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Tax

Dec. 19, 2012

Looking for year-end tax deductions? Pay your lawyer

Distinguish purely personal from investment expenses. Legal fees paid to help the client's business reputation could be business or investment expenses. Business legal fees are the best, as they are fully deductible.

Robert W. Wood

Managing Partner, Wood LLP

333 Sacramento St
San Francisco , California 94111-3601

Phone: (415) 834-0113

Fax: (415) 789-4540

Email: wood@WoodLLP.com

Univ of Chicago Law School

Wood is a tax lawyer at Wood LLP, and often advises lawyers and litigants about tax issues.


By Robert W. Wood


No one likes paying legal fees, but even pricey fees can look a lot less unreasonable when you can deduct them: $10,000 in legal fees costs only $6,000 if the client pays a combined 40 percent tax rate. And reports suggest that a good number of California taxpayers will be paying a combined federal and California rate exceeding 50 percent in 2013. With those rates, deductions matter.


When it comes time to collect their fees, lawyers be...

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