Love it or hate it, health care reform came closer to a reality on Sunday night, when the House of Representatives passed H.R. 4872. Regardless of your party affiliation, one thing that entering and graduating LL.M tax students can agree upon is the need for the legal job market to improve. According to the Joint Economic and the House Ways & Means Committees, minority staff estimates up to 16,500 new IRS personnel will be needed to collect, examine and audit new tax information mandated on families and small businesses as a result of the bill.
Assuming the bill passes in the Senate and that the job estimate is accurate, one could safely assume that the IRS would want to target LL.M tax students to fill many of those positions. While some LL.M tax students would decline a job with the IRS based solely on salary potential, I believe this IRS expansion provides a great opportunity for graduating LL.M students as well as a sigh of relief for entering students. Given the state of the current legal job market, I believe law students need to shift their focus away from trying to make six figure salaries straight out of law school and consider the value of job experience. The IRS Chief Counsel’s Office has been the starting point for many successful attorneys now working in large private firms. Why? Because these attorneys gained invaluable work experience by working for the agency responsible for administering the tax system in the United States.
Regardless of what how you may feel about health care reform, as an entering LL.M tax student, I feel some comfort knowing that their may be job opportunities next year.
(HT: James Murtha)