the same facts, which sometimes produces a federal-state split that requires parallel strategy.

Yes — three of them. FTB compromise authority sits at Cal. Rev. & Tax. Code §19443 (filed on FTB Form 4905 PIT for individuals or 4905 BE for entities). CDTFA operates a parallel offer program for sales-and-use tax. EDD compromise authority sits at Cal. Unemp. Ins. Code §1192 for payroll-tax liabilities. Each program has its own form, financial disclosure standard, and review path. The FTB §19443 compromise unit sits in headquarters at 9646 Butterfield Way in Rancho Cordova. Submitting an FTB OIC does not affect a federal IRS OIC; the two are evaluated by separate teams under different RCP standards, and California is generally tougher on primary-residence equity than the IRS, which matters for Yosemite-gateway Fish Camp and El Portal cabin owners, Lake McClure waterfront properties, and multi-acre Hornitos and Catheys Valley parcels.

Two periods matter. For FTB assessment, Cal. Rev. & Tax. Code §19057 generally gives the FTB four years from a filed return to assess, with no statute on unfiled returns. For FTB collection, §19255 gives the FTB 20 years from the latest of assessment, due date, or final return filing — double the federal 10-year period under IRC §6502. CDTFA assessment runs three years under §6487 (eight for unfiled or fraud), with collection generally 10 years under §6711. EDD has its own windows under the Unemployment Insurance Code. A Mariposa County filer who watches the federal CSED expire in 2026 may still face FTB collection until 2036 on the same year — and the FTB's reach into California-source income survives a move to Nevada, Arizona, or anywhere else.

Yes. The IRS examines federal income tax under the Internal Revenue Code; the FTB examines California state income tax under the Revenue and Taxation Code. The two agencies operate independent audit programs but share information through formal information-exchange agreements. An IRS adjustment to federal taxable income is reported to the FTB under the federal-state agreement, and a Revenue Agent Report can trigger a parallel California assessment within four years. CDTFA sales-tax audits and EDD payroll audits can run alongside both. A single Mariposa-village restaurant, El Portal motel, or Yosemite-gateway tour company can have a 2022 tax year open in four different forums at once.

Probably yes, on both sides. Federal IRC §6672 assesses a Trust Fund Recovery Penalty against any "responsible person" who "willfully" failed to pay over withheld taxes — the FICA and federal income-tax withholding portion of Form 941, not the employer's share. The IRS conducts a Form 4180 interview to identify responsible persons. Anyone with check-signing authority, payroll-decision authority, or knowledge of unpaid taxes can be assessed. On the California side, Cal. Unemp. Ins. Code §1735 assesses personal liability for EDD payroll-tax withholding (SDI, PIT withholding) against the same class of responsible persons. CDTFA sales-tax personal liability under Cal. Rev. & Tax. Code §6829 operates under similar principles. For a Mariposa-village restaurant, an El Portal or Fish Camp lodging operator, a Coulterville Hotel Jeffery corridor business, or a Merced River rafting outfitter that closes with unpaid 941s, the owner usually faces all three exposures simultaneously.

Yes. IRC §7345 authorizes the IRS to certify "seriously delinquent" federal 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. Certification reverses when the debt is paid, an IA is in place, an OIC is accepted, an active CDP hearing is pending, or Innocent Spouse Relief is in process. Mariposa-county residents with overseas family-visit travel, Yosemite-gateway tour operators traveling for international trade shows, photographers and creatives with overseas assignments, and small-business owners with international supplier visits all need to address §7345 certifications before travel. The California FTB does not certify to the State Department but can independently affect California professional licenses in certain circumstances.

Timber tax has its own framework. Under IRC §631, timber owners can elect to treat the sale of standing timber held more than one year as a capital transaction with the depletable timber treated as a Section 1231 asset — long-term capital-gain rates rather than ordinary income on the appreciated stumpage portion. A post-fire salvage sale of burned standing timber on a Detwiler or Ferguson Fire footprint parcel often triggers the question of whether the loss is a casualty (Section 165) and the salvage proceeds are an involuntary conversion (Section 1033), or whether the cut-and-sale is a normal Section 631 timber transaction. The right answer depends on the facts and the timing. Inherited timber benefits from a basis step-up under Section 1014 to fair market value at the decedent's date of death, which can substantially reduce gain even on a same-year salvage sale. Soil-and-water conservation expenses under IRC §175, reforestation cost amortization under IRC §194, and the management-plan substantiation that the federal and California tax authorities increasingly expect on rural acreage all factor in. Coordinate with a forester and a tax attorney before the cut and sale, not after.

No. The firm is headquartered at 1100 S. Robertson Boulevard in Los Angeles, but we represent clients throughout Mariposa County by phone, secure document portal, and email. Most engagements never require an in-person meeting. When in-person matters — an FTB headquarters conference at Rancho Cordova, a Tax Court trial at the Sisk Federal Building on O Street in Fresno, a U.S. District Court appearance in the same building, an OTA hearing in Sacramento or Cerritos, or a Mariposa County Superior Court appearance at 5088 Bullion Street in the 1854 historic courthouse — we coordinate appropriately. Some Mariposa County clients meet by Zoom, others prefer phone, and we make the trip to Fresno, Mariposa village, El Portal, Fish Camp, or Coulterville when the case calls for it.

Yes. Communications between you and a California-licensed attorney for the purpose of seeking legal advice are protected by California Evidence Code §954 attorney-client privilege and the parallel federal common-law attorney-client privilege, subject to the usual exceptions (crime-fraud, waiver). 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. An attorney handling your tax case retains the broader privilege that survives criminal investigation.