Boyle and Baldwin Spell Penalty Trouble

June 4, 2023 by 2 Comments

Picture a taxpayer with over 100 years of pristine tax compliance history getting some unwelcome news: despite a dedicated and competent executive board headed by a hands on de facto CEO, an employee with a history of ensuring employment tax compliance, and an external auditor regularly checking on finances and bookkeeping, the taxpayer neglected to make employment tax deposits or file Forms 941 for the last two quarters of 2018 and the first quarter of 2019. This led the IRS to assess to over $500,000 in delinquency penalties. 

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The taxpayer paid the penalties, filed a refund claim and eventually a refund suit, on the grounds that it had reasonable cause for its failure to file and pay. This is the basic set up of Operating Engineers Local Union Number 3 v United States, a case that breaks no new ground but illustrates how taxpayers must be ever vigilant when relying on employees to satisfy federal payroll tax compliance. Operating Engineers provides a useful vehicle to review two key procedural cases we have discussed many times before, Boyle v United States and Baldwin v United States.

Operating Engineers No. 3 (OE3) is the largest construction local union in the US. It had a longtime employee who was responsible for ensuring employment tax compliance in her position as Accounting Manager. When that employee was promoted in 2015 to Finance Director and Controller, the union hired a new Accounting Manager, who assumed the tax responsibilities. The employees, both the Accounting Manager and Finance Director, reported to the Executive Board, in particular the Board’s Business Manager who was effectively the CEO. In addition, the union had a longtime external auditor who provided a check on internal operations.

Fast forward to June of 2018: the Accounting Manager who had been working at the union for about three years resigned. Rather than hire a new manager, the old manager performed additional duties.  Just prior to the Accounting Manager’s departure, the Finance Director asked the soon to be departing employee to train one of her staff to assume the tax filing and compliance.  That did not happen, though the Finance Director did not appreciate that the departing employee did not train her subordinate to pick up the tax slack.

To make matters worse, starting in 2018 the Finance Director was experiencing personal problems due to her family losing their residence in that year’s deadly northern California wildfires. And there was conflicting evidence in the record as to whether the Finance Director recommended replacing the departing Accounting Manager: a member of the Executive Board claimed that the Director assured the Board that she could do both roles, but the Finance Director claimed that she recommended that the union hire a replacement.

Fast forward six months to December of 2018. The Director realized that the tax compliance had slipped through the cracks. She made all outstanding tax payments by the end of the month but she did not tell anyone on the Executive Board until the external auditors discovered the oversight in early 2019. In April 2019 two IRS Revenue Officers make an unannounced visit to the offices as the IRS had no record that the union had filed a Form 941 for the last two quarters of 2018. The Finance Director told the IRS employees that she had mailed those returns but could not produce additional evidence of mailing and reprinted the Forms and signed them and gave them directly to the Revenue Officers. (Of course, relying on handing a return to an IRS employee as proof of filing has its own issues. See Keith’s post on Seaview Trading here.)

After paying the penalties for failing to file and pay its employment taxes, OE3 sought a refund, arguing that its oversights were not due to willful neglect and that it had reasonable cause for its mistakes. The union emphasized that its process reflected ordinary business care, ensured tax compliance for over 100 years and that it had no knowledge of its employee’s mistakes:

[We] could not control [our employee’s] intentional act of omitting the payroll tax deposits from the financial reports. [The employee] had full control over the financial reporting to the CEO and the Board. The CEO and the Board did not have control over the financial reporting matters as the Government suggests. They were often out of the office and districts for meetings. Thus, OE3 was rendered objectively incapable of meeting its [payroll tax] obligations because the agent in control of financial reporting caused OE3’s disability.

Framing the problems on misconduct of the Finance Director reflects the slight crack in the formidable 1985 Supreme Court Boyle holding that it is inexcusable to delegate compliance responsibilities to an agent. The Court in Boyle distinguished reliance on an agent to perform a known duty from the question of the taxpayer’s disability, with the latter potentially amounting to a penalty defense.

A Third Circuit case, In the Matter of American Biomaterials Corp., 954 F.2d 919 (3d Cir. 1992), analogizes misconduct of corporate officers as effectively incapacitating a corporate taxpayer that may amount to reasonable cause to excuse delinquency penalties.

OE3 analogized its situation to a disabled taxpayer, given that it argued that it had no knowledge of her problems and had a sound practice of internal and external oversight. The district court distinguished Biomaterials, leaning on Ninth Circuit case Conklin Bros. of Santa Rosa v. United States, 986 F.2d 315, 317 (9th Cir. 1993). Conklin involved a controller who hid from her supervisors her failure to file returns and pay taxes, and who actively intercepted correspondence from the IRS and other evidence that would have let corporate officers know of the tax problems:

Applying Conklin to this case, it is clear as a matter of law that OE3 has not established reasonable cause to avoid the late penalty fees. The undisputed facts show that OE3 relied solely on [its employee], acting within the scope of her authority, to ensure that it met its payroll tax obligations during the periods in question. But OE3 “cannot avoid responsibility by simply relying on its agent to comply with the [tax] statutes.” Id. at 317. The undisputed facts also show that, as in Conklin, the circumstances resulting in OE3’s payroll tax delinquencies were not beyond OE3’s control.

What distinguished Biomaterials from Conklin and the union’s facts was that the misconduct in Biomaterials was at a higher level. Here, the Finance Director “was at all times subject to the direct supervision of OE3’s Business Manager… who could have seen to it that OE3 timely fulfilled its tax obligations.”

After failing to persuade the court that it had reasonable cause for its delinquencies, OE3 also argued that it in fact timely filed its third quarter 2018 payroll tax return. It argued that it was inappropriate for the government to prevail on summary judgment with respect to the filing penalty, pointing only to deposition testimony of the Finance Director, who claimed that she had mailed the return in the fall of 2018.

In granting the summary judgment motion, the opinion notes 2011 Treasury regulations that provide that taxpayers can only rely on Section 7502 to prove delivery.  Those regulations effectively bar the introduction of extrinsic evidence if there is no direct evidence of actual delivery to the IRS or no proof of proper use of registered or certified mail or an authorized private delivery service.

The Ninth Circuit upheld those regulations in Baldwin v United States (for a discussion of Baldwin see Carlton Smith’s Ninth Circuit Holds Reg. Validly Overrules Case Law; Disallows Parol Evidence of Timely Mailing). As such, given that OE3 could offer no admissible evidence to prove filing, the government was able to prevail on its motion for summary judgment.

Conclusion

What about the IRS’s first time abatement (FTA) policy? OE3 also argued that it should have received a one-time pass, but the court did not reach the issue, noting that its origins in the IRM render it not binding. Absent a handful of CDP cases that have pressed the issue of whether IRS failure to apply FTA is an abuse of discretion, courts have not applied it in refund cases like this.

Boyle’s bright line at times can lead to harsh outcomes, even if one might agree with the result. And from the union’s perspective two or three quarters of noncompliance in 100 years reflect a taxpayer that has taken their responsibilities seriously. As Keith has noted one can imagine a tax system like the Virginia DMV which allows a driver to build up positive points for driving a year with no violations up to five points.  The points can be used to mitigate when a violation occurs. While past compliance is not irrelevant when considering if a taxpayer can establish reasonable cause, other than the IRS’s discretionary FTA there is no mechanism for incentivizing past filing and paying compliance.

This case serves as a warning that boards and officers must keep close watch over tax matters; even longtime employees who have acted appropriately for years may experience personal and professional issues that can lead to sizable and unexpected sanctions.

Filed Under: Employment Taxes, First Time Abate, Penalty Application, Reasonable Cause

What Happens to Employees When the Employer Fails to Pay Over to the Government Withheld Taxes

May 3, 2022 by 5 Comments

In Plazzi v. FedEx Ground Package System, Inc., No. 1:21:-cv-12130 (D. Mass. 2022), three employees sued their employer because their withheld wages were not paid over to the government.  I do not remember seeing such a suit previously, but this is a matter that I discuss with my students each semester.  Most of us pay taxes through third-party intermediaries.  Understanding the relationship between the third-party intermediary and you, the taxpayer, and the government is important.  The case provides a nice analysis of what I explain to my students each semester.  In addition to explaining how the system works, the court dismisses the complaint, finding that it is barred by statute.  If you are looking for a good explanation of how the third-party intermediary system of tax payment works, this relatively short opinion offers it up.

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At some point each semester I ask the students if they have ever worked as an employee.  Almost all say yes.  I then ask what happens if their employer does not pay over the withheld taxes and how many of them checked to make sure their employer actually paid over to the government the taxes it withheld from their wages.  The students have almost never thought about what happens to their withheld wages and some have a concerned look as they begin to think about the possibility of the failure of their employer to send to the government the amount taken from their wages.  Usually, after a bit of mild prompting, at least one of the students will express the view that the responsibility for failing to pay over the withheld taxes should fall on the employer and not the individual.  We then discuss why it should work that way and a look of relief comes over those who began to have concerns.

Mr. Plazzi and the others who brought this suit had not had the opportunity to have such a discussion.  I understand why they would have concerns.  I am puzzled that they did not find a lawyer who could explain the way the system works to them before they went to the trouble to file the suit.

Major corporations like FedEx basically never fail to pay over the taxes they withheld.  So, I was a little surprised to see FedEx as the defendant in such a suit. The failure to pay over trust fund taxes regularly occurs in small businesses with cash flow problems usually run by an individual or a small group of individuals who are all in financially.  Executives of a major corporation should never put themselves in this position.

My surprise lifted as the court explained the facts.  Apparently, FedEx contracts with independent companies to deliver packages in some areas.  Learning this should not surprise me.  The US Postal Service does the same thing as do many other large enterprises.  Mr. Plazzi and his fellow plaintiffs worked for Eloah Delivery rather than directly for FedEx.  The court described the arrangement as follows:

Eloah was an “independent service provider” (“ISP”) of FedEx. ISPs typically handle three or more FedEx delivery routes and follow FedEx’s policies and procedures. FedEx maintains strict control over the way in which Plaintiffs and other delivery drivers working under ISPs perform their work. Delivery drivers hired by FedEx ISPs are classified as “employees” of the ISPs. For example, under its ISP Agreement with FedEx, Eloah agreed that it would “assign only Personnel, including officers and managers, that [Eloah] ensures are treated as employees of [Eloah] in the provision of Services under this Agreement.” Further, Eloah agreed under the ISP Agreement to “assume sole responsibility for payroll deductions and maintenance of payroll and employment records, and for compliance with Applicable Law, including . . . wage payment, final payment of wages, required withholdings from wages, deductions, overtime, and rest and meal periods.”

Like many small businesses, Eloah withheld taxes from its employees’ wages as required; however, it did not pay over the withheld taxes to the government.  Somehow, unexplained in the opinion, plaintiffs found out about this failure.  Plaintiffs argued that FedEx violated their rights under the Massachusetts Wage Act.  FedEx countered that their claim is barred by state and federal law.  In finding for FedEx, the court explained why such a claim is barred.

While I say that it was unexplained in the opinion how the employees knew the money was not paid over to the IRS, the opinion did provide an explanation of how they knew problems existed. 

Prado [the supervisor at the company] told Plaintiffs he was withholding taxes equaling twenty-three percent of their gross pay per week. Plaintiffs were under the impression that Prado was withholding all required state and federal taxes and that they would receive a W-2 tax form from the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) reflecting their gross wages following the 2020 calendar year. Plaintiffs never received their W-2 forms.

So, these employees have even more problems than not having their wages withheld.  They also appear not to have a statement sent to the IRS (or Social Security) reflecting the amount paid to them and the amount withheld.  If an employer never files these forms, employees struggle to get credit.  A procedure exists for creating a substitute W-2 but that usually relies on paystubs or a statement from the company.  This is a major procedural problem by itself which can be compounded where an employer insists on making wage payments through a platform like Zelle or a similar middleman.  The lack of receipt of W-2s may have played a large role in their decision to bring a case though it is not resolved through the decision.

The employees get credit for the withheld taxes regardless of whether the employer pays the money over to the government, though proving the money was withheld can, in situations like this, prove difficult.  Assuming the employees can establish their wages were withheld, any fight about the unpaid taxes becomes a fight between the government and the employer (and potentially any responsible persons under IRC 6672) and not a fight between the employees and the employer.  In explaining this, the court stated:

Employees, however, are barred from suing employers for failing to pay withheld taxes to the IRS: the Internal Revenue Code provides that “[t]he employer shall be liable for the payment of the tax required to be deducted and withheld . . . and shall not be liable to any person for the amount of any such payment.” 26 U.S.C. § 3403. “[T]his statute makes clear that while . . . the employer may be penalized by IRS for failure to pay the tax to it, suits against it by employees for taxes withheld from the pay of such employees are statutorily barred.” Chandler, 520 F. Supp. at 1156 (dismissing employee’s suit against employer for alleged conversion of money withheld from employee’s paycheck); see Bright v. Bechtel Petroleum, Inc., 780 F.2d 766, 770 (9th Cir. 1986) (citing Chandler, 520 F. Supp. at 1156) (affirming dismissal of claim seeking to recover withheld income tax as “statutorily barred”); Haggert v. Philips Med. Sys., Inc., No. 91-cv-30060-MAP, 1994 WL 673508, at *2 (D. Mass. Mar. 24, 1994), aff’d, 39 F.3d 1166 (1st Cir. 1994) (dismissing similar claim on same grounds). Similarly, Massachusetts law on tax withholding “tracks” the Internal Revenue Code and “is intended to replicate the effect of its counterpart in the federal code.” In re Nash Concrete Form Co., 159 B.R. 611, 615 (D. Mass. 1993).

So, it doesn’t matter to the employees that the employer failed to pay over the withheld taxes, but it does matter to employees that this withholding is documented.  They do not need to keep tabs on their employer or worry in any way about what happens to their money after it is withheld as long as they have the proper proof of withholding. 

This system of giving employees credit for any amount withheld makes perfect sense and explains why normally employees do not think about the issue.  Here, the shady method of making payroll and the apparent failure to send a year in statements puts these employees in an especially bad situation.

I am a bit troubled by the fact that the system also credits the responsible officers whose wages are withheld, but I guess that’s not a big enough concern for anyone to change the statute.  For anyone interested in my longer writings on the subject of trust fund taxes and what happens when the party holding the money in trust fails to pay it over, you can find my law review articles here, here and here.

Filed Under: Employment Taxes, Responsible Person, TFRP

2021 Year in Review – Cases

December 28, 2021 by Leave a Comment

Despite the ability to access most courts only remotely for much if not all of the year, 2021 still produced a number of important tax procedure decisions.  Perhaps judges could produce more opinions because they did not need to travel or to hold lengthy in-person trials.  This post shows that not all cases are Graev cases.

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Supreme Court matters

The Supreme Court handed down a unanimous opinion in CIC Services.  The Court holds that the Anti-Injunction Act does not bar a suit challenging an IRS notice that requires a non-taxpayer to provide information even though the failure to provide the information could result in a penalty.  Posts can be found  here, here, here and here.

The Supreme Court rejected the request for certiorari in Organic Cannabis v. Commissioner seeking a determination that the time period for filing a petition in Tax Court in a deficiency case is a claims processing period rather than a jurisdictional one but granted certiorari in Boechler v. Commissioner regarding the same issue but in the collection due process context.  The Boechler case will be argued before the Supreme Court on January 12, 2022.

Circuit Court matters

Coffey v. Commissioner, –F.3d – (8th Cir. 2021)  – in a case that fractured the Tax Court about as badly as it can be fractured, the Eighth Circuit, after initially projecting harmony and uniformity in its decision, fractured as well, reversing its initial decision which overturned the Tax Court’s fully reviewed opinion.  This action briefly reopened the door on the question of adequate filing of a return for purposes of triggering the statute of limitations, before reinstating the original holding through a new opinion by the panel. That new panel opinion can be found here. 

Taxpayers claimed that they were residents of the US Virgin Islands in 2003 and 2004 and filed returns with the Virgin Islands tax authority.  That taxing authority has a symbiotic relationship with the IRS and sent to the IRS some of the documents it received.  The IRS took the documents it received and concluded that M/M Coffey should have filed a US tax return.  Based on that conclusion, it sent the Coffeys a notice of deficiency.  The Coffeys argued that the notice of deficiency was sent beyond the statute of limitations on assessment since their filing with the US Virgin Islands tax authority also served as a filing with the IRS, starting the normal assessment statute.  The government argued that because the Coffeys did not file a return with the US, no statute of limitations on assessment existed.  After only eight years, the Tax Court sided with the Coffeys.  A mere three years later, the Eighth Circuit reversed in a unanimous three judge panel. 

On February 10, 2021, the Eighth Circuit granted a panel rehearing but denied a rehearing en banc.  Disagreements with the outcome of a circuit court usually result in a request for a rehearing en banc rather than a rehearing with the very panel that entered the decision.  So, this is a bit of an unusual twist in a case with many twists. After the vacating of the original opinion, the same panel issued a new opinion with some minor differences.

The result of the Eighth Circuit’s decision allows the IRS to come in many years later to challenge residence of individuals claiming Virgin Islands residence.  If the Coffeys had succeeded in this case, the procedural issue would have turned into a substantive victory, since the IRS would not have been able to make an assessment against them for the years at issue.

Gregory v. Commissioner, — F.3d – (3rd Cir. 2020) – This case was decided at the very end of 2020 so it is included here as it came out during last year’s end of year review and also because it is a case argued on appeal by the Tax Clinic at Harvard so including it provides another opportunity to showcase the work of the students.  The issue before the Third Circuit was whether the taxpayers’ use of Forms 2848 Power of Attorney and 4868 Request for Extension of Time constituted “clear and concise notice” of a change of address to the IRS pursuant to Treasury Regulation §301.6212-2.  Although filed as a non-precedential opinion, the outcome is a clear example of how the IRS cannot simply ignore the actual knowledge it has of a taxpayer’s address when issuing a Statutory Notice of Deficiency pursuant to I.R.C. §6212(b)(1), even if that taxpayer failed to follow the IRS’ prescribed procedures for changing their address. 

An odd ending to this case occurred when the Third Circuit returned it to the Tax Court.  Rather than simply entering an opinion for the taxpayers, the Court issued an order restoring the case to the general docket.  That order made no sense because the Gregorys unquestionably filed their Tax Court petition late.  This required the filing of a motion to have the court make a determination that the notice of deficiency was invalid, which it eventually did with no opposition from an equally confused government counsel.

In Patrick’s Payroll Services, Inc., v. Commissioner, No. 20-1772 (6th Cir. 2021), the Sixth Circuit upheld the decision of the Tax Court denying the taxpayer the opportunity to litigate the merits of the underlying tax because of a prior opportunity to discuss settlement with Appeals.  Guest blogger Chaim Gordon wrote about this case after the Tax Court’s decision and while the case was pending before the Sixth Circuit.  Chaim pointed out some of the novel arguments the taxpayer was making.  Unfortunately for the taxpayer, the Sixth Circuit was not buying what they were selling.

The 11th Circuit upheld the decision of the Tax Court in Sleeth v. Commissioner, — F.3d — 2021 WL 1049815 (11th Cir. 2021), holding that Ms. Sleeth was not an innocent spouse.  The Sleeth case continues the run of unsuccessful taxpayer appeals of innocent spouse cases following the major structural changes to the law in 1998. The Tax Court found three positive factors and only one negative factor applying the tests of Rev. Proc. 2013-34.  Yet, despite the multitude of factors favoring relief in each case, the Tax Court found that the negative knowledge factor required denial of relief.  This case follows the decision in the Jacobsen case from 2020 in which the Tax Court denied relief to someone with four positive factors for relief and only knowledge as a negative factor.  The pattern developing in these cases suggests that the Tax Court views the knowledge factor as a super factor, despite changes in IRS guidance no longer describing it as such.  Only economic hardship seems capable of overcoming a negative determination on knowledge.  In this post, Carl Smith discussed the Seventh Circuit’s decision in the Jacobsen case.  Both cases were argued on appeal by the Tax Clinic at Harvard.  The clinic also filed an amicus brief in the case of Jones v. Commissioner, TC Memo 2019-139, set to be argued soon before the 9th Circuit.

Lindsay v. U.S. is the latest case to apply the principle that United States v. Boyle essentially stands for the position that taxpayers have a nondelegable duty to be aware of tax deadlines. An agent’s incompetence or willful misconduct will not excuse the taxpayer from delinquency penalties.  Lindsay was incarcerated and executed a POA to Bertelson, an attorney, to manage his affairs, including filing his tax returns.  The attorney assured Lindsay he was doing so for the years 2012-15; instead he failed to file the returns and for good measure embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars. The actions resulted in Lindsay receiving $705,414.61 in actual damages and $1 million in punitive damages.  Lindsay eventually filed his tax returns and paid over $425,000 in delinquency penalties. He filed a claim for refund; IRS rejected and he filed a suit in district court. The district court, contrary to the magistrate’s recommendation, granted the government’s motion to dismiss, citing Boyle as precluding a claim for relief. Following a timely appeal, the Fifth Circuit affirmed. In so doing, it applied Boyle to Lindsay’s somewhat sympathetic circumstances.

Tax Court

In Ramey v Commissioner, 156 T.C. No. 1 (2021), the Tax Court determined in a precedential opinion that when the IRS issues a notice of decision rather than a notice of determination and the taxpayer has filed the collection due process (CDP) request late, the Court lacks jurisdiction to hear the case.  The taxpayer, a lawyer, represented himself and pegged his arguments to last known address rather than jurisdiction.  Nonetheless, the decision expands the Court’s narrow view of jurisdiction to another setting without addressing the Supreme Court precedent on jurisdiction and its impact on the timing of the filing of documents.

Galloway v Commissioner, TC Memo 2021-24: This case holds that a taxpayer cannot use the CDP process to rehash a previously rejected offer in compromise (OIC).  Mr. Galloway actually submitted two OICs that the IRS rejected.  As an aside, from the description of the OICs in the Court’s opinion, the rejections seemed appropriate strictly from an asset perspective, since he did not want to include the value of a car he owned but allowed his daughter to use. 

The case of Mason v. Commissioner, T.C.M. 2021-64 shows at least one benefit of submitting an offer in compromise (OIC) through a request for a collection due process (CDP) hearing.  As part of his lessons from the Tax Court series, Bryan Camp has written an excellent post both on the case and the history of offers. 

Friendship Creative Printers v. Commissioner, TC Memo 2021-19: This case holds that the taxpayer could raise the merits of delinquency penalties by the backhanded method of challenging the application of payments.  Taxpayer failed to pay employment taxes over an extended period of time and failed to file the necessary returns but at some point made payments on the earliest periods.  In the CDP hearing, taxpayer argued satisfaction of the earliest periods and eventually provided an analysis showing payments equal to the tax paid.

The Court treated this as a challenge to the merits of the delinquency penalties imposed.  Unfortunately, the taxpayer did not designate its payments, which meant that the payments it made were not applied in the manner it expected and argued in the CDP hearing.  Taxpayer also looked at the transcripts without appreciating the impact of accruals not reflected in the assessed portion of the transcript but accruing nonetheless.

Reynolds v. Commissioner, TC Memo 2021-10: This case holds that the IRS can collect on restitution based assessments even when the taxpayer has an agreement with the Department of Justice to make payments on the restitution award.  Taxpayer’s prosecution resulted in a significant restitution order. He agreed to pay DOJ $100 a month or 10% of his income.  At the time of the CDP case he was not working and did not appear to have many prospects for future employment. Citing Carpenter v. Commissioner, 152 T.C. 202 (2019), the Tax Court said that the IRS did have the right to pursue collection from him.  Obviously that right, at least with respect to levy, is tempered by the requirement in IRC 6343 not to levy when it would place someone in financial hardship, but no blanket prohibition existed to stop the IRS from collecting and therefore to stop it from making a CDP determination in support of lien or levy. The case is a good one to read for anyone dealing with a restitution based assessment to show the interplay between DOJ and IRS in the collection of this type of assessment, as well as to show the limitations of restitution based assessments compared to “regular” assessments.

BM Construction v. Commissioner, TC Memo 2021-13: This case involves, inter alia, a business owned by a single individual and the mailing of the CDP notice to the business owner rather than the business.  The Tax Court finds that sending the CDP notice to the individual rather than the business does not create a problem here, since the sole owner of the business would receive the notice were it addressed to the business rather than to him personally.

Shitrit v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo 2021-63, points out the limitations on raising issues other than the revocation of the passport when coming into the Tax Court under the jurisdiction of the passport provision.  Petitioner here tries to persuade the Tax Court to order the issuance of a refund but gets rebuffed due to the Court’s view of the scope of its jurisdiction in this type of case.

The case of Garcia v. Commissioner, 157 T.C. No. 1 (2021) provides clarity and guidance on the Tax Court’s jurisdiction in passport cases as the Court issues a precedential opinion to make clear some of the things that can and cannot happen in a contest regarding the certification of passport revocation.  I did not find the decision surprising.  The Court’s passport jurisdiction is quite limited.  Petitioners will generally be disappointed in the scope of relief available through this new type of Tax Court jurisdiction. 

Other Courts

In Mendu v. United States, No. 1:17-cv-00738 (Ct. Fd. Claims April 7, 2021) the Court of Federal Claims held that FBAR penalties are not taxes for purposes of applying the Flora rule.  In arguing for the imposition of the Flora rule, the taxpayer, in a twist of sides, sought to have the court require that the individual against whom the penalties were imposed fully pay the penalties before being allowed to challenge the penalties in court.  The FBAR penalties are not imposed under title 26 of the United States Code, which most of us shorthand into the Internal Revenue Code, but rather are imposed under Title 31 as part of the Bank Secrecy Act.

The case of In re Bowman, No. 20-11512 (E.D. La. 2021) denies debtor’s motion for summary judgment that Ms. Bowman deserves innocent spouse relief.  On its own, the court reviews the issue of its jurisdiction to hear an innocent spouse issue as part of her chapter 13 bankruptcy case and decides that it has jurisdiction to make such a decision.  The parties did not raise the jurisdiction issue, which is not surprising from the perspective of the plaintiff, but may signal a shift in the government’s position since it had previously opposed the jurisdiction of courts other than the Tax Court to hear innocent spouse cases.

Filed Under: Bank Secrecy Act, Bankruptcy, Collection Due Process, Designation of Payment, Employment Taxes, FBAR, Federal Courts - Jurisdiction, Form 2848, Innocent Spouse, Last Known Address, Offer in Compromise, Passport revocation, Penalty Application, Restitution, Statutes of Limitation, Tax Court

TIGTA Report Highlights Major Compliance Issues When Businesses Fail to Pay Salaries to Sole Shareholder S Corporations

September 16, 2021 by 7 Comments

We mostly stick to procedure on this blog. So we do not often talk about the taxation of entities. But most of us, even true procedure folks know that S corporations generally do not pay federal income tax on their profits. Instead, the profits flow through to shareholders and are not subject to self-employment taxes. This creates the incentive for shareholders to minimize or even fail to pay any compensation for service-providing S Corps. The savings for S Corps who fail to pay reasonable or in some cases any compensation means that there is a hefty amount of owed Social Security and Medicare taxes that the fisc misses out on (and I leave aside any 199A issues that create further incentives for S corps and their service performing shareholders to avoid or minimize salaries).  

A recent TIGTA report highlights the problem. While IRS has made employment taxes a priority, TIGTA notes that IRS selects few S corporations for examination.  On top of that, “when the IRS does examine S corporations, nearly half of the revenue agents do not evaluate officer’s compensation during the examination even when single-shareholder owners may not have reported officer’s compensation and may have taken tax-free distributions in lieu of compensation.”

This is bad news.  The study looked at a few years of S Corp returns and noted that some really profitable S Corps with only one shareholder pay absolutely no compensation:

TIGTA’s analysis of all S corporation returns received between Processing Years 2016 through 2018 identified 266,095 returns with profits greater than $100,000, a single shareholder, and no officer’s compensation claimed that were not selected for a field examination. The analysis found that the single-shareholder owners had profits of $108 billion and took $69 billion in the form of a distribution, without reporting they received officer’s compensation for which they would have to pay Social Security and Medicare tax. TIGTA estimated 266,095 returns may not have reported nearly $25 billion in compensation and may have avoided paying approximately $3.3 billion in Federal Insurance Contributions Act tax.

As TIGTA notes, there are many cases that hold that shareholder-employees are subject to employment taxes even when shareholders take distributions, dividends, or other forms of compensation instead of wages. The substantive rules require that S Corp shareholders performing services are to take reasonable salaries.  For some of these cases, see Veterinary Surgical Consultants, P.C. v. Commissioner, 117 T.C. 141 (2001). Joly v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1998-361, aff’d by unpub. Op., 211 F.3d 1269 (2002). Joseph M. Grey Public Accountant, P.C. vs. Commissioner, 119 T.C. 121 (2002). David E. Watson, PC vs. U.S., 668 F.3d 1008 (8th Cir. 2012).

Reasonable compensation cases have been around for many decades.  It used to be that the reason for the cases was the flip side because solely owned companies wanted to pay a high salary in order to avoid the problem with dividends.  So, companies with lots of assets would structure their compensation to the executives to avoid having any money left over for dividends and avoid the tax on leaving excess profits in the corporation.

To get to a court case is labor intensive, though for sure in any situation with zero compensation it would be fairly easy for the government to prove that there should be some deemed compensation. S Corp audits are handled in the field. For FY 2017-2019 there were about 5 million S corp returns filed. The audit coverage ranged from a high of 12,169 in FY 2017 to a low of 9,556 in FY 19, with coverage ranging from .2% to .3%.  TIGTA notes that many of the audits failed to even raise the issue of officer compensation. While IRS should audit more and do a better job targeting the issue, I wonder if there needs to be a statutory fix that requires or perhaps presumes some minimum salary that is pegged to earnings. Any legislative fix should consider how to minimize the burdens both to the IRS and taxpayers and remove the temptation for businesses to play the lottery.

As Keith notes, there is a long-term cost to not paying a salary which is that the owner is not building Social Security credits.  So, their social security upon retirement could be significantly less than it would have been otherwise if this goes on for a long time.  While there is a back end savings to the government that may not be reflected in the loss figures that may be much less than the costs to the government relating to the foregone employment taxes.

Filed Under: Employment Taxes, S Corporations

Designation of Payment in Payroll Tax Cases

August 12, 2021 by 6 Comments

We have not written about designation of payment in a long time.  Early in the life of the blog we had two posts on the topic which you can find here and here.  Designation of payment for any type of tax could have important consequences for the taxpayer and save lots of money.  For taxpayers who owe employment taxes, or any trust fund tax, or for responsible persons regarding those trust fund taxes, the issue of designation becomes more critical to a successful plan to limit liability.

The IRS allows taxpayers to designate the liability to which a payment is posted if the taxpayer or the person making the payment follows the correct steps.  Policy Statement 5-14 (found at IRM 1.2.1.6.3) sets out the basic policy governing designation of payments.  Essentially, the taxpayer, or the person making the payment, needs to clearly state the liability by tax type and period as well as describe what portion of the liability the person intends to pay, e.g., tax, penalty, or interest.  If properly designated, the IRS will take the funds and apply them in the manner requested by the taxpayer.

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Why does it matter which taxes get paid and what happens if a taxpayer makes a payment and does not designate?

It matters because sometimes a taxpayer owes different types of taxes and sometimes the taxpayer owes for several periods. 

Different taxes – Payroll taxes provide a good example of different types of taxes.  While you might lump payroll taxes together as one tax, it has different components.  Some of the payroll tax is owed because of the trust relationship created by the taxpayer when it withheld taxes from a third party for purposes of paying that tax over to the IRS.  Another part of the payroll tax is the taxpayer’s liability as a party making payroll to pay for the employer’s portion of payroll taxes.  Generally speaking, a payroll tax return (Form 941) will have three separate bases for liability.  Two are based on the trust relationship and stem from the money withheld from the employee to pay 1) income taxes and 2) Social Security and Medicare taxes.  The third portion of the payroll tax liability stems from the direct liability of the taxpayer to pay the employer’s portion of Social Security and Medicare taxes.

Different tax years – A taxpayer might owe income taxes for 2020, 2018, 2016 and 2014.  Attached to each of the income tax liabilities will also likely be interest and penalties.

If the taxpayer owing payroll taxes is Acme, Inc. and Acme’s owner is John, John faces a trust fund recovery penalty for which he has personal liability with respect to the unpaid trust fund portion of Acme’s payroll tax liability.  John cares deeply that Acme satisfy the trust fund portion so that he does not face a personal assessment of that liability.  He may also care about the employer portion of the payroll tax liability if he wants to keep Acme going, but his main concern derives from fear of personal liability.  If Acme has limited funds with which to pay the taxes or John has limited funds to contribute to Acme to pay the payroll taxes, John wants to ensure that the payments apply to the unpaid trust fund portion for which he has personal liability.  Only after the taxpayer penalties and interest of that portion of Acme’s liability is satisfied can he breathe easy regarding his personal liability.

If Acme or John, on behalf of Acme, makes a payment on the payroll tax liability and says nothing, the IRS will apply the payment to the non-trust fund portion of Acme’s liability first until it satisfies that portion.  By doing so, the IRS preserves the greatest possibility for it to collect additional dollars since it can go after either Acme or John on the trust fund portion but can only go after Acme on the non-trust fund portion.  The failure to make the designation could have significant negative consequences for John.

If Bob is the taxpayer owing income taxes for different years, he too might care about which of the four years to which the IRS applies his payment.  In most situations, the IRS will have assessed the earlier tax periods first, which means the statute of limitations on those periods will run first.  If the taxes for these four years were reported on timely filed tax returns, Bob’s 10-year statute of collection would run from about April 15, 2015 for the 2014 liability to April 15, 2021 for the 2020 liability.  The 2014 has less than four years to run before it expires while the 2020 liability has almost 10 years left.  Additionally, should Bob go into bankruptcy, the 2014 and 2016 liabilities would be classified as general unsecured claims which might be dischargeable with no payments made while the 2018 and 2020 would be excepted from discharge if a bankruptcy petition were filed at this time.  So, Bob has an incentive to designate his payments to the more recent periods, allowing the older periods to disappear more quickly due to the statute of limitations on collection or due to the bankruptcy discharge.  If Bob sends money to the IRS and says nothing, the IRS will almost always apply the money to the oldest period, first to taxes, then to penalties and then to interest.  Once the oldest period is paid, the IRS will almost always move to the next oldest period and again apply the payment to taxes, then penalties and then interest and so on until the liability is paid in full.  By applying the payment to the oldest periods first the IRS generally preserves the longest period of collection on the remaining liabilities and reduces the liabilities susceptible to discharge in bankruptcy.

In CCA 2019110508593544, IRS Chief Counsel gives brief advice on the issue of designation.  It states:

[A] question was raised about whether a taxpayer can designate the payment allocation when the taxpayer makes a quarterly federal tax deposit, attributable to a specific payroll, or whether the payment must be applied in the best interests of the government. Please share the response below with your staff.

A taxpayer is permitted to designate a voluntary payment, but in order for such designation to be proper the request or designation for the application of the payment must be specific, in writing, and made at the time of the payment. A taxpayer has no right of designation of payments resulting from enforced collection measures.

If a taxpayer submits a voluntary partial payment when there are assessments for more than one taxable period, and does not provide specific written instructions as to the application of the partial payment, then the payments will be applied in a manner serving the best interests of the government. The payment will generally be applied to satisfy the liability for successive periods in descending order of priority until the payment is absorbed and is applied to non-trust fund taxes first.

Pursuant to Policy Statement 5-14 (found at IRM 1.2.1.6.3), to the extent partial payments exceed the non-trust fund portion of the tax liability, they are deemed to be applied against the trust fund portion of the tax liability (e.g., withheld income tax, employee’s share of FICA, collected excise taxes). Once the non-trust fund and trust fund taxes are paid, the remaining payments will be considered to be applied to assessed fees and collection costs, assessed penalty and interest, and accrued penalty and interest to the date of payment.

For more information, see the following resources:

Rev. Proc. 2002-26, 2002-1 C.B. 746
Salazar v. Comm’r, 338 Fed. Appx. 75, 79 (2d Cir. 2009) (and cases quoted therein)
IRM 5.7.4.3
IRM 8.25.2.4.4

If you represent a taxpayer in a situation in which paying one tax period or one type of tax provides an advantage over letting the IRS choose the application of payment that most benefits it, you should make a clear designation with your payment.  In addition to describing the designation in the cover letter forwarding the check, you might also consider making note of the designation on the check itself in the notes section.

Taxpayers can only make a designation when they make a voluntary payment.  Involuntary payments such as payments pursuant to a levy, pursuant to a sale, pursuant to a bankruptcy distribution, or other similar situations in which the money comes to the IRS from a source other than the taxpayer do not offer the benefit of the opportunity to designate.  This can provide a good reason for the taxpayer to make a payment rather than to wait for the IRS to take the money through some form of collection action.

Filed Under: Designation of Payment, Employment Taxes

SECA and the Limited Partner Exemption Again

May 14, 2021 by 3 Comments

Monte Jackel, Of Counsel at Leo Berwick, discusses the absence of guidance or a legislative solution concerning self employment tax for a partner’s income derived from services performed as a partner on behalf of the partnership. As Monte discusses, the issue prompted proposed regulations and a Congressional backlash over two decades ago. Since then, neither Congress or IRS has had the appetite to address this issue on a systemic basis.  Les

Section 1402(a) of the Internal Revenue Code defines the term “net earnings from self-employment” as including the taxpayer’s distributive share of income or loss under section 702(a) from any trade or business carried on by a partnership of which the taxpayer is a member. However, section 1402(a)(13) excludes the distributive share of a limited partner from self-employment tax other than guaranteed payments to the limited partner for services rendered. Neither the statute nor any final or temporary regulations defines the term “limited partner” for this purpose.

The situation has cried out for regulations with respect to who is a “limited partner” for SECA purposes for over two decades now. Proposed regulations were issued in 1994 and reissued in 1997. Both sets of regulations were never finalized and prompted adverse Congressional reaction. There was a Congressional moratorium on finalizing the 1997 proposed regulations until July 1, 1998. That date has come and passed with no further IRS regulation activity. The 1997 proposed regulations can, however, be relied upon by taxpayers but cannot be enforced by the IRS against them. 

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In Renkemeyer (136 T.C. 137 (2011)), the taxpayers, lawyers in a Kansas limited liability partnership law firm, argued that their distributive share of law firm income [post 1997] was not subject to SECA because the taxpayers were limited partners who enjoyed limited liability under applicable state law despite actively performing legal services on behalf of the partnership. The Tax Court rejected this contention, noting that a limited liability partnership is merely a general partnership where the members have limited liability. The court summarized the situation this way:

As of 2005 Congress had not issued any other pronouncements [referencing the 1997 proposed regulations] with respect to the definition of a limited partner for purposes of the self-employment tax, nor had the Secretary. We therefore are left to interpret the statute without elaboration…. “Limited partner” is a technical term which has become obscured over time because of the increasing complexity of partnerships and other flowthrough entities as well as the history of section 1402(a)(13). We therefore must look to the legislative history for guidance…. [T]he intent of section 1402(a)(13) was to ensure that individuals who merely invested in a partnership and who were not actively participating in the partnership’s business operations (which was the archetype of limited partners at the time) would not receive credits toward Social Security coverage. The legislative history of section 1402(a)(13) does not support a holding that Congress contemplated excluding partners who performed services for a partnership in their capacity as partners (i.e., acting in the manner of self-employed persons), from liability for self-employment taxes….  [I]t is clear that the partners’ distributive shares of the law firm’s income did not arise as a return on the partners’ investment and were not “earnings which are basically of an investment nature.” Instead, the attorney partners’ distributive shares arose from legal services they performed on behalf of the law firm.”

It is true that Renkemeyer has expansive language in it, quoted above, to treat a partner as not being a limited partner for SECA purposes when his income is derived from services performed as a partner on behalf of the partnership. However, it is also true that unless the Congress finally acts on the SECA issue as part of the current administration’s priorities, the IRS will be either forced to litigate the issue until it is resolved by enough courts to conclude on this issue, or it will have to muster up the political courage and finalize the 1997 proposed regulations. 

Should the IRS be allowed to effectively enforce the 1997 proposed regulations through audit and litigation in the courts and never risk political outrage again by the Congress if it comes to it? Is that the way the IRS should be administering the tax law, playing political games with the tax system and expending government resources to litigate cases that would not have arisen if the 1997 proposed regulations had been finalized? I think the answer is a clear and resounding no. 

Filed Under: Employment Taxes

Offset – Whose Funds Does the IRS Hold

November 26, 2019 by 2 Comments

In the recent case of Laird v. United States,  (5th Cir. 2019) the court addressed the issue of whether the IRS could offset an overpayment resulting from an attempted designated payment.  The Fifth Circuit distinguished earlier circuit precedent that the IRS could offset extra money that a taxpayer sent by creating a rule that the IRS can only do so when it applies the extra money to the tax account of the person remitting the money.  The rule makes sense but here the facts get muddy.

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If you have never represented someone who might have the trust fund recovery penalty (TFRP) assessed against them, you might wonder why one taxpayer would pay the taxes of another.  Sure, there are many good and generous people in the world and we are in the giving season, but still, the payment of someone else’s taxes is not a customary holiday gift nor an ordinary act at any time of the year.  The picture becomes clearer when the TFRP enters the picture.  Let’s look at a typical fact pattern.

Corporation A builds buildings.  It has 20 employees.  Business has been slow, but it expects a turnaround at any time.  Corporation A has a cash flow problem.  To get it through the lean times, it looks for ways to conserve cash.  One way it decides to do this is to pay its employees their salaries, otherwise they will walk, but to hold off on paying the IRS the withheld taxes and the employer’s share of FICA.  Corporation A anticipates that it will soon have a contract that will allow it to make the tax payments and has no intention of stiffing the IRS.  Unfortunately, the business downturn lasts longer than it anticipates, and some of its accounts do not pay on time.  The unpaid taxes build up for several months at which time a friendly revenue officer appears at the door of Corporation A to demand payment, or levies will occur and the responsible officers will have the TFRP assessed against them pursuant to IRC 6672.

An officer of Corporation A, Bob, decides that the best thing to do in order to avoid the consequences of non-payment of the taxes is to pay them himself.  He sends the IRS a check for the unpaid taxes and designates on the check how the funds should be applied.  Unfortunately, he miscalculates the amount of debt that brought the revenue officer to the door of Corporation A and he sends a check for too much.  While it does not happen too often that a corporate officer sends in too much in this situation, it does happen, and it did happen in the Laird case.

The IRS knew what to do with the extra money.  It applied the funds to another debt of Corporation A which had not yet reached the hands of the revenue officer or it applied the debt to the non-trust fund portion of Corporation A’s outstanding liability.  Bob did not intend to pay the non-trust fund portion of Corporation A’s debt because he had no personal liability for this debt.  He only sought to pay the trust fund portion.  He requests that the IRS return to him that portion of the check which overpaid the liability he sought to satisfy.  The IRS argued that it had the right to offset this money against other debts of Corporation A.

In the case of United States v. Ryan, (11th Cir. 1995), the Eleventh Circuit answered the question in this case by holding that the IRS could keep the extra amount of a check sent in with a specific designation; however, in Ryan the taxpayer sending the check was the same taxpayer who owed the money.  In Laird the person sending in the money, like Bob, is not the taxpayer.  The entity, like Corporation A, is the taxpayer.  The Fifth Circuit holds that this distinction makes a difference.  Here, it holds that the individual (Bob) may require the excess amount be returned to him.  In the case, however, these facts were unclear.  The Fifth Circuit could not tell the true source of the funds.  So, it remanded the case to the district court for a determination of the true payor of the funds.  If the IRS can show that the corporation really paid the funds instead of the individual, then the IRS will be allowed to offset the funds.  If the individual can show that the money was his, then the IRS must return the money to him.

Filed Under: Employment Taxes, refund claim

Notes from the Fall 2019 ABA Tax Section Meeting

October 29, 2019 by Leave a Comment

From October 3 to 5 Les, Christine and I attended the tax section meeting in San Francisco.  We were each on different panels and we each enjoyed a delightful dinner cruise on the bay Friday night courtesy of tax procedure guru, Frank Agostino.  During the cruise the three of us had an in depth discussion with Frank about his latest ground-breaking tax procedure initiatives which we hope to highlight in coming posts.

For this post I intend to provide some of the information passed out during the update sessions in the Administrative Practice and Court Procedure Committees.  For anyone interested in more depth or more precision, it is possible to purchase audio tapes of the committee meetings from the tax section.

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Administrative Practice Committee

The discussion initially focused on Appeals and the Taxpayer First legislation seeking to create a more independent Appeals.  Apart from the legislation, Appeals issued a new conferencing initiative on September 19, 2019.  A request for comments on the new process went out. 

The presenter discussed the change to IRC 7803(e)(5)(A) and the right to a hearing in Appeals.  This change resulted from the Facebook case discussed here.  For those who do not remember the Facebook litigation, Chief Counsel denied Facebook the opportunity for a conference with Appeals after Facebook filed its Tax Court petition — even though Facebook had not met with Appeals prior to filing the petition.  The new provision will make it more difficult to deny a taxpayer the opportunity to meet with Appeals in this circumstance.

Another provision of the Taxpayer First Act, IRC 7803(e)(7)(A), grants taxpayers the right to their file 10 days in advance of a meeting with Appeals.  This provision has some income limitations but will generally benefit the vast majority of individual taxpayers.  It seems like a good step forward, though I would like the file much earlier than 10 days before the meeting, and I have had trouble getting it from Appeals in the past.  Some Appeals Officers (AOs) have denied my request for information in the administrative file, even though taxpayers have always had the right to this information.  If the case is in Tax Court, a Branerton letter to the Chief Counsel attorney will almost always result in that attorney calling the AO to tell the AO to send the material.  If you go to Appeals prior to Tax Court and have no Chief Counsel attorney to make this call, I wonder if the legislation will cause Appeals to take the position that a taxpayer cannot receive the material until 10 days prior to the meeting.  This would be a shame, because meetings are much more productive when parties can properly prepare.

The Taxpayer First Act also made changes to the ex parte provisions, set out in 7803(e)(6)(B), first enacted in 1998 as a means of insulating Appeals from the corrupting influence of other parts of the IRS.  The ex parte provisions were previously off-code but picked up by the IRS in a pair of Revenue Procedures describing how they would work.  The new provision allows Appeals to communicate with Chief Counsel’s office in order to obtain a legal opinion as it considers a matter, as long as the Chief Counsel attorney providing the advice was not previously involved in the case.  I don’t think this changes much.  Rev. Proc. 201218 already allowed attorneys in Chief Counsel to provide legal advice to Appeals.  Maybe this makes it clear that Appeals is not so independent that it cannot receive legal advice when it needs it, but it seemed that Chief Counsel and Appeals had already figured that out — even if some taxpayers criticized Appeals for obtaining legal advice.  Of course, when obtaining advice Appeals needs to seek out someone other than the attorney who was providing advice to Examination, in order to avoid having the attorney be the Trojan horse improperly influencing Appeals.

The panel mentioned Amazon v. Commissioner, 2019 U.S. App. Lexis 24453 (9th Cir. 2019). This is an important transfer pricing case clarifying what constitutes an “intangible” that must be valued and included in a buy-in payment to a cost-sharing arrangement between a parent company and its foreign subsidiary entity. The 9th Circuit panel affirmed the Tax Court, declining to apply Auer deference and holding that certain of Amazon’s abstract assets, like its goodwill, innovative culture, and valuable workforce, are not intangibles.

The committee also discussed Chief Counsel Notice CC-2019-006 “Policy Statement on Tax Regulatory Process” (9-17-2019).  A copy of the complete policy statement can be found here.   Each of the four points is important in its own way.  I find number three to be especially important.  We discussed the notice previously in a post here.

A few recent cases were mentioned as especially important to administrative practice:

Mayo Clinic v. United States, 124 AFTR2d 2019-5448 (D. Minn. 2019) provides the most recent interpretation of Mayo and what it means, in the context of whether Mayo Clinic was entitled to an exemption as an “educational organization” under Treas. Reg. § 1.170A-9(c).

Baldwin v. Commissioner, 921 F.3d 836 (9th Cir. 2019) is a mailbox rule case in which the taxpayer seeks to overrule National Cable & Telecommunications Association v. Brand X Internet Services, 545 U.S. 967 (2005).

Bullock v. IRS, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 126921 (D. Mont. 2019) is a pre-enforcement challenge to Rev. Proc. 2018-38 which relieves 501(c) organizations of the obligation to disclose the names and addresses of their donors.

Court Practice and Procedure Committee

Robin Greenhouse, who now heads Chief Counsel’s LB&I office, gave the report for Chief Counsel’s office.  She read from her notes and provided no PowerPoint presentation or handout material, so this time I cannot FOIA the PowerPoint presentation to provide the data.

She discussed two financial disability decisions which seems like an interesting place to begin.  First she mentioned Carter, as representative for Roper, v. United States, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 134035 at( N.D. Ala. 2019) in which the court determined that an estate cannot use 6511(h) to assert financial disability because an estate is not an individual.  I wrote a post on this case earlier in the fall.   Next she mentioned the case of Stauffer v. Internal Revenue Service, which I recently wrote about here.  I failed to make notes on the other cases she discussed and I cannot remember why.

Judge Marvel talked about the new Tax Court announcement on limited scope representation and the Chief Counsel Notice, CC-2020-001 on that issue.  During the first month of the fall Tax Court calendar four persons entered a limited appearance, including our own Christine Speidel.  The limited appearance ends when the calendar ends, making it not entirely clear what to do with a decision document.  Some suggested getting the decision document signed by the petitioner was the way to go.

So far the Tax Court has 18 pending passport cases.  Judge Marvel indicated that we might see the first opinion in a passport case soon.

Effective on September 30, 2019 the Tax Court has begun accepting electronic filing of stipulated decisions.  The practical effect of this is that because the IRS always signs the decision document last, it will be the party to submit the document.  I doubt this change will have a profound impact on Tax Court practice but, in general, more electronic filing is better.

Development of the Tax Court’s new case management system is moving quickly.  The court expects it to go online by Spring of 2020.  When implemented, this system will allow parties to file petitions electronically.  Judge Marvel expects that practitioners will like the new system.  The new system may allow changes to the public’s access to documents; however, whether and how that might happen is unclear.

Gil Rothenberg, the head of the Department of Justice Tax Division’s Appellate Section gave an update on things happening at DOJ.  He said there have been 75 FBAR cases filed since 2018 with over $85 million at issue.  Several FBAR cases are now on appeal – Norman (No. 18-02408) (oral argument held on October 4th) and Kimble (No. 19-1590) (oral argument to be scheduled) both in the Federal Circuit; Horowitz (No. 19-1280) (reply brief filed on July 18th) in the 4th Circuit and Boyd (No. 19-55585) (opening brief not yet filed) in the 9th Circuit.

Over 40 bankers and financial advisors have been charged with criminal activity in recent years and the government has collected over $10 billion in the past decade.  I credit a lot of the government’s success in this area to John McDougal discussed here but the Tax Division certainly deserves credit for this success as well.

DOJ has obtained numerous injunctions for unpaid employment taxes in the past decade.  It has brought over 60 injunction cases against tax preparers and obtained over 40 injunctions.  These cases take a fair amount of time and resource on the part of both the IRS and DOJ.  They provide an important bulwark against taxpayers who run businesses and repeatedly fail to pay their employment taxes.  Usually the IRS revenue officers turn to an injunction when the businesses have no assets from which to administratively collect.  We have discussed these cases here.  I applaud DOJ’s efforts to shut down the pyramiding of taxes.  Congress should look to provide a more efficient remedy, however, for addressing taxpayers who engage in this behavior.

He said that while tax shelter litigation was generally down, the Midco cases continued.  He mentioned Marshall v. Commissioner in the 9th Circuit (petition for rehearing en banc was denied on October 2nd) and Hawk v. Commissioner in the 6th Circuit (petition for certiorari was denied by the Supreme Court on October 7th).  We have discussed Midco cases in several posts written by Marilyn Ames.  These cases arise as transferee liability cases.  See our discussion of some past decisions here and here.  My hope is that the government will continue to prevail on these cases as the scheme generally serves as a way to avoid paying taxes in situations with large gains.  I wonder how many of these cases the IRS misses.

In Fiscal 2019 there were 200 appeals.  The government won 94% of the cases appealed by taxpayers and 56% of the cases appealed by the government.  I was naturally disappointed that he only talked about cases in which the government prevailed and did not discuss some of the larger losses such as the one in Myers v. Commissioner discussed here.

He briefly discussed the Supreme Court’s decision in Taggart v. Lorenzen, a bankruptcy case, in which the court held that the proper standard for holding the government in contempt for violating the discharge injunction required mens rea.  This followed the position of the amicus brief submitted by the Solicitor General. The Court declined to adopt the petitioner’s position, which would permit a finding of civil contempt against creditors who are aware of a discharge and intentionally take actions that violate the discharge order. The Court found this proposal to be administratively problematic for bankruptcy courts, distinguishing between the purpose and statutory language of bankruptcy discharge orders (which require mens rea) and automatic stays (which do not).

He ended by announcing that he will retire on November 1, 2019.

Filed Under: Employment Taxes, ex parte, FBAR, Financial Disability, Passport revocation, Qualified Offer
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