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Designated Orders: 7/23 to 7/27 Part One

Posted on Aug. 22, 2018

Patrick Thomas from Notre Dame Law School brings us this week’s designated orders in three parts. After a few lean Designated Order weeks we have an abundance of issues to discuss. Part One begins with a sad case where a disabled taxpayer’s conservator failed to file tax returns for her ward and also apparently failed to adequately assist the taxpayer’s counsel in the CDP hearing. We then take a sharp, brief detour into TEFRA issues. Christine

The Tax Court (primarily Judges Holmes and Gustafson) issued 17 separate designated orders this week, which must at least approach a record number for the period we’ve been reviewing these orders.

Not discussed here are a routine bench opinion from Judge Buch and a couple “Chai ghouls” from Judge Holmes. In one such case, Brown v. Commissioner, the IRS continues to press the argument Caleb noted last week, that penalty approval forms are non-hearsay as statements introduced not for their truth, but for their independent legal significance. Another case from Judge Gustafson involved the six-year statute of limitations for gross omissions of income.

Finally, William Schmidt will be blogging separately about Judge Jacobs’ “order” (in my view, this should read “opinion”) in Taylor v. Commissioner, which grants a default judgment in a deficiency case. Significantly, it upholds a civil fraud penalty and the 10 year EITC ban under IRC § 32(k) without much discussion of the substance for either, or the thorny jurisdictional issues of the latter.

Unconcerned Conservator Provides No Disability Defense in CDP

Docket No. 23949-13L, Iannello v. C.I.R. (Order Here)

This petitioner is permanently and totally disabled, but had a conservator, his mother, appointed under state law. In such situations, the conservator steps into the shoes of the individual for all legal purposes—including the filing and payment of the individual’s federal income taxes.

The conservator’s failure to file petitioner’s 2008 tax return resulted in a substitute-for-return assessment, which eventually resulted in a notice of intent to levy and a CDP appeal, requesting a collection alternative. At the time, petitioner also had liabilities for 2003 and 2004, and hadn’t filed a tax return from 2003 through 2011. In March 2013, the settlement officer (SO) faxed petitioner’s counsel transcripts to complete the unfiled returns, and later rescheduled the May 2013 CDP hearing when counsel requested additional time. At the June hearing, the Form 433-A and delinquent returns were unprepared. The SO gave counsel yet more time, eventually resulting in unsigned, draft returns in August. After still not receiving the requested information, the SO issued a Notice of Determination (NOD) in September, upholding the levy. A few weeks thereafter, counsel finally sent the signed returns to the SO; the 2008 liability was thereby partially abated.

Counsel filed a petition challenging the NOD, primarily arguing that the NOD didn’t note that petitioner was disabled; further, it was difficult to work with the conservator, who traveled during the summer. The petition also noted that the 2008 return should have reduced the SFR assessment. For a time, it seemed that the parties would settle, but eventually Respondent filed a motion for summary judgment.

Judge Holmes finds first that the underlying liability is not at issue, and that therefore, the proper standard of review is abuse of discretion. While the petition focuses on 2008, the Service has now accepted the 2008 return and reduced the liability accordingly. So, there’s no dispute regarding this year.

Moreover, Judge Holmes notes that this issue wasn’t raised in the CDP hearing itself—only afterwards. He cites 26 C.F.R. § 301.6330-1(f)(2), Q&A-F3, which notes that “an issue is not properly raised . . . if consideration is requested but the taxpayer fails to present Appeals with any evidence with respect to that issue after being given a reasonable opportunity to present such evidence.” (emphasis added). While counsel submitted unsigned draft returns for 2008, “those were simply not enough” for Judge Holmes, who cites Beard v. Commissioner for this proposition. I’m not sure I’d agree with the notion that submitting unsigned draft returns is insufficient to raise a liability challenge in a CDP hearing. Does Judge Holmes mean to say that such returns constitute “[no] evidence”? It seems to me there’s a wide distance between the application of the failure to file penalties in Beard and whether an issue is properly raised in an administrative proceeding.

It doesn’t appear that this issue was sufficiently briefed. Petitioner may also have had a “prior opportunity” problem in raising the underlying liability (did he or his conservator receive the 2008 Notice of Deficiency?). And in any case, the Service did adjust 2008 as requested. So Judge Holmes is ultimately correct on the standard of review here (though I am puzzled why the decision does not stick to what seems to me the clearest rationale for upholding Appeals’ determination).

Judge Holmes determined that Appeals didn’t abuse its discretion, even though petitioner’s disability status wasn’t noted in the Notice of Determination. Clearly, the SO considered the disability status and presence of a conservator, as she noted these circumstances in the case file. She also gave counsel a great deal of additional time in preparing the requested returns and financials. After six months from the originally scheduled hearing, she upheld the levy when these documents weren’t forthcoming. Judge Holmes therefore upholds Appeals’ decision and allows the Service to proceed with collection.

An Overview of Partner Assessment & Collection Procedure under TEFRA

Docket No. 23411-14, Freedman v. C.I.R. (Order Here)

In Freedman, Judge Halpern nicely sets forth the assessment and collection procedures against individual partners stemming from partnership-level adjustments under TEFRA.

Freedman was the sole member of an LLC, and the grantor and sole beneficiary of a trust, which held all of the interests in the partnership Pinnacle Trading Opportunities. The Service previously adjusted Pinnacle’s tax return for 1999, which resulted in a Tax Court decision under docket number 19291-05. In that case, the Court decided to disregard Pinnacle as a partnership; it also found under section 183 that Mr. Freedman did not have a profit motive for Pinnacle’s transactions. The Court also reduced Mr. Freedman’s capital contributions to $0, disallowed foreign currency trading losses, and disallowed other deductions. Finally, the Court applied a 40% gross valuation misstatement penalty under section 6662.

Following that case, which concluded in 2013, the Service issued a Notice of Deficiency to Mr. Freedman individually. This Notice mirrored the adjustments for the partnership, given that Mr. Freedman was the only person involved in the partnership.  Critically, the Notice also applied the 40% gross valuation misstatement penalty. Mr. Freedman petitioned the Tax Court.

Respondent filed a motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction, essentially arguing that all the adjustments in this Notice were adjudicated in the prior proceeding. Under TEFRA, tax items related to a partnerships are adjusted in a partnership-level proceeding; under section 6225(a), no collection is permitted against the partners until that proceeding is concluded.

After that proceeding is concluded, however, the Service may immediately assess and collect tax against individual partners in some circumstances. Under section 6230(a)(1), the Service need not resort to individual deficiency procedures if no partner-level determinations are necessary to calculate the resulting tax due; that is, if a tax adjustment results from mere “computational adjustments” under section 6231(a)(6). For example, if a partnership-item adjustment increases an individual taxpayer’s adjusted gross income, this may result in a reduced medical expense deduction because of the 10% AGI floor. If further determinations are necessary to calculate the partner’s liability resulting from “affected items” from the partnership-level determination—for example, a partner’s basis in a partnership—the Service must follow deficiency procedures.

Penalties are also generally calculated at the partnership level under TEFRA under section 6221, and may be assessed and collected against the partner without further deficiency procedures under section 6230(a)(2)(A)(I). This makes challenging penalties difficult if any partner-level defenses exist; partners are relegated to refund suits in these cases.

In Freedman, petitioner generally insists that the Court must determine Mr. Freedman’s outside basis in the partnership, and as such, the Service had to resort to deficiency procedures to assess tax against him individually. Among the multiple substantive adjustments, the Court finds that an outside basis calculation—while an “affected item” from any partnership proceeding—simply isn’t relevant to the calculation of Mr. Freedman’s individual tax liability. For example, the Court determined that Pinnacle’s allowable foreign currency trading losses and interest expenses were $0; it also determined that Pinnacle had no profit motive. As such, the Court agrees with Respondent that it has no jurisdiction to entertain these items, and partially grants Respondent’s motion as to these adjustments.

Regarding the penalty, Mr. Freedman sticks with his insistence on outside basis, arguing that any penalty resulting from an outside basis adjustment can be properly adjudicated in this forum. He concedes that any penalties resulting from partnership-level adjustments aren’t properly contestable here.

Again, Judge Halpern finds that outside basis simply doesn’t enter into it. The penalty here was entirely based on partnership-level items—specifically, the contributions to the partnership. So the Court lacks jurisdiction as to that portion of the penalty.

But Judge Halpern also finds that the prior case’s penalties weren’t based on the adjustments to interest expenses or foreign currency trading losses. To the extent the Service calculated a penalty on these items, Mr. Freedman can raise partner-level defenses in this deficiency proceeding.

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