Practice Area

Tax Controversy & Litigation

The IRS does not stop at the audit. When a tax dispute escalates—to a criminal referral, a grand jury subpoena, or a federal indictment—you need counsel who understands how the government builds those cases and how to stop them. Khalil Kinchen defends individuals and businesses at every stage of civil and criminal tax controversy, from the first examination through federal court and beyond.

Overview

A tax problem is not always just a tax problem.

Civil tax disputes and criminal tax investigations are not separate universes. They begin in the same place—an IRS examination, a currency transaction report, a whistleblower tip—and they can move from one track to the other faster than most taxpayers expect. The IRS Criminal Investigation Division operates within the same agency that conducts civil audits. Revenue agents who develop fraud indicators during an examination refer matters to special agents. Civil cases become criminal referrals. Penalties become indictments.

Khalil Kinchen represents individuals, executives, business owners, and companies facing the full range of federal tax controversy—from grand jury investigations to federal criminal prosecution for tax fraud. We approach every tax matter with both tracks in mind, because the decisions made during a civil audit can determine whether a criminal case is made.

Tax Controversy & Litigation Services

  • Federal district court tax refund litigation

  • IRS Criminal Investigation Division (CID) defense

  • Federal grand jury subpoena response in tax matters

  • Tax fraud and tax evasion defense

  • False return and failure to file defense

  • Currency reporting violations and structuring defense

  • Tax whistleblower response and qui tam defense

  • Parallel civil and criminal tax defense strategy

How We Approach Tax Controversy

Our Method

Civil-Criminal Risk Assessment from Day One

Every tax controversy engagement begins with an honest assessment of criminal exposure—not as an afterthought, but as the first order of business. The decisions a taxpayer makes during a civil examination—what documents to produce, how to respond to agent questions, whether to make voluntary disclosures—can open or close the door to criminal prosecution. We evaluate that risk from the first contact and build every civil strategy with the criminal track in view. That capability, applied from the first audit notice, is the most valuable thing we offer clients whose tax disputes have the potential to become something more serious.

Grand Jury Defense &
Pre-Indictment Advocacy

Federal tax prosecutions typically begin with a grand jury investigation. Subpoenas issue to banks, accountants, business partners, and the target's own records custodians. We respond to grand jury subpoenas in tax matters with precision—asserting privilege where it applies, contesting overbroad demands, and engaging with prosecutors before indictment when doing so can change the outcome. Pre-indictment advocacy in tax cases has produced declinations in matters that appeared headed for prosecution.

IRS Criminal
Investigation Defense

IRS Criminal Investigation Division special agents are among the most skilled financial investigators in federal law enforcement. When CI opens a case, the civil audit typically freezes and the criminal machinery begins. We engage at the CI stage with the full weight of our federal criminal defense experience—assessing the government's theory, evaluating cooperation options, managing document exposure, and building the defense that will matter if the matter proceeds to indictment.

Notable Client Outcomes

Track Record

Avoided Criminal Charges

High-Wealth Taxpayer — Multimillion-Dollar Federal Tax Fraud Investigation

Represented a high-net-worth individual in a multimillion-dollar federal tax fraud investigation. Through disciplined pre-indictment engagement and a defense strategy built around the complete factual record, the client avoided criminal charges entirely. The engagement required managing parallel civil tax exposure while neutralizing the criminal referral risk.

Declination

Tax Investigation — Legal Sector

Managed the defense of a legal professional in an IRS Criminal Investigation Division matter arising from a related fraud investigation. Through early engagement with CID agents and structured presentation of the factual record, the matter was resolved without civil or criminal penalties.

Sentencing

Federal Fraud Case – Business Executive

Defended business executive accused in the Southern District of Texas of impeding and obstructing the collection of personal income taxes under a “one-man Klein conspiracy” theory. After extensive pre-indictment negotiation and post-charge sentencing advocacy, we achieved a favorable outcome for the client which allowed him to continue to run a successful engineering and manufacturing firm serving the oil and gas industry and power generation market.

Client Experience

What You Can Expect from Khalil Kinchen

  • Civil and Criminal Tax Defense Under One Roof

    Tax controversy that carries criminal exposure requires counsel equipped to manage both tracks simultaneously. Decisions made in the civil audit affect the criminal investigation. Statements made to revenue agents inform the grand jury. Document productions made without criminal risk analysis become government exhibits. Khalil Kinchen integrates civil tax defense and criminal defense strategy from the outset—because in high-stakes tax matters, the two tracks cannot be managed separately.

  • Federal Prosecution Experience Applied to Tax Defense

    Our founding attorneys built and dismantled federal cases for a combined career. That experience translates directly to tax controversy: understanding how IRS Criminal Investigation Division develops referrals, how DOJ Tax Division prosecutors evaluate cases, and where investigations are most vulnerable to pre-indictment advocacy. Clients facing IRS CI investigations benefit from counsel who has been inside those institutions.

  • Direct Access to Senior Counsel

    Tax controversy at the criminal threshold is not a matter for junior associates. Your case is handled directly by the attorneys who have litigated and tried these matters. Every strategic decision is made by experienced counsel with a complete view of the civil and criminal landscape.

  • Representation for Individuals and Businesses

    We represent high-net-worth individuals, business owners and corporate entities in criminal tax controversy.

Why Khalil Kinchen

Tax controversy is a legal problem. When it becomes a criminal one, you need more than a tax lawyer.

Most tax controversy practices are staffed by tax lawyers—accountants who became attorneys, or attorneys who focus exclusively on the IRS Appeals process and Tax Court. That expertise is valuable in routine civil disputes. It is insufficient when a civil examination develops criminal indicators, when IRS Criminal Investigation Division opens a parallel investigation, or when the DOJ Tax Division issues a grand jury subpoena.

Khalil Kinchen is built for the intersection. We bring federal criminal defense experience—the experience of counsel who has prosecuted and defended tax fraud cases in federal court—to every tax controversy matter we handle. That means criminal tax clients benefit from substantive tax law knowledge that most criminal defense lawyers do not possess.

What makes that combination genuinely rare is the depth of the accounting and tax foundation underneath it. Our lead tax controversy attorney holds an accounting degree, trained as a tax accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers before law school, and has taught Accounting for Lawyers at the law school level for a decade. That background means we do not just understand the legal theory of a tax fraud case — we understand the financial records, the accounting methodology, and the transaction structure that the government will use to build it. And we understand how to take that same record apart.

IRS Criminal Investigation  —  Defense experience at the CI referral stage, before DOJ involvement begins

DOJ Tax Division —  Pre-indictment advocacy and trial defense in federal tax prosecutions

Accounting & Financial Expertise — Big Four tax accounting background that most criminal defense lawyers simply do not have.

Where We Go Deeper

The Criminal Referral Risk Most Tax Lawyers Miss
IRS revenue agents are trained to identify fraud indicators during civil examinations—badges of fraud that, when present, trigger mandatory referral procedures to IRS Criminal Investigation. Most taxpayers do not know when those indicators have been identified. Most civil tax lawyers do not have the criminal defense background to recognize them either, or to manage the examination in a way that neutralizes the referral risk before CI becomes involved. We do.

High-Net-Worth & Business Owner Representation

The IRS devotes disproportionate enforcement resources to high-income individuals, pass-through business structures, and complex financial arrangements that are difficult to audit through automated means. Our clients in this space benefit from counsel who understands both the substantive tax positions that are legitimately defensible and the criminal risk that attaches when the IRS questions whether a position was taken in good faith. We defend the tax position and protect against the criminal consequence simultaneously.

Take The First Step

The audit is never just an audit. Know what you are dealing with before it becomes something more.

Tax controversies have a way of escalating faster than taxpayers expect. The civil examination that begins as a routine document request can end as a criminal referral. The foreign account disclosure issue that seems manageable can become a grand jury subpoena. The earlier you engage counsel who understands both tracks, the more options you have—and the more likely the matter resolves short of the worst outcome.