Joshua D. Smeltzer

Joshua Smeltzer is a tax litigator defending clients in tax audits, tax appeals, and litigation in Federal District Court, U.S. Tax Court, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, and tax issues in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Joshua’s previous work as a litigator for the U.S. Department of Justice provides him with first-hand knowledge of how government lawyers build and litigate tax cases. Based on his impressive track record at the Department of Justice, Joshua received the agency’s Outstanding Trial Attorney Award seven times. He also has deep tax litigation experience in federal court, both as a private and government lawyer.

Joshua represents individuals, corporations, partnerships, and estates in a variety of tax issues involving tax reporting for cryptocurrency and foreign bank accounts, captive insurance arrangements, investments in conservation easements, charitable donations, a variety of tax deduction and tax credit disputes, as well as various transactions involving cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. He is often consulted on tax issues arising from significant financial events, such as large financial transactions, litigation settlements, transfers of assets to family limited partnerships or other entities, and tax issues surrounding the sale of business assets or stock.

During his 18-year practice as a tax litigator, his cases have ranged from smaller cases involving six-figure dollar amounts to high-stakes disputes where the amount in controversy totaled hundreds of millions of dollars and, in one case, over a billion dollars. As a respected thought leader in the tax field, Joshua is a regular author and presenter on numerous tax topics and has been called on to provide expert testimony on tax issues in administrative disputes and in court proceedings.