Douglas A. Smith

Doug practices in the areas of estate planning, estate administration, nonprofit organizations, business formation and succession planning, and tax law.

In addition to drafting wills and trusts for estate planning clients, Doug has experience structuring charitable gifts and planning for tax-deferred retirement plan distributions.  He also assists nonprofit organizations in obtaining and preserving tax exempt status and helps reinstate nonprofits that have had their exempt status revoked. Doug works with business clients from startup through succession, providing advice on choice of entity, preparing trusts and buy-sell agreements, and structuring business transactions.

Doug is a tax attorney who represents individuals and small business owners in the Lancaster area in IRS audits, appeals, and deficiency proceedings.  He frequently secures favorable collection alternatives for clients that involve installment agreements or offers in compromise.  He has experience dealing with liens and levies, penalty abatement, innocent spouse relief, substantiating business expenses, foreign bank account reporting, trust fund recovery penalty, identity theft, and many other tax matters.

Doug received his LL.M. in Tax from the Georgetown University Law Center, and his J.D. from the Villanova University School of Law.  He served as attorney-advisor to the Honorable Lewis R. Carluzzo of the United States Tax Court in Washington, DC.  Prior to joining our firm, Doug was in private practice in Lancaster and served as the Director of the Central Pennsylvania Federal Tax Clinic, a nonprofit startup for which he was awarded the ABA Tax Section 2010-2012 Public Service Fellowship.  He currently resides in Lancaster with his wife and three children.

Education

• Georgetown University Law Center, LL.M., Tax
• Villanova University School of Law, J.D.
• Portland State University, M.S.
• Pennsylvania State University, B.S.

Professional Affiliations

• Lancaster Bar Association
• Pennsylvania Bar Association
• American Bar Association

Bar Admissions

• Pennsylvania
• U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania
• U.S. Tax Court
• New Jersey (voluntary inactive status)