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How can I convert personal property into owner equity?

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PayrollHRGuy

Senior Member
One of the lawyers responded: "Thanks for the inquiry. I don’t think this would be a good fit."

Here was the message I sent to his contact form:

"I seek legal tax advice for foundation of c-corp. I live in rural Lane County, beyond reach of cellphones, and I seldom travel. Therefore I seek a lawyer who doesn't need me in his or her office to provide legal advice--in fact, the bylaws I try to abide by discourage use of fossil fuels or petrochemicals anytime affordable alternatives are available; I would gladly pay full face-to-face price for a virtual consultation.

Sincerely,
Me, director
My company
My email...
That's a reasonable response to your message.
 


S

slac.in.the.box

Guest
That's a reasonable response to your message.
Yes it is! I'm not complaining about the response. I'm celebrating that, if one firm can check their email, there's a chance the others might as well!
 

Taxing Matters

Overtaxed Member
If another week goes by with no response, I'll matriculate a school of law because I am an obstinate do-it-yourself type, and could get another degree faster than lawyers can check responses to their contact forms.
It would, as I'm sure you know, be a waste of your time and money to try that just for corporate tax issues. Law school is 3 years if you attend full time, and while you can find some online law schools, they won't be ABA approved and thus not good for ever actually practicing law. Moreover, most law schools do not offer extensive courses in tax law. What the JD degree does is give you a good understanding of the basic areas of law, and you may elect to take a tax law course (or several if your law school offers them) but it's not likely to get you a comprehensive study of tax law. So you'd likely need the extra year full-time to get the Masters of Law (LL.M) in taxation to really get the tax law part. If you keep contacting tax lawyers you'll find some that will respond to you. The trouble is that they will likely want to talk with you by phone at some point. I don't represent or advise clients that I have not at least met by phone first.
 

quincy

Senior Member
... The trouble is that they will likely want to talk with you by phone at some point. I don't represent or advise clients that I have not at least met by phone first.
Most of the attorneys I know like in-person meetings initially and will correspond by phone (or email) after being hired.
 

Taxing Matters

Overtaxed Member
Most of the attorneys I know like in-person meetings initially and will correspond by phone (or email) after being hired.
That is my preference too, but I make some exceptions when that is not possible. For example, I represented a client with a tax problem who was deployed in the Middle East and for obvious reasons could not make it into my office to meet with me. But was able to talk with him over the phone and his family in the state facilitated getting the fee agreement and other needed paperwork to him. I would not have taken the client just based on an e-mail exchange, however.
 

Taxing Matters

Overtaxed Member
I personally would not want to hire any attorney I only met online and communicated with only by email. It seems a bit of a risk.
I wouldn't either. It's a risk for both sides.

One other way I've dealt with this issue is meeting potential clients by some form of video conferencing, e.g. Facetime, when it is not practical to meet in person. That's worked out pretty well so far. I got the idea after seeing doctors for minor health issues by video conferencing in a program offered by the large health system that provides my care. I can see and talk with a doctor from home at any time 24 hours a day usually within 30 minutes of signing up on the portal. Obviously what the doctor can do in such a visit is limited, so they restrict the kinds of medical situations that I can use it for, but within those limits it's been great. It's also a lot less expensive than a regular office visit. Motivated by those positive experiences I've done some similar video calls with my potential clients and those too have gone pretty well.
 
S

slac.in.the.box

Guest
I wouldn't either. It's a risk for both sides.

One other way I've dealt with this issue is meeting potential clients by some form of video conferencing, e.g. Facetime, when it is not practical to meet in person. T
Encrypted video conferencing is the solution I'm hoping for, and what I was referring to by "virtual consultation" in my message. It really cuts down on the vehicle's emissions in a four hour round trip to a major business district and back, just for a coat and tie, firm handshake, sudden look in the eye, and easy smile. You get all that in an encrypted video conference--even a TLS handshake: now that's firm.
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
Suddenly there's this Business Attorney in PDX (Portland is 4 hours away, so I haven't emailed anyone there yet) advertisement in this thread... I'm gonna try it.
While a lawyer, like Taxingmatters, can also be an expert in taxation, (ie a tax attorney) most lawyers know nothing at all about taxation. In addition, even a tax attorney might not be an expert in accounting.

You need someone who is both an expert in taxation and an expert in accounting. That is more likely to be a CPA, or an EA than an attorney.

I was suggesting that you take a continuing ed course in corporate taxation. I was not suggesting law school. Google, "continuing education corporate taxation" to see what I was actually talking about.
 
S

slac.in.the.box

Guest
I emailed the lawyer who had responded back, and received another response, that basically suggested that because his name was in the email address I provided him to contact me with, he thought that suspicious and bot-like. I create separate email for each contact (even friends), which does reveal who sells my info to spammers, or who has it hacked out of their systems. That way I can shut down spam right away, or burn the infected email alias and create a new one. So I emailed him back, explaining all that, and told him what an honest face he had in his photo, and gave him some more details of my business idea (which I can't share here, or someone would steal it ); and on his third message he caved in and said:

"Yes, you got me.
Frankly, I like geeks. You sound pretty interesting."

So I guess I still have some charm. Took three emails; but I melted through his defenses, and now we've scheduled one face-to-face meeting before going to virtual meetings (I will have to drive to town)... but it's progress!

How do you free-advice experts feel about the paid advice expert? Taxing Matters could be getting paid for those fish. BTW, how to handle the baskets was a very useful fish. I had not understood capital gains clearly at all until then (before I thought it was just for stocks and people who kept up with Wall Street, but didn't know capital gains applied to pretty much every personal belonging). Over at the just answer site, I would of had to pay $6 for that fish. Such a site does seem useful though to middle-of-nowhere residents such as myself.

I know I'll still need a CPA after the lawyer. But I think the lawyer is a good first, as there are some complicated software licensing issues in my proposal, that could need an entire team of legal experts to decipher.

Thanks for providing this helpful community.
 

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