About the Tax Clinic

Our Mission

The School of Law's Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic brings important services to the region.  Through the Clinic, selected law students provide free legal representation to low-income taxpayers who have post-filing controversies with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).  Such disputes might include audit representation, appeals, non-filers, collection issues, innocent spouse relief, and representation before the U.S. Tax Court.  In addition to this free legal representation, the students also engage in educational outreach to taxpayers with limited English proficiency, or who speak English as a second language (ESL), about their rights and responsibilities as U.S. taxpayers.  Students are supervised by Clinic Director Michelle Drumbl, a former attorney with the IRS Office of Chief Counsel's International group.

The Clinic's service area includes much of the Shenandoah Valley: broadly speaking, the Lexington/Rockbridge area and the nine surrounding counties, including the cities of Roanoke, Harrisonburg, Staunton, and Lynchburg.  All of our services are free of charge, but we due to our federal grant the Clinic will only provide legal representation to taxpayers whose income does not exceed 250% of the annual Federal Poverty Guidelines (specific amounts for eligibility guidelines are described here).  We can, however, provide educational outreach to all ESL taxpayers, regardless of income. 

The School of Law's Tax Clinic is partially funded through a matching grant provided by the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic program, which is administered by the Internal Revenue Service's Taxpayer Advocate Service.  However, the Clinic is completely independent of, and not associated with, the IRS or the federal government.  The partial funding does not imply that the Tax Clinic has a preferential relationship with the IRS. 

Please note that the Tax Clinic does not handle transactional tax matters or routine tax return preparation.  However, the School of Law also sponsors a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) site, which operates independently of the Tax Clinic and provides seasonal preparation of federal income tax returns.