Russell John Haynes

Russell ("Russ") Haynes is a tax attorney practicing exclusively in the tax controversy field, including civil and criminal tax matters. Russl has worked for his dad, Burton J. Haynes, a tax attorney, CPA, and former IRS Criminal Investigation Division Special Agent, for many years as a legal assistant and paralegal, then as an attorney since 2011. They continue to work together as an effective team in a wide variety of cases. The majority of Russ’ work is devoted to business cases involving federal and state employment taxes, including unpaid and unfiled employment, unemployment, and entity-level income tax returns, and the accompanying personal exposure of owners, officers, and employees to the Trust Fund Recovery Penalty and converted state assessments. Russ has successfully defended a variety of businesses from state and federal action in such cases, as well as assisting individuals in avoiding or reducing their personal exposure to the business’ tax problems.

 

Russ also works with clients on a variety of individual tax problems, including unfiled or unpaid income taxes and audits. He is adept at using a variety of devices to tackle unmanageable tax problems, including the use of bankruptcy to handle unpayable tax debts; offers in compromise; negotiating installment agreements with the federal and state tax authorities; innocent and injured spouse claims; IRS administrative appeals and Tax Court cases; and claims for abatement of penalties. Russl is also experienced in criminal tax cases, including those involving charges of tax evasion, willful failure to file, willful failure to pay, willful failure to collect and pay over employment taxes, false statements, false claims, and conspiracy. He has worked such cases at all stages, from investigation by the IRS Criminal Investigation Division or other federal agencies, or when such cases proceed through the grand jury process. He has worked on criminal tax cases in the post‑investigatory stage, including conferences at the Tax Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, trial preparation, forensic accounting reconstruction, expedited plea agreements, sentencing, post‑sentencing, and civil follow‑ups with the IRS Examination Division.

 

Russ is also well-versed in accounting and return-preparation. He has performed forensic accounting reconstructions on numerous cases, prepared income, employment, and unemployment tax returns, is familiar with electronic filing systems for the IRS, Social Security Administration, Virginia Department of Taxation, and Comptroller of Maryland. He is a Quickbooks ProAdvisor.

 

Russl is admitted to the U.S. Tax Court, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, and the Virginia Supreme Court. He is a member of the American Bar Association, the ABA Tax Section and the ABA Committee on Civil and Criminal Tax Penalties, the Virginia State Bar Association and VSB Taxation Section.