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Summary Opinions for August 1st to 14th And ABA Tax Section Fellowships

Posted on Sep. 2, 2015

Before getting to the tax procedure, we wanted to let everyone know the application for the ABA Tax Section fellowships is now open.  Here is a link to the release regarding the applications and the Christine A. Brunswick Public Service Fellowships.   Here is another link regarding the process, which also highlights recent winners.   I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many of the recipients, and it is an esteemed group providing amazing services thanks to the ABA Tax Section.

A few quick follow ups to some items from last week.  We had a wonderful post from Robin Greenhouse on the BASR Partnership case dealing with the statute of limitations and fraud of the tax preparer, which can be found here.  Ms. Greenhouse and Les were both also quoted in a story on the topic for Law360, which can be found here (may be behind a subscription wall, sorry).  Keith posted on the Ryscamp case, which dealt with jurisdiction to review a determination that a taxpayer’s position is frivolous.  Keith was also quoted about the case in the Tax Notes article, which can be found here (also behind subscription wall, sorry again).

Here are some of the other tax procedure items we didn’t otherwise cover:

  • We flagged earlier in the month that Congress has overturned Home Concrete with the new Highway Bill.  The Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act of 2015 has a few other changes to tax procedure laws.  Probably the biggest news is that partnerships and s-corps will need to file tax returns three months and fifteen days after the close of their tax years (for calendar filers, that will be March 15).  This is a change for partnerships, but not s-corps.  C-corporations, however, will not have to file until four months and fifteen days after the close of the tax year (April 15 for calendar year filers).  The goal of this is to get k-1s to individuals prior to the April 15 filing deadline.  I assume c-corps were pushed back a month on work flow concerns for preparers.  The act also revised the extended due dates for various types of returns.  In addition, next year, FBARs will be due April 15, and there will be a possible six month extension.
  • The District Court for the District of New Jersey decided a lien priority case where a bank recorded a mortgage regarding a home equity line of credit (HELOC), some portion of which may have been withdrawn after a federal tax lien was filed.  In US v. Balice, the bank argued that the withdrawal date of the funds on the HELOC was irrelevant and state law directed that the date related back to the original recording date (the Court declined to offer an opinion about whether or not this is the actual NJ law).  The government argued that federal law applied, which held first in time is first in right, but only to the extent the funds were already withdrawn.  The Court held that state law defined the property rights, but federal law governed the lien priority.  Under federal the federal statute, the security interest was only perfected when the funds were actually borrowed.  See Section 6323(a).
  • The IRS has issued two important Revenue Rulings in the international arena.  The first outlines the procedures for making competent authority requests.  The second is for taxpayers seeking advanced pricing agreements, and can be found here.
  • Jack Townsend on his Federal Tax Procedure blog has a discussion of Sissel v. US Dept. HHS, where the majority, concurring and dissenting opinions all review the Originations Clause of the Constitution and its application to Obamacare.
  • I unabashedly praised John Oliver’s sultry singing about the IRS with Michael Bolton previously in our pages.  In that ditty, Oliver pointed out we should be hating on Congress, not the IRS.  Peter Reilly over at Forbes makes a good point that in Oliver’s new IRS bit, he should probably be complaining about Congress again and not the IRS about the lack of church audits (check out Section 7611, which is Congress’ doing).
  • Service issued guidance to its new international practice unit on transactions that might generate foreign personal holding company income under subpart F.  Caplin & Drysdale have coverage here.
  • The Tax Court seems to have just thrown an assist to the Service in Summit Vineyard Holdings v. Comm’r, holding that an individual had apparent authority to execute an extension for the statute of limitations, even though the individual lacked actual authority.  The Court somewhat saved the Service, because it probably should have known that the TMP was a different entity in the year in question, as it had been informed of the switch.  The Court noted the auditing agent had very limited TEFRA knowledge (I’m not sure that excuses the IRS from properly following the rules).  The agent had the manager of the then current TMP sign, instead of the TMP for the year in question.  There appears to be somewhat of a split on this, but the Court determined that the Ninth Circuit (where the appeal would lie) would apply state law and find apparent authority based on the evidence and actions taken by the individual.  Saved by the Court!  Based on the facts, it does not seem that unfair though, as the individual was the manager of both TMPs, and it seems like he also thought he was properly executing the paperwork and extending the SOL.
  • In Chief Counsel Advice, the Service has concluded it can only apply the Section 6701 aiding and abetting penalty one time against a person who submitted false retirement plan application documents.  This is the case even though multiple documents could be submitted with fraudulent information, and even though it could result in an understatement for the plan and each participant.
  • The Service has also released PMTA 2015-11, which outlines the application of the penalty under Section 6662A(c) for taxpayers who failed to disclose participation in listed transactions involving cash value life insurance to provide welfare benefits.  This is a very specific issue, so I won’t go into much detail, but the guidance is fairly thorough and provides good insight into the Service’s thoughts on the matter.
  • And another Section 7434 case.  I wrote about the Angelopolous case earlier in the week, which dealt with who was the “filer” of the information return.  In US v. Bigley, the District Court for the District of Arizona reviewed whether an employee’s claim against his employer for false returns was time-barred.  The suit was well past the six year statute, and the employee clearly had knowledge over the last year.  Section 7343(c) outlines the statute of limitations, and states the statute is the later of six years or one year after the return is discovered by exercise of reasonable care.    The Court found that the employee received the information returns upon filing, so the six year statute clearly applied, and it would be impossible to have the one year statute in that situation.  The actual language is “1 year after the date such fraudulent information return would have been discovered by exercise of reasonable care.”  I wonder if it would be possible to create a larger fraudulent scheme, whereby the recipient would receive the information return but not realize it was fraudulent until a later date.  Would the one year statute then apply?
  • My brother-in-law just got a Ph.D. (congrats Alex! I doubt he will ever read this).  In honor of that esteemed accomplishment, here is an infographic highlighting all kinds of negative financial and other statics related to Ph.Ds.  I make no assurances to the veracity of the graphic’s claims, and I am generally in favor of graduate degrees, but I found the stats interesting.
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