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Eaker Pérez Law

925 B Street, Suite 605
San Diego, CA 92101

Aperez@EakerPerezLaw.com

(619) 348-5944



EakerPerezLaw.com

Alexandra Eaker Pérez and her team bring highly specialized tax counsel at Eaker Pérez Law to zealously find solutions to complex tax problems, allowing clients to rebuild their businesses and lives with a compassionate touch.

“Attorneys and CPAs reach out to us because a tax issue has come up for one of their clients.” Tax issues come up for people when they are working through a hitch in their life—a business split, lawsuit, divorce, change in their accounting department. They are working through a major event in their business or life and now the tax agencies have contacted them. It’s in these tender moments that people urgently need the dedicated guidance and wisdom of Alexandra “Alex” Eaker Pérez, M.S., J.D., LL.M. Founder and Principal Tax Attorney of Eaker Pérez Law. 

“People work tirelessly to build their businesses and their families look up to them. The tax agencies—IRS, FTB, CDTFA, and EDD—are aggressive and have superior position to other creditors. And that’s where we swing into action. Turning a business on the brink around is the most rewarding part of what we do. We solve the immediate tax problem with the state and IRS, including tax litigation and criminal tax defense, and we go further to help them improve their compliance. I love to see my clients go forward on a better path,” she says.

Born and Raised in Small Businesses

Eaker Pérez was born into a Texas agricultural family of ranchers, harvesters, and farmers. “We’re just too stubborn to give up. We’ve also adapted our agriculture-based businesses to the changing world,” she says. And that stubbornness has served her well when facing government tax agencies.

Her parents were the first members of both families to attend college and both hold advanced Degrees. Scientists at their core, each of her parents had a passion of research and development and a curiosity for the world around them. 

Eaker Pérez grew up spending her summers working on her family’s ranch in the southwestern part of the Lone Star State. By the age of eight, she worked on roundups and at the livestock auction with her grandfather, where she learned the art of buying and selling cattle, sheep, and horses. Her other grandfather was a harvester who spoke frankly to her about profitability from the fluctuating prices of wheat, corn, and grain—teaching her small and large lessons about investing.

The work she learned on the ranch was comforting, fulfilling, and provided motivation and discipline she’d later use in her chosen profession. “Whether you’re raising cattle or wheat, you get up before the sun comes up and you do whatever needs to be done,” she says. “You don’t think twice about the work that needs to be done and you’re satisfied at the end of a 14-hour, 107°F, summer day.”

Worldwide Tax Experience

Eaker Pérez came to Southern California as an undergraduate, earning her B.A. in Political Science in three years, time that included a stint at Oxford University in England where she was recognized with honors. She worked in professional sports, first with the then-San Diego Chargers and then with the San Diego Padres, before attending law school. While in law school, she jointly pursued a master’s degree in Personal Financial Planning, a program ranked first nationally, again completing a four-year degree in three years while simultaneously working in finance.

She returned to San Diego upon graduating with her Juris Doctorate and Master of Science where she has practiced as a tax attorney for more than a decade. “My third year of law school, I fell in love with tax law. Most of my classes that last year of law school were tax related, including the Federal Income Tax Clinic. During my year at the Federal Income Tax Clinic, I settled quite a few cases with the IRS. I remember one case settled on the steps of the Courthouse. The Federal Income Tax Clinic was my first exposure to U.S. Tax Court. When I graduated from law school, I knew that I wanted to litigate tax cases.”

That drive led her to Richard Carpenter’s office where she practiced tax law litigating tax cases in U.S. Tax Court and Federal District Court. “My first case in U.S. Tax Court spanned five years: an Innocent Spouse Claim for a woman going through a nasty divorce. Her husband hid a second life from her including business activities. As a loving, supportive wife, she signed off on all the paperwork he put in front of her. Through their divorce, she discovered a substantial IRS bill. She had three children, one with special needs, and lacked the means to pay the taxes. I was able to persuade the IRS to abate the full liability against her. I will never forget how grateful she was when we told her the IRS agreed to a full concession. We’ve stayed in touch over the years since her case ended, it’s been beautiful to see how she’s moved on with her life, how well her and her children are doing.”

To sharpen her tax chops outside of the courtroom, Eaker Pérez took tax classes in the evenings and on the weekends, earning her LL.M. in Taxation from the University of San Diego. Her work ethic, experience, and passion for tax eventually gained the attention of a partner in the prestigious Paris office of the international tax accounting firm, PwC, where she worked on U.S. tax issues affecting multinational businesses.

Regardless of these adventures, her love for our community kept bringing her back to San Diego, which she’s called home for almost two decades. A San Diegian at heart, she says, “One of the few things in life that I’ve failed at is leaving San Diego.”

From Zero to 100 in Four Months 

Eaker Pérez launched her firm with four clients on day one and rapidly grew to nearly 100 clients four months later. All clients were referrals from within her own network—a testament to the trust and belief of her colleagues, friends, and family. 

“I pulled the trigger and hung my shingle. Clients and cases poured in, and it’s grown exponentially from there,” she says. 

That growth brought expansion as Eaker Pérez added to her firm’s team, but remained committed to doing so thoughtfully and with intention. An early adopter of the work-from-home movement, Eaker Pérez has encouraged telework arrangements for her team since founding her firm and she says the policy has paid off in spades. “I realized that people work harder, faster, and smarter when they’re home with a good work-from-home setup. And leaning into that really helped me build a happier, high-performing team.”

Innovation, Compassion, and Problem-Solving for Businesses

The three key values of Eaker Pérez Law are innovation, compassion, and problem-solving as they relate to business tax issues.

Eaker Pérez brings an intimate understanding of tax authorities—including the IRS and state taxation agencies in California and Texas—to a wide range of client matters including tax audits, offers in compromise, offshore disclosure cases, state and federal payroll taxes, state tax nexus, state sales tax, excise tax, and tax issues in divorce. She also defends clients in criminal tax matters and white-collar proceedings including structuring, tax evasion, filing false returns, mail fraud, wire fraud, embezzlement, civil forfeiture, and civil penalty actions.

In the civil tax realm, she’s no stranger to successfully litigating tax positions in U.S. Tax Court and Federal District Court. It’s in this niche tax litigation realm that Eaker Pérez stands out. “In the last six months, I’ve spent almost 100 hours in Court over Zoom,” she explains. “I enjoy appearing in Court via Zoom. The ease of technology allows for great efficiency for the Court and the parties. We embrace change. Every case and client is different. We have grown accustom to Congress passing new tax laws and the Tax Code changing frequently.” 

Her client base includes everyone from the private yacht and jet crowd to small business owners and everyday people who find themselves in hot water with the IRS. “People can get lost in the overwhelming monster of bureaucracy that is our tax system. We understand the system and speak the language, and we’re able to give our clients a voice with a sort of lockbox discretion that affords clients privacy and security in prickly situations with the IRS or state tax agencies,” she says.

Eaker Pérez recently represented a Mexican restaurant against the IRS in U.S. Tax Court where she successfully refuted the IRS’s attempt to assess more than $1 million dollars against the business. The case resolved with the IRS entering into a stipulated judgment that the business owed nothing from their previous seven-figure assessment, resulting in the case being dismissed.

“When you love what you do, it’s easy to share that passion with others,” she says. Her passion for tax is seen in her frequent speaking appearances, quotes, and by-lines. From local publications like the San Diego Union Tribune and KUSI to regularly appearing in the pages of Tax Analysts and before Congressional Committees including the Joint Committee on Taxation, House Ways and Means, and Senate Finance Committee, Eaker Pérez is a valued source for key news outlets and decision-makers on complex current tax issues.

The pandemic year has presented both challenges and opportunities. In March 2020, Eaker Pérez quickly realized the pandemic would have far-reaching and substantial impacts on businesses and our community. She sprang into action without hesitation.

“I knew that businesses would need help and resources to be able to survive what I anticipated to be the long haul of the pandemic and that just about every business would need to pivot in some way,” she says. Since remote work was already part of Eaker Pérez Law, that part of the pandemic shift was business as usual. From the last week of March through October, she and her team presented at a litany of virtual conferences and webinars, to audiences including countless private organized groups for business owners, executives, HR and accounting departments to the Better Business Bureau to the American Bar Association’s Taxation Section annual meeting in October. 

Eaker Pérez knew she could do more, so she launched the website SeafoodSanDiego.com as a way to showcase and lift up local San Diego businesses on a world-wide platform. “Seafood San Diego is a way to elevate our local regional seafood economy to a global audience to purposefully increase outside engagement in our local community through education about our local businesses that bring seafood to consumers. We are giving a platform to our local restaurants to shine for the rest of the world to learn about and come to San Diego and enjoy,” she says.

Experience

» Awards

• SuperLawyers, Rising Star, 2017 – 2021
• San Diego Leader in the Law Finalist, 2019
• Avvo Rate 10.0 (Superb) 
• Avvo Clients Choice Award, 2015
• Outstanding Young Attorney Nominee San Diego Daily Transcript, 2012 – 2014

» Memberships

• Taxation Section of CLA, past Chair of Income & Other Taxes and YTL, Committees
• Board of Trustees, First United Methodist Church, San Diego
• LEAD San Diego, Advance class of 2018
• San Diego County Bar Association, past Taxation Section co-chair
• American Bar Association Taxation Section, 
• Adopt-A-Base pro bono tax counsel, MCRD and Naval Base San Diego 

» Recent Features

• American Bar Association Fall Meeting, Tax Section Speaker, 2020
• United Way Women’s United financial literacy Speaker, 2019
• San Diego Union Tribune quoted October 2, 2020 regarding politician’s tax returns 
• Tax Considerations in Operating a Law Office—Author, San Diego Lawyer, 2020
• Better Business Bureau, Payroll Taxes in 2020: Beyond the Pandemic—Speaker, 2020
• Tax Notes Today, quoted January 2, 2018 regarding excise taxation 
• Tax Notes Today November 29, 2016 regarding excise taxation 
• Tax Notes Today A Justification for Gross Income Exclusion of Excise Tax Credits 
• Litigating with the IRS. TYLA eNEWS. August 26, 2015