Tax Attorney in San Francisco County

San Francisco is the only consolidated city-county in California. The City and County of San Francisco is a single governmental unit, so property tax, the SF Business Tax program, the Transient Occupancy Tax, the Homelessness Gross Receipts Tax, and the Prop L Overpaid Executive Tax all run through the SF Office of the Treasurer & Tax Collector at 1 Dr Carlton B Goodlett Place. No other California county layers its own gross-receipts-tax structure on top of state and federal liability the way SF does. Working a San Francisco matter means coordinating across three authorities — IRS, FTB, and SF Treasurer — instead of the two you would face elsewhere in the state.

The U.S. Tax Court hears San Francisco matters at the Phillip Burton Federal Building, 450 Golden Gate Avenue, 19th Floor, San Francisco CA 94102. An SF petitioner designates "San Francisco, California" as the place of trial on the petition under Tax Court Rule 140. The same building houses the IRS San Francisco TAC on the 6th floor and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, which makes it the single federal-tax hub for the entire Bay Area.

The pattern is structural. Federal supplemental withholding on RSU vests defaults to 22 percent (37 percent above $1 million in supplemental wages). California's top bracket is 13.3 percent. The all-in marginal rate on an SF tech employee's RSU vest often crosses 50 percent once the Mental Health Services Act 1 percent surtax under Cal. Rev. & Tax. Code §17043 kicks in above $1 million of taxable income. The shortfall lands on April 15 of the following year. Resolution paths: a federal Installment Agreement under IRC §6159, a FTB Form 3567 payment plan, supplemental withholding elections (W-4 Step 4(c)) for the rest of the current year, and estimated-tax payments under IRC §6654 to break the cycle going forward.

SF Gross Receipts Tax sits in Article 12-A-1 of the Business and Tax Regulations Code. Deficiency notices typically arise from allocation-factor disputes (payroll vs. gross receipts apportionment), NAICS-code classification errors that move the business into a higher-rate category, or omitted Homelessness GRT or Prop L surcharge computations. The protest process runs through the SF Treasurer, with administrative review available before refund-claim litigation in SF Superior Court. We file a written protest, request a hearing, and negotiate adjustment of the assessment. If the underlying issue is a methodology disagreement, we model the alternative apportionment and present it formally. Penalty abatement on reasonable-cause showing is available where the position was taken in good faith.

Prop L, passed by SF voters in 2020, is the Overpaid Executive Gross Receipts Tax. It applies when a business's highest-paid managerial executive is paid more than 100 times the median pay of the company's San Francisco employees. The surcharge scales by the ratio, up to 0.6 percent of San Francisco-attributable gross receipts. Financial-services firms with substantial SF operations — investment banks, asset managers, fintech — routinely cross the threshold. Compliance turns on accurate determination of the "highest-paid managerial executive" definition, proper inclusion of equity compensation in the pay comparison, and the SF allocation factor for gross receipts. We model the calculation, identify defensible exclusions, and handle protests when the SF Treasurer disagrees with the company's position.

Several options. First, a Disqualifying Disposition in the same calendar year as exercise converts AMT preference treatment to regular ordinary income on the smaller spread, often a smaller bill. Second, where the share price collapsed after exercise, the loss on sale generates a capital-loss carryforward that combines with the AMT credit under IRC §53 over time as regular tax exceeds tentative minimum tax. Third, payment of the AMT can be structured through an Installment Agreement under IRC §6159. Fourth, reasonable-cause penalty abatement is available where the AMT was unexpected and the underpayment was a good-faith estimate error. Fifth, where the company failed before the lock-up expired, the worthless-stock deduction under IRC §165(g) may apply. We model each path before recommending.

Possibly. Section 1202 lets a non-corporate shareholder exclude up to the greater of $10 million or 10 times basis on gain from the sale of qualified small-business stock held more than five years. The stock must be issued by a domestic C corporation, the company must have less than $50 million of gross assets at and immediately after issuance, more than 80 percent of assets must be used in a qualified trade or business, and the shareholder must have acquired the stock at original issuance. Common SF disqualifiers: LLC-to-C-corp conversions without proper basis tracking, redemptions that strip out the QSBS character, and exit before the five-year hold. California does not conform — the full gain is California-taxable. Plan three to five years before the exit.

Yes, in almost every case. FinCEN Form 114 (FBAR) is required of any U.S. person — including green-card holders and visa holders who are U.S. tax residents under the substantial-presence test — with foreign financial accounts whose aggregate high balance exceeds $10,000 at any single point during the calendar year. Hong Kong HSBC, Chinese savings, Philippine BDO or BPI, Korean Kookmin, and family-trust accounts all count. The form is filed separately from your 1040, electronically through the BSA E-Filing System, by April 15 with an automatic October 15 extension. Form 8938 under IRC §6038D is an additional layer with higher thresholds. Past non-filing is addressed through Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures for non-willful conduct, the IRS Voluntary Disclosure Practice where willfulness is in play, or the Delinquent FBAR Submission Procedures where no underlying tax was owed. Penalties for unaddressed FBAR exposure are severe: non-willful penalties run per-account (after Bittner v. United States), and willful penalties reach the greater of $100,000 inflation-adjusted or 50 percent of the high balance per year.

California uses the domicile test at Cal. Rev. & Tax. Code §17014 and FTB Publication 1031, weighing nine factors: physical-presence days, location of family, location of primary residence, driver's license, vehicle registration, voter registration, banking, professional licenses, and business or social ties. Retaining a Pacific Heights, Noe Valley, Sea Cliff, or Marina home as a "second home" while claiming Texas, Florida, or Washington residency is the most common reason SF departing-resident audits fail. Sending children to private schools in the city while claiming an out-of-state move is another red flag. The defense is a documented clean break at the time of the move: new driver's license, new voter registration, sale or lease of the SF home, transfer of professional licenses, and a careful physical-presence log under the 9-month presumption rule. The stakes are high because the FTB chases the year that the IPO, sale, or secondary closed.

Three layers of exposure. First, SF imposes a 14 percent Transient Occupancy Tax on stays under 30 days, plus the Moscone Expansion District assessment in the relevant zone. Platforms like Airbnb collect and remit TOT directly for hosts who have signed up; off-platform bookings (VRBO, direct, Booking.com) are the host's responsibility. Second, SF Administrative Code Chapter 41A requires registration with the SF Office of Short-Term Rentals and limits rentals in primary residences. Third, federal and California income-tax reporting on Schedule E or Schedule C depending on services provided. The SF Treasurer periodically sweeps platform data and reconciles against registered hosts. Resolution paths involve registration true-up, back-TOT remittance with negotiated penalty abatement on reasonable-cause showing, and federal/state income reporting through amended returns. We handle the three layers together because a clean fix on one without the others triggers cross-referrals.

A Notice of Federal Tax Lien recorded with the SF Assessor-Recorder clouds title until released, subordinated, discharged, or withdrawn. For refinance, the typical path is subordination under IRC §6325(d): Form 14134 (Application for Certificate of Subordination of Federal Tax Lien) shows the IRS that the refinance proceeds will pay down the tax debt or that subordination otherwise helps collection. If the underlying liability has been paid, request release on Form 668(Z). If you are on a streamlined IA under $25,000, lien withdrawal under Fresh Start (Form 12277) is available and clears title cleaner than release. The FTB State Tax Lien parallel under Cal. Gov. Code §7174 has its own release and subordination procedures. SF residential property values mean substantial equity is often available to satisfy the lien on refinance, which strengthens the subordination case.

AB 5 codified the ABC test from Dynamex into Cal. Lab. Code §2775. To classify a developer, designer, or marketer as a 1099 contractor, the company must show (A) freedom from control and direction, (B) the work falls outside the company's usual course of business, and (C) the contractor is engaged in an independently established trade. For an SF SaaS company, prong B is often the killer — if your business is software development and the contractors are writing software, the work is inside your usual course. Professional-services exemptions and business-to-business carve-outs may apply depending on the contracting structure. Reclassification produces back UI, ETT, SDI, and PIT withholding for three years plus penalties under Cal. Unemp. Ins. Code §1126. The defense is exemption analysis, B2B-structure documentation, and protest filings before assessment.

No. The firm is headquartered at 1100 S. Robertson Boulevard in Los Angeles, and we represent clients across all 58 California counties. San Francisco engagements run by phone, secure portal, and email; in-person meetings happen by appointment at the LA office for clients who prefer face-to-face. We appear at the SF Treasurer & Tax Collector at City Hall, the SF Assessor-Recorder, the U.S. Tax Court San Francisco trial sessions at 450 Golden Gate Avenue, the IRS San Francisco TAC in the same Phillip Burton Federal Building, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals at 95 7th Street, and the San Francisco Superior Court Civic Center Courthouse as case calendaring requires.