About Us

Michelle Turpin is the founder of Michelle Turpin P.C. She has over 30 years representing taxpayer’s in Federal and State controversies (e.g., representation during audits, appeals, collection, Offer in Compromise, Trust Fund Recovery Penalty, levies seizures, failure to file and United States Tax Court litigation). Michelle’s practice also focuses on tax planning for businesses and estates, she is experienced in partnership tax, corporate tax, individual income tax, estate tax, fundamental estate planning, entity formation and asset protection planning.

In addition to her legal work, Michelle has served as a board member for several Utah non-profit, tax-exempt organizations. She also enjoys being involved in various political activities. Michelle was born in Utah where she has lived for most of her life.

Michelle graduated from the University of Utah with a B.A. in Finance in 1986. Michelle received her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Utah, School of Law in 1989 and her LL.M., Masters in Taxation from the University of San Diego in 1990. After graduating, Michelle served an internship for the Internal Revenue Service, Office of District Counsel in San Diego, California. Prior to forming Michelle Turpin P.C., Michelle practiced in two other Utah firms.

Spencer Evans has practiced exclusively as a Tax Attorney for nearly 20 years. After litigating cases for the government, he has spent the rest of his career representing taxpayers before the IRS and state taxing authorities throughout the United States.

Mr. Evans joined our law firm after representing sophisticated taxpayers before taxing authorities at PwC and Deloitte, where he collectively spent 15 years of his career. In addition to being sought after to provide complex tax planning services he has represented clients through audit and appeals in tax controversy matters. In addition to defending factual and legal issues on audit, he has filed refunds for clients to offset audit liabilities.

Moreover, he has been extremely successful in pursuing reverse audits where he has obtained millions of dollars of tax refunds for his clients in numerous jurisdictions. Mr. Evans has been a trusted tax attorney where he has provided tax saving advice to minimize his clients’ tax exposure.

Mr. Evans has significant experience in a wide variety of state and local tax matters as well as some of the most complicated federal tax matters, which include but are not limited to:

• Federal and multistate individual income tax
• Federal and multistate corporate income and franchise tax
• State, tribal and local jurisdiction sales and use taxes gross receipt taxes
• Partnership tax, waterfall provisions, basis tracking, carried interest, etc.
• Family office tax issues
• Residency issues
• Worker classification issues
• Employment tax and employee benefits
• Excise tax
• Luxury tax
• Sensitive tax matters, including:some text
  • Criminal tax investigations and charges
  • Tax liens and levies
  • Civil Penalty, Late Payment and Late Filing Penalty assessments
  • Sales Tax / Trust Fund collected but not remitted
  • Alter Ego and Nominee
  • Innocent Spouse claims
  • Investigations and audits for underreporting and/or noncompliance
  • Summons issued by taxing authorities
  • Tax Amnesty agreements
  • Voluntary disclosures
  • Managed Audits
  • Closing Agreements
  • Anonymous Private Letter Rulings
  • Responding to audit and examination request for information and documentation requests (“IDRs”) while maintaining privilege and preserving Fifth Amendment rights to not incriminate and spousal privileges
  • Audits and examinations defense for high-profile and high-wealth individuals
  • Statute of Limitation Waivers
  • Legislative consulting services

He works with our law firm where he can provide the full breadth and depth of legal services that only a law firm can provide. Working as a lawyer in our law firm, Mr. Evans not only represents clients before the taxing authorities but also works with our legal team to challenge the taxing authorities by appealing client matters in state and federal courts.

In summary, Mr. Evans is a true advocate for his clients. He has helped some of the largest taxpayers in the United State save tens of millions of dollars through proper tax planning. He has helped other clients obtain millions of dollars in tax refunds. In addition, he has represented some of his neighbors in their battles against the taxing authorities. One of his favorite wins was a truly unique case where he successfully appealed the IRS’s initial decision and obtained an Offer in Compromise for an individual taxpayer, who was an attorney, where his client only had to pay $1 to the IRS to resolve his historic tax debt and get a fresh start.

Staci Spencer is an Enrolled Agent with several years of experience in tax conflict resolution.  She is federally licensed as a tax professional to represent taxpayers before the IRS and also has many years of individual and business tax preparation experience.  Her objective is to represent the financial position of taxpayers before the Federal or State governmental taxing agencies with the highest degree of intelligence, ethics and professional conduct.  She has a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Montana State University, many years of experience with small business accounting including payroll tax issues, and is also a member of the National Association of Enrolled Agents and as such, is required to fulfill professional education credits that exceed the IRS’ minimum.

To become an Enrolled Agent, she was required to pass a comprehensive examination covering all aspects of the tax code.  While spending her time as a wife, mother of three, tax practitioner and community service volunteer, she made time to prepare for this exam and successfully passed it on the first attempt.  In the many years since, she has been developing her skills in tax conflict resolution, with a primary focus on the compliance and collection aspects.  She also has a solid foundation of experience in the areas of examination and appeals.  When she’s not working on conflict cases or preparing tax returns, she’s spending time with her three kids, taking walks along the river with her husband, reading good books, exploring music, gardening or riding the area’s bike trails.

Richard Kennedy received his B.A. with High Honors from the Brigham Young University Honors Program in 1970 and his J.D. from the University of Utah in 1973, where he was the Schiller Scholarship recipient.

He retired from the Office of Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service, where he was the National Trust Coordinator and tried numerous cases.

He has written several articles for publication, including: "Ascertainable Standards, Discretionary Powers, and Charitable Remainders," 56 Taxes 78 and "Snakebite: A COBRA Warning," with Charles H. Cowley, 66 Taxes 25, and has written much of the training materials for Internal Revenue Service Attorneys, Agents, and Collection Officers on how to identify, attack, and collect against tax shelter promotions, particularly abusive trusts.

He is admitted to practice before the bars of the States of Utah and California, the United States Tax Court, and various other Federal Courts.

I’m Sandra Fratto, Legal assistant at the Law Offices of Michelle Turpin P.C. I was born in Lincoln, Nebraska and later moved and was raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. For thirty (30) years, I worked as a legal assistant in the domestic, probate, personal injury, and most recent tax fields.

For the past two years I have had the pleasure of assisting Michelle Turpin in assessing client’s tax situations with sensitivity and compassion, scheduling consultations, following through with deadlines and helping many clients through difficult times.

I am married to my high school sweetheart, a proud mother of two wonderful children and grandmother of three precious grandchildren. I love horseback riding, camping, and spending time with my family.