Erdmann Law, PLLC

Focus and practice areas

Tax controversy work sits at one end of the legal profession, where the opposing party is a government agency with its own procedures and timetables. Erdmann Law, PLLC, which trades as Orlando Tax Law, handles that work from an office in Orlando, Florida. The firm describes itself as a boutique tax controversy and litigation practice.

Its clients are individuals and businesses in disputes with taxing authorities. Two agencies come up by name: the Internal Revenue Service and the Florida Department of Revenue. The firm handles audits and examinations, collections matters, and refund claims where the IRS owes a taxpayer money.

The litigation side covers Tax Court, state court, and federal District Court. That is a wider set of forums than many tax practices list, and it matters, because where a tax dispute is heard shapes what a taxpayer must pay and when.

The collections and relief side

The firm names a long list of collections and relief procedures it works on. These include IRS appeals, offers in compromise, installment agreements, penalty abatements, currently not collectible status, federal tax liens, levies, innocent spouse relief, and help with unfiled or missing returns.

Each of those is a distinct administrative track. An offer in compromise asks the IRS to accept less than the full balance, and it turns on a calculation of what the agency believes it could collect. Currently not collectible status pauses collection activity when a taxpayer cannot pay. Innocent spouse relief separates one spouse's liability from the other's on a joint return. They are not interchangeable, and picking the wrong one costs time.

Newer and specialised subject matter

Beyond the standard collections work, the firm lists cryptocurrency tax, employment and payroll tax, preparer and promoter liability, and state tax matters.

Payroll tax deserves a mention on its own. Unpaid employment taxes can attach personally to the people inside a business who controlled the money, through the trust fund recovery penalty, so those cases often become about who did what rather than about arithmetic. Preparer and promoter liability points in a similar direction: the person under examination is the one who signed or sold the position, not the taxpayer who relied on it.

How the team is built

Two attorneys appear by name on the site: Charlotte A. Erdmann and Blake J. Kelley. Both carry the Esq. credential in the firm's team listing. The firm's legal entity name shares a surname with the first of them.

The site states that its attorneys are admitted in Tax Court and federal District Court. Admission to the United States Tax Court is a separate step from state bar admission and requires either bar membership plus a sponsor or passing a written examination. Federal District Court admission is separate again. Both matter here, because a tax dispute that leaves the administrative stage has to be filed somewhere, and the choice of court can hinge on whether the tax has already been paid.

Part of the team consists of licensed CPAs or accountants who prepare returns and amended returns. In my opinion this is the more interesting detail on the whole site. A great many collections cases stall at the same place: the taxpayer cannot enter an installment agreement or submit an offer until every required return has been filed. Having return preparation inside the same office removes a handoff at exactly the point where cases tend to sit still.

A law firm rather than a resolution company

The firm makes a point of its own accountability, saying it answers to the state bar associations where its attorneys are licensed. The distinction has practical weight in the tax relief field, where advertising is heavy and the seller is often unlicensed. A bar-regulated attorney carries duties around competence, confidentiality and conflicts, and a client has somewhere to complain if those duties are breached.

Who the firm takes on

The site describes work for small businesses through to larger companies. The stated range of disputes runs from a few thousand dollars up to millions, which suggests the firm takes both routine collections files and matters big enough to justify full litigation.

That spread is worth understanding as a client. A small unfiled-returns problem and a multi-million dollar examination call for very different handling, and they carry very different exposure. The common thread is procedure: both move through a defined sequence of notices, deadlines and appeal rights, and both go badly when a deadline passes unanswered.

Reach beyond Orlando

The firm works with clients across the greater Orlando area and throughout Florida. It also takes on people in other parts of the country.

Federal tax practice makes that possible. IRS matters run under one body of federal law and are heard in a national court, and Tax Court judges travel to hear cases in cities around the country. An attorney admitted to Tax Court can therefore represent a taxpayer regardless of which state that taxpayer lives in. The Florida Department of Revenue side of the practice is naturally state-bound.

What a prospective client should weigh

The site sets out a clear picture of subject matter and forums, and it names the two attorneys. It does not state a founding year, and it does not publish individual attorney biographies, law schools or admission dates. Anyone comparing options will want to ask about those directly, along with who would handle their file day to day.

As a reviewer, the combination of tax-only focus, court admissions and in-house return preparation is the substance here. Tax controversy rewards familiarity with a narrow set of procedures, and a firm that does only this kind of work sees the same notices and the same deadlines repeatedly.

The practical starting point for most taxpayers is the paperwork. Notices carry response windows, and a CP2000, a Notice of Deficiency and a final notice of intent to levy each start a different clock. The firm handles matters at every one of those stages, from the first examination letter through to litigation and refund claims.