The Fifth Circuit Parts Ways with the Ninth Circuit Regarding the Non-Willful FBAR Penalty

January 5, 2022 by 1 Comment

We welcome guest blogger Andy Weiner today to provide insight on a very important case decided last year.  Professor Weiner teaches at Temple Law School where he directs their LLM program in Tax and, starting this fall, also directs their low income taxpayer clinic.  Prior to arriving at Temple, Professor Weiner spent more than a decade as an attorney in the Tax Division of the Department of Justice, initially in the Appellate Section, where he briefed and argued approximately 50 cases throughout the United States Courts of Appeals, and then at the trial level in the Court of Federal Claims Section. He received numerous distinguished service awards during his tenure.  Keith

In United States v. Bittner, the Fifth Circuit reckons with the crack down on hiding wealth offshore. At issue is the non-willful penalty in 31 U.S.C. § 5321(a)(5)(A) for failing to report interest in foreign financial accounts on an annual Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts known as an FBAR. The statute provides the Secretary of the Treasury “may impose a civil monetary penalty on any person who violates, or causes any violation of, any provision of section 5314 . . . not [to] exceed $10,000.” As explained by the Fifth Circuit, the case “hinges on what constitutes a ‘violation’ of section 5314: the failure to file an FBAR (as urged by Bittner) or the failure to report an account (as urged by the government).” Slip Op. at 13. On the surface, it’s a straightforward question of statutory interpretation, and not a particularly close one at that. It becomes more complicated, however, when you consider questions of purpose and fairness, which may help to explain why the Fifth Circuit and the Ninth Circuit split on the issue.

read more...

Bittner has spent most of his life in Romania. Between 1982 and 1990, he lived in the United States and became a citizen. He then returned to Romania and made a fortune as an investor. Through holding companies, Bittner controlled dozens of bank accounts in Romania, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. He did not file timely FBARs for 2007 to 2011 disclosing these accounts. The IRS imposed the maximum non-willful penalty of $10,000 regarding each account for each year. Bittner’s total penalty liability came to $1.77 million.

Bittner argued his liability should be capped at $50,000 based on his failure to file an FBAR for each of five years. As mentioned, that depends on what qualifies as a violation of 31 U.S.C. § 5314 subject to a penalty. Section 5314 states that the Secretary “shall require a resident or citizen of the United States . . . to keep records, file reports, or keep records and file reports, when the . . . person makes a transaction or maintains a relation for any person with a foreign financial agency.” By the Fifth Circuit’s reading, a person violates the statute according when he or she fails to report “a relation . . . with a foreign financial agency.” Bittner pointed out that the statute is not self-effectuating and that the implementing regulations require filing one FBAR that reports all applicable accounts. But that does not affect the meaning of the statute, as the Fifth Circuit explained: “Streamlining the process in this way, . . . cannot redefine the underlying reporting requirement imposed by section 5314.” Slip Op. at 17.

The Fifth Circuit also looked to the surrounding penalty provisions. Section 5321(a)(5) includes both a non-willful and a willful penalty, and the latter unquestionably treats each failure to report an account as a violation. Specifically, 31 U.S.C. § 5321(a)(5)(C) provides that “any person willfully violating, or willfully causing any violation of, any provision of section 5314” is subject to a maximum penalty equal to the greater of $100,000 or 50% of “the balance in the account at the time of the violation.” The reasonable cause exception to the non-willful penalty at 31 U.S.C. § 5321(a)(5)(B)(ii) likewise treats each failure to report an account as a violation, excusing “such violation” if “due to reasonable cause” and “the balance in the account at the time of the transaction was properly reported.” The same word in the definition of the non-willful penalty presumably bears the same meaning as it does in these related provisions.

The Fifth Circuit presents a compelling case based on the text of the statute that each failure to report a foreign bank account is a violation subject to a non-willful FBAR penalty. But why should Bittner, who maintained many foreign accounts ostensibly for legitimate business reasons and who did not willfully fail to report them on an FBAR, owe $1.77 million? Given the unintentional nature of the conduct, there’s little, if any, deterrence value to be gained. What then is the point of such significant penalty liability? The history of the non-willful penalty raises the prospect that it has outlived some of its usefulness.

The original FBAR reporting requirement in the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970 was enforced only by a willful penalty up to $100,000. In 2004, following a report by Treasury that perhaps hundreds of thousands of taxpayers were hiding wealth offshore and not filing FBARs, Congress increased the maximum willful penalty to 50% of the balance in an account not properly reported and added a non-willful penalty up to $10,000. Congress sought to make getting caught prohibitively expense and installed the non-willful penalty as a floor on the cost of non-compliance. Then, in 2010, Congress enacted the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, which required foreign banks to report account information of U.S. taxpayers. Bank reporting has proven much more efficient and effective at enforcing FBAR compliance and weakened the justification for the maximum non-willful penalty.

Still, the maximum penalty has its place, for example, as a proxy for taxes that the account holder avoided. Finding the appropriate balance is a matter of IRS discretion and the penalty mitigation guidelines at IRM 4.26.16-2. A person must cooperate with the examination and have a clean record in terms of prior FBAR penalty assessments, criminal activities, and civil tax fraud in any year of a non-willful FBAR violation. If these criteria are met, examiners are instructed to “limit the total mitigated penalties for each year to the statutory maximum for a single non-willful violation,” unless “in the examiner’s discretion . . . , the facts and circumstances of a case warrant a different penalty amount.” IRM 4.26.16.5.4.1 (06-24-2021). Among the factors an examiner should consider is “the harm caused by the FBAR violation,” i.e., lost tax revenue. IRM 4.26.16.5.2.1 (06-24-2021).

There is no indication why the IRS sought the maximum penalty liability against Bittner. The Fifth Circuit seemed to assume that Bittner’s liability was justified by “Congress’s central goal in enacting the BSA . . . to crack down on the use of foreign financial accounts to evade tax.” Slip Op. at 22. The Ninth Circuit in United States v. Boyd, 991 F.3d 1077 (2021), on the other hand, observed that Boyd amended her return to include income from her foreign bank accounts and proceeded to conclude that her non-willful penalty liability from failing to report 13 accounts in one year could not exceed $10,000. Tax avoidance (or the lack thereof) weighs heavily on courts notwithstanding that the relevant information is not necessarily disclosed in FBAR cases.

The lesson here for foreign account holders is to cooperate with an examination and pay the tax owed on income from foreign bank accounts. If the IRS does not mitigate the non-willful penalty liability, the account holder is in position to seize the higher equitable ground in court. The lesson for the IRS is to follow the mitigation guidelines and consider any departures from those rules carefully. The Supreme Court may take up Bittner to resolve the conflict with the Ninth Circuit, in which case I would expect it to affirm that each failure to report a foreign bank account is a violation of section 5314. But that will not end the debate over the appropriate level of non-willful penalty liability. To the contrary, the more the IRS has discretion, the more likely those disputes will endure.

Filed Under: Civil Penalties, FBAR, Offshore Disclosure Tagged With:

APA Offers No Avenue For Relief For Challenge to Offshore Transition Rules Penalty Regime

March 15, 2021 by Leave a Comment

Harrison v IRS, a recent opinion from the federal district court for the District of Columbia, nicely explains the relationship between the tax refund process, the Anti Injunction Act (AIA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). For good measure it also illustrates the uphill battle facing challenges based on violations of procedural due process. 

Harrison and spouse Sprinkle had lived abroad and maintained an undisclosed Swiss bank account. Like many with undisclosed assets and income they entered the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP).  IRS established OVDP in 2009, which allowed for the payment of a single miscellaneous penalty. In 2014, IRS implemented “Streamlined Domestic Procedures” (SDP) for individuals with unreported foreign accounts who were not in the OVDP plan and who certified that the failure to previously report their accounts was “non-willful. The SDP allowed for a lesser penalty rate than OVDP. IRS, through a FAQ, also established transition rules for people, like Harrison and Sprinkle, who were in OVDP but who wanted to transition to SDP. Unfortunately for Harrison and Sprinkle, IRS determined that their conduct was willful and thus they were not eligible for SDP. Following the denial of their application to SDP, they paid over $500,000 in back taxes and penalties as part of the OVDP. This led to their executing a closing agreement where they agreed that they would not file a refund suit. 

read more...

About two years after signing the closing agreement and paying the penalty and back taxes, they filed a suit challenging the IRS’s transition rules, claiming 1) that their promulgation without notice and comment violated the APA, 2) that the application of the transition rules to their circumstances violated the APA because it was arbitrary and capricious, 3) that the absence of procedural protections in the transition rules violated due process, and 4) that the closing agreement should be voided because they signed it under duress.

The government filed a motion to dismiss the suit. 

The opinion dealt with the APA claims first. The government argued that the court did not have jurisdiction to hear those claims because the FAQ was not final agency action and in any event the taxpayers had an alternative path to challenge the rules. The opinion did not reach the final agency action issue as it held that they had an alternate remedy via a refund suit. (Side note: in Scholl v Mnuchin, involving a similar APA challenge to the IRS’s illegal use of FAQs to bar the incarcerated from receiving pandemic relief/EIPs, a district court in CA held that the FAQ in that instance was final agency action, a conclusion buttressed by statements from Chief Counsel that the FAQs were all the guidance IRS would issue on the topic; see a post from Keith with a link to the district court’s order here).

One of the requirements for a court’s subject matter jurisdiction under the APA is that there is no adequate other remedy at law. The DC Circuit, like other courts, has held that a refund proceeding provides a cause of action for the recovery of taxes (and penalties) allegedly unlawfully or illegally collected.  As such, absent the closing agreement, Harrison and Sprinkle could have brought their APA claims in a refund proceeding.  But that that they entered into a closing agreement forbidding the filing of a refund suit did not mean that they had no other adequate remedy. As the court explained at note 4 “that Harrison and Sprinkle relinquished their right to file a refund suit by entering the Closing Agreement does not affect whether “no other remedy exists…. Parties cannot waive their way into federal jurisdiction where Congress has not granted it.” In other words, the closing agreement’s terms preventing them from filing a refund suit did not mean that that there was no adequate remedy at law. They could have brought their APA claims in a refund proceeding if they chose to not participate in the OVDP and agreed to pay whatever tax and penalty that awaited them following examination. They then could have filed a refund suit for the difference between the liability determined and what would have been owing under the streamlined procedures.

In finding that the refund procedures were an adequate remedy, the opinion notes that while Harrison and Sprinkle were asking the court to provide declaratory relief they were effectively asking for a refund.  Longtime readers of PT and other tax procedure nerds at this point might wonder why the government did not raise the AIA and Declaratory Judgment Act (DJA) as separate grounds for a bar to the suit. In fact, in Maze v IRS, a case I discussed in Important DC Circuit Opinion on Anti-Injunction Act and Offshore Disclosure Regime, the DC Circuit relied on the AIA and DJA to dismiss a similar challenge to the transition rules. The difference in this case, however, is that the taxpayers had fully paid the taxes and penalty, whereas in Maze the taxpayers had not fully paid the taxes and penalties. Yet the AIA analysis is instructive, because the AIA does not bar a suit if there is no adequate remedy at law, a similar inquiry under the APA. As the DC Circuit in Maze held that the refund procedures were adequate for AIA purposes, it was an easy leap for the district court to consider the same procedures adequate for APA purposes.

The opinion gave relatively short shrift to the argument that the closing agreement should be invalidated due to duress. The argument that Harrison and Sprinkle made was that the IRS’s denial of their request to use the transition rules amounted to their holding a sword of Damocles over their heads: 

The couple argues that their execution of the Closing Agreement was the improper product of duress because the “alternative [to signing] would be to face an examination with the prospect of devastating penalties by the same agency that already found [that they] willfully violated the law.”

That was not enough to rise to the level of duress. Informing a party about the possibility of legislatively mandated penalties is “no more coercive than informing a counterparty of the potential outcomes of litigation.”  While the IRS had rejected the couples’ non-willful certification if they had opted out of the OVDP and succeeded in later convincing the IRS or a court that their conduct was non-willful they would have paid substantially less. 

The opinion also rejected the claim that the transition procedures violated their procedural due process rights. The argument that the taxpayers made was that the same procedural infirmities that were underlying the claim that the rules violated the APA amounted to a constitutional infirmity under procedural due process principles. In rejecting that argument, the court acknowledged that under cases like Mathews v Eldridge, courts traditionally employ a test that weighs (1) “the private interest that will be affected by the official action;” (2) “the risk of an erroneous deprivation of such interest through the procedures used, and the probable value, if any, of additional or substitute procedural safeguards;” and (3) “the Government’s interest, including the function involved and the fiscal and administrative burdens that the additional or substitute procedural requirement would entail.” Usually, as the court notes, this requires a right to a pre-deprivation hearing. Pointing to cases that have treated tax as exceptional in procedural due process claims (a line of cases I discuss in a recent essay published in the Pittsburgh Tax Review issue highlighting Nina’s time as NTA), the court held that the ability to access post deprivation refund proceedings was constitutionally sufficient, and not a denial of due process.

Conclusion 

The upshot of this case is that the IRS’s actions and rules that it published in the FAQ are immune from judicial challenge under the APA. The needle can still be thread: if someone else  has fully paid and is not subject to a closing agreement they could bring a refund suit in federal court and get a court to consider the merits of the APA challenge. 

It of course is somewhat odd to think of an FAQ as a rule for APA purposes. Yet a “rule,” is defined rather broadly to include any “agency statement of general or particular applicability and future effect designed to implement, interpret, or prescribe law or policy or describing the organization, procedure, or practice requirements of an agency.”  Whether the rule is subject to notice and comment requirements, as Harrison and Sprinkle claimed, will have to wait another litigant. 

The case also highlights one of the big policy issues at play in the upcoming CIC Services v IRS case in the Supreme Court.  Will CIC Services, as some have argued, open the door for pre-enforcement challenges to rulemaking? Or will litigants like Harrison and Sprinkle continue to have to shoehorn APA claims into existing tax enforcement proceedings?

Filed Under: Administrative Procedure Act (APA), Offshore Disclosure

Grinches, Liechtenstein Royal Princes, Bankers, Toymakers (and Offshore Evasion): A Holiday Summons Tale

December 8, 2016 by 3 Comments

In today’s post returning guest blogger Dave Breen, the acting Director of Villanova’s Low Income Taxpayer Clinic, discusses the case of Greenfield v US. The issue in the case relates to the IRS’s cat and mouse game of finding assets and the unreported income from those assets that citizens have parked in offshore accounts. The issue in these cases does not generally involve much tax law.  The battle is won and lost on the issue of information.  If the IRS gets the information, the taxpayer generally loses.  Summons work is key and the Greenfield case is a major development.  For many years, Dave worked with IRS attorney John McDougal, whose retirement I wrote about last week.  In the spirit of the season, Dave recounts the story of the case and its implications.  Keith

A recent IRS setback in a summons enforcement case out of the Second Circuit piqued my interest, because I spent the final twelve years of my career in IRS Counsel working on IRS’s offshore initiatives addressing tax evasion through the use of offshore accounts in tax secrecy jurisdictions.  My take on this recent case is that taxpayers and some practitioners may believe that the era of IRS investigating offshore tax evasion has run its course.  I think this case does just the opposite.  The Court’s decision demonstrates that much of IRS’s data on offshore tax evasion is dated – possibly even too old to be of any value – but I also suspect that IRS has come to the same conclusion.  Rather than moving on to other areas of non-compliance though, I suspect IRS at this moment is developing more tools to secure the next wave of current information on offshore tax evasion.  This does not bode well for taxpayers who so far have avoided IRS’s inquiry into their offshore holdings.

read more...

A bit of history

In 2000 IRS used permission to use John Doe summonses to secure information on U.S. taxpayers who accessed funds in their secret offshore accounts through American Express and Mastercard credit cards.  IRS’s first major success occurred in 2002 when the U.S. District Court entered an order requiring American Express to comply with IRS’s John Doe summons.  The information IRS received pursuant to this summons provided the data for what became known as the Offshore Credit Card Project.  Rather than go into the specifics, I refer readers to Keith Fogg’s 2012 Villanova Law review article Go West: How the IRS Should Foster Innovation in Its Agents. Subsequent offshore initiatives relied on data secured through John Doe summonses to UBS and other foreign banks, information received from whistleblowers, and information provided by taxpayers applying to one of IRS’s voluntary disclosure programs.

Despite the success in securing records identifying offshore tax evaders, the quality of the information IRS received was sometimes problematic, because it was out of date or incomplete.  For example, when a federal judge in Miami ordered compliance with the aforementioned John Doe summons in 2002, it only covered records for tax years 1998 and 1999 – “old years” in IRS parlance. Further, information received often did not dove-tail with IRS’s information.  IRS is driven by social security number, name, and to a lesser extent, last known address.  Credit card data is driven by credit card number and billing address.  This created a mismatch.  Once IRS received the summoned information it took many months to link a specific taxpayer to a particular offshore account through a credit card, assemble the case, and assign it to an agent specially trained in examining offshore transactions.  The IRM discourages IRS from beginning examinations of “old” tax years – generally those returns beyond the most recent two tax years – unless there are compelling reasons.  IRS prefers to examine more current tax years where plenty of time remains on the 3 year statute of limitations under IRC §  6501(a).   Although the 1998 and 1999 credit card data was sufficient to prove a taxpayer had a foreign bank account in 1998 or 1999, the information was not particularly helpful in proving how much income was unreported in those years or whether there was unreported income in later, more current years.

As a result, examiners assigned to these early cases often had to issue administrative summonses under IRC § 7602 to taxpayers for their most recent foreign bank account records to secure foreign account information for years after 1999.  The Department of Justice, which handles summons enforcement matters before the U.S. District Courts for IRS, has been extremely successful in securing orders enforcing these summonses, but the process takes time.  During this long process the data gets older and has diminishing value to IRS.  Proof that the data has a limited shelf life was recently demonstrated in a summons enforcement case.

Greenfield decision

In August 2016 the Second Circuit placed a speed bump along IRS’s road to identifying offshore tax evasion with dated information.  In United States v Greenfield, 118 AFTR 2d 2016-5275 (2016) the court vacated the District Court’s order enforcing an IRS summons and remanded the case for further proceedings consistent with its opinion.  The case is noteworthy for several reasons, but most importantly I see this as a wake-up call for IRS as well as a reminder to offshore tax evaders that IRS continues to pursue offshore tax evasion rigorously.

In the spirit of the holiday season, I offer the following tale.

Once upon a time there was a toy maker named Harvey Greenfield, his son, Steven, and their toy shop, Commonwealth Toy, Inc.  We also have a Grinch, Heinrich Kieber, whose job was to copy, file, and safeguard records at Liechtenstein Global Trust (LGT) a financial institution owned by the Liechtenstein royal family.  One day, while tending to his copying duties at the bank, Mr. Kieber decided to press “2” instead of “1” and make an extra copy of records that identified individuals who banked (translate: “hid their untaxed income”) at LGT.  Kieber, playing “Secret Santa”, offered the documents to several nations.  Many told him to “go Fish,” while other countries, including the U.S. did not.  The U.S. found the information to be very helpful in finding out who was naughty and who was nice. Needless to say, Mr. Kieber’s decision did not make him any new friends among the 38,000 residents of Liechtenstein.  He was charged with theft of information under Liechtenstein law and promptly went into hiding, leaving a trail of Angry Birds in his wake.  Like the Cabbage Patch doll you stood 3 hours in line to buy for your daughter in 1983, his whereabouts today are unknown.

Back to the Greenfields.  Several of Kieber’s cache of confiscated documents tied Steven and Harvey to certain offshore entities that had been used, or were being used, to evade taxation.  It just so happens that at this time the U.S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations had begun hearings in response to the LGT disclosure and a similar leak from the Swiss bank, UBS.  Harvey died in 2009, leaving Steven as primary beneficiary of the LGT holdings.  PSI twice invited Steven to come in and talk about LGT, Liechtenstein, and foreign accounts in general.  The first time Steven failed to appear.  PSI was not too pleased with being stood up for its Mystery Date with Steven, so they invited him again.  The second time he appeared but asserted his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent.

Enter the IRS, who decided to audit Steven’s 1040’s for 2005 – 2011.  But there was a snag.  Kieber did not copy everything about the Greenfields – just enough to identify them as beneficial owners controlling the funds in the offshore accounts.  These documents included some memos, a 2001 year-end statement for their Maverick Foundation (a stiftung, under Liechtenstein law), LGT account information forms for Maverick and two entities it owned, and a 2001 LGT profile for Maverick and another company.  Of particular interest to IRS was a March 23, 2001 memorandum prepared by LGT personnel, detailing a meeting in Liechtenstein between the Greenfields, LGT employees, and Prince Philip of Liechtenstein.  The memo stated in part:

“The clients are very careful and eager to dissolve the Trust with the Bank of Bermuda leaving behind as few traces as possible. The clients received indications from other institutions as well that U.S. citizens are not those clients that one wishes for in offshore business.”

Great stuff, but not enough for IRS to determine how much tax was owed.  IRS didn’t have a Clue as to Steven’s gross income.  To fill in the considerable gaps in information, IRS issued an administrative summons to Steven for records and testimony.  After discussions with Steven’s counsel regarding the breadth of the summons, IRS reduced its scope to the production of documents related to foreign entities to the 2001 through 2006 tax years.

Greenfield refused to comply with the “kinder, gentler” version of the IRS summons.  Convinced that this was no Trivial Pursuit, IRS refused to Lego of the issue and brought suit to enforce yet another less expansive version of the original summons in district court.  Steven wasn’t having any of that one either and defended by invoking his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent.

General Summons Law and Greenfield

Generally, a Fifth Amendment right to remain silent is not effective for documents because contents of documents are not testimonial.  Fisher v. United States, 425 U.S. 391 (1976).  However, while Fisher held that documents were not testimony, the Court held that the act of producing the documents could be testimonial, because it may communicate incriminatory statements of fact.  For example, if the only person with access to offshore bank statements is the person who controls the funds in them, the person coming to court with the bank statements is essentially saying (testifying or admitting), “The documents you want exist, I control them, they are authentic, and here they are.”  This is the “act of production” defense Steven raised.  But the Ping-Pong game did not end there.

The government’s comeback to the “act of production” defense is the “foregone conclusion” rule.  If the testimonial aspects of production are a “foregone conclusion”, that is, if the government can establish the “existence, control, and authenticity” of the records independent of the witness’s production of them, the act of producing them loses its testimonial nature.  But the government must be ready to establish independently that the documents exist, the witness controls them, and they are authentic.

Based on the record, the Court found the Government met the first two tests: it accepted the existence of the documents in 2001 and Greenfield’s control of them in 2001.  It was not so willing, however, to accept their authenticity and turned to the Government to establish the third prong of the test.

The Government elves had their work cut out for them.  They went back to their workshop and crafted several arguments with respect to the authenticity of the 2001 records. It put on its Poker face and argued that the 2001 documents could be authenticated in three ways: (1) an LGT employee could come to the United States and authenticate them in court; (2) Kieber himself could come out of hiding and authenticate them; or (3) authentication was possible through Letters of Request issued under the Hague Evidence Convention.

The Second Circuit wasn’t buying any of the Government’s arguments.  First, the Court found it unlikely that LGT would send a witness to the United States to authenticate the records.  Secondly, it was highly unlikely Kieber, who was in hiding, would do it; and (3) the Government could not show a single instance where Letters of Request issued under the Hague Evidence Convention had been used to authenticate documents from LGT or any other Liechtenstein financial institution in the past.  Why would the Government think it would work in this case?

The Court didn’t stop there.  Assuming arguendo that the Government passed the 2001 hurdle, it would still have to show that the documents existed and that Steven controlled them in 2013, twelve years later.  Existence and control in 2001 does not create an inference of existence and control in 2013.  Factors such as the type of records, the likelihood of transfer to another person, and the time interval involved all bear on the matter.  In rejecting the Government’s arguments the Court found any number of reasons why Steven may not have had a Monopoly on control of the records from 2001 to 2013 or that the documents still existed in 2013.  Therefore, the Court did not enforce most of the summons and Steven did not have to produce the records.

Conclusion

But before you settle your brains for a long winter’s nap, think about this.  Even though Steven may have sunk IRS’s Battleship, today IRS is not in any immediate Trouble.  In fact, it is already working on a new Mousetrap.  On November 30, 2016 IRS received permission to issue a John Doe summons to Coinbase, Inc., a virtual currency exchanger headquartered in San Francisco, California, that Les discussed last month in his post IRS Seeks Information via John Doe Summons Request on Bitcoin Users.  

The moral of the story?  Uno’s?  I suspect many clients with assets hidden offshore will still take a big Risk by not coming in under IRS’s voluntary disclosure program, but you don’t have to be a Mastermind to see that many of them will ultimately be Sorry.  But, I guess that’s The Game of Life.  Happy Holidays!

 

 

 

Filed Under: Offshore Disclosure, Summons Tagged With:

Retirement of a Friend and Driver Behind the IRS Offshore Program

December 1, 2016 by 6 Comments

Today, the IRS is honoring John McDougal, a special trial attorney based in Richmond, Virginia, with a retirement ceremony in the grand foyer of its national office at 1111 Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C.  I cannot remember another person honored in this way who was not an executive in the organization.  I also cannot imagine a more deserving person for the IRS to honor.

In January, 1980, I moved into the office adjacent to John’s in the Richmond District Counsel Office of IRS.  How fortunate I was.  For almost 30 years I had John as my next door neighbor or nearby neighbor at work.  To have the opportunity to work next to the greatest attorney in all of Chief Counsel’s office certainly made me a better attorney.

read more...

Before recounting some of the amazing things John accomplished in his 43 years with Chief Counsel’s Office, I want to go back to the beginning of his tenure and talk about his sleep habits.  John is a night owl.  He does not stay up late to party but he has a bio rhythm that keeps him up into the wee hours of the morning and causes him to want to sleep into the later morning hours.  Today, many employers accommodate personal preferences and rhythms of this type but in the 1970s the world was a much more rigid place.

The official hours of the Richmond office were 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM.  In an effort to accommodate John’s schedule, the head of the Richmond office allowed employees to arrive by 9:00 AM before being charged with annual leave.  Each morning when they arrived for work, the office secretaries would begin calling John’s home in an effort to wake him up so that he could arrive by 9:00 AM.  On many days their efforts failed.  John would arrive at 9:05 AM or later and get charged one hour of annual leave.  He would then stay at the office and work each evening until 9, 10 or 11:00 PM; however, the office had no system of credit hours or comp time to accommodate this deviation from the official schedule and so John worked for several years with no ability to take a vacation because he used all of his leave time arriving late.

John, however, did not complain.  Finally, in the 1980s the office evolved into a form of work flexibility that accommodated John’s bio rhythms and allowed him to take vacations.  I tell this story in part because it is amazing in 2016 to imagine such a work world that would treat its most valued and hard- working employee in such a poor manner but also to make John human since John’s performance as an attorney and a colleague set such a high standard.

At his core, John is a great trial lawyer.  He loves to put a case together and to present it.  He has had many Tax Court trials over his career and taught trial practice skills at Chief Counsel and NITA programs.  He does not, however, love cases involving huge corporations that might take years to develop, teams of lawyers to assemble and lots of national office coordination.  He prefers fact intensive cases and especially fraud cases.  To my knowledge, he is the only special trial attorney in the SBSE stovepipe of Chief Counsel’s office because that designation was reserved for attorneys in the LB&I stovepipe until one Chief Counsel, who had litigated against John before becoming the Chief Counsel, reached out and gave John that designation in recognition of his ability.

In the 1980s John was assigned to a pilot program with the Department of Justice (DOJ) to handle criminal tax cases as a Special Assistant United States Attorney.  About eight attorneys from Chief Counsel offices around the country joined this program.  I believe that John was the only one who actually tried criminal cases.  During the 1980s and 1990s, he tried over 30 criminal cases while continuing to handle a heavy docket of Tax Court cases and advisory work in the office.  This was made possible by his skill, his organization and his hard work.

He went on a special assignment to the Virgin Island tax authority for several months, he went on assignment to the Senate’s Permanent Sub-Committee on Investigations for over a year and he was assigned to assist the Tax Court in handling a disciplinary hearing.

He traveled to the federal prison in Allenwood to try the Tax Court fraud case of master spy Aldrich Ames.  At the request of Washington District Counsel he tried the fraud case of Grossman v. Commissioner I discussed in a post recently.  He picked up a large fraud case on transfer from me where he tried it and won it and then convinced DOJ to have a receiver appointed in Florida to manage the assets of the taxpayer who had hidden them in many far flung ways, including offshore, and he worked with the receiver for over a decade to collect income from and sell the properties.  While working on that same case, he was stabbed and robbed late one night in Tampa but made it to work the following Monday where he showed his scar ala LBJ.  He created the theory that fraud on the tax return by anyone should hold open the statute of limitations and fought hard with the national office to convince it of the correctness of his theory which we have discussed here.

There are many other highlights of his career but I want to focus on his crowning achievement.  All of these special assignments together with his work in Tax Court and district court trials prepared him for his greatest assignment – working on the offshore credit card project and all that followed.

In 2000 when the IRS reorganized, all of the new divisions wanted John because of his reputation as a great attorney but he chose SBSE due to his desire for the types of cases it handled.  At almost that same time Revenue Agent Joe West in New Jersey had figured out how to find taxpayers hiding their assets offshore by obtaining credit card records in the United States.  John got paired to work with Joe and the world of taxpayers parking money offshore was turned upside down.  Though John was by no means the sole force behind the IRS efforts to break through the world of secrecy and offshore parking of assets to avoid taxes, John was a major force in this effort.  With the depth of knowledge he acquired earlier in his career and the penchant for hard work he always had, he played an important role for the past 16 years in changing the offshore landscape.  Through his efforts the IRS has collected billions of dollars.  It is hard to imagine an IRS attorney with greater impact over this time period than John.

As the IRS says farewell to a great attorney, I write to say thanks to a friend and colleague who taught me so much and who helped me in so many ways.

Filed Under: miscellaneous, Offshore Disclosure

Summary Opinions through 12/18/15

January 14, 2016 by 1 Comment

Sorry for the technical difficulties over the last few days.   We are glad to be back up and running, and hopefully won’t have any other hosting issues in the near future.

December had a lot of really interesting tax procedure items, many of which we covered during the month, including the PATH bill.  Below is the first part of a two part Summary Opinions for December.  Included below are a recent case dealing with Section 6751(b)(1) written approval of penalties, a PLR dealing with increasing carryforward credits from closed years , an update on estate tax closing letters, reasonable cause with foundation taxes, an update on the required record doctrine, and various other interesting tax items.

read more...

  • In December, PLR 201548006 was issued regarding whether an understated business credit for a closed year could be carried forward with the correct increased amounts for an open year.  The taxpayer was a partner in a partnership and shareholder in an s-corp.  The conclusion was that the corrected credit could be carried forward based on Mennuto v. Comm’r, 56 TC 910, which had allowed the Service to recalculate credits for a closed year to ascertain the correct tax in the open year.
  • IRS has issued web guidance regarding closing letters for estate tax returns, which can be found here.  This follows the IRS indicating that closing letters will only be issued upon taxpayer request (and then every taxpayer requesting a closing letter).  My understanding from other practitioners is that the transcript request in this situation has not worked well.  And, some states will not accept this as proof the Service is done with its audit.  Many also feel it is not sufficient to direct an executor to make distributions.  Seems as those most are planning on just requesting the letters.
  • Models and moms behaving badly (allegedly).  Bar Refaeli and her mother have been arrested for tax fraud in Israel.  The Israeli taxing authority claims that Bar told her accountant that she resided outside of Israel, while she was living in homes within the country under the names of relatives.  Not model behavior.
  • The best JT (sorry Mr. Timberlake and Jason T.), Jack Townsend, has a post on his Federal Tax Procedure Blog on the recent Brinkley v. Comm’r case out of the Fifth Circuit, which discusses the shift of the burden of proof under Section 7491.
  • PMTA 2015-019 was released providing the government’s position on two identity theft situations relating to validity of returns, and then sharing the return information to the victims.  The issues were:

1. Whether the Service can treat a filed Business Masterfile return as a nullity when the return is filed using a stolen EIN without the knowledge of the EIN’s owner.

2. Whether the Service can treat a filed BMF return as a nullity when the EIN used on the return was obtained by identifying the party with a stolen name and SSN…

4. Whether the Service may disclose information about a potentially fraudulent business or filing to the business that purportedly made the filing or to the individual who signed the return or is identified as the “responsible party” when the Service suspects the “responsible party” or business has no knowledge of the filing.

And the conclusions were:

1. The Service may treat a filed BMF return as a nullity when a return is filed using a stolen EIN without the permission or knowledge of the EIN’s owner because the return is not a valid return.

2. The Service may treat a filed BMF return as a nullity when the EJN used on the return was obtained by using a stolen name for Social Security Number for the business’s responsible person. The return is not a valid return.

  • Back in 2014, SCOTUS decided Clark v. Rameker, which held that inherited IRAs were not retirement accounts under the bankruptcy code, and therefore not exempt from creditors.  In Clark, the petitioners made the claim for exemption under Section 522(b)(3)(C) of the Bankruptcy Code for the inherited retirement account, and not the state statute (WI, where petitioner resided, allowed the debtor to select either the federal exemptions or the state exemptions).  End of story for those using federal exemptions, but some states allow selection like WI between state or federal exemptions, while others have completely opted out of the federal exemptions, such as Montana.  A recent Montana case somewhat follows Clark, but based on the different Montana statute.  In In Re: Golz, the Bankruptcy Court determined that a chapter 7 debtor’s inherited IRA was not exempt from creditors.  The Montana law states:

individual retirement accounts, as defined in 26 U.S.C. 408(a), to the extent of deductible contributions made before the suit resulting in judgment was filed and the earnings on those contributions, and Roth individual retirement accounts, as defined in 26 U.S.C. 408A, to the extent of qualified contributions made before the suit resulting in judgment was filed and the earnings on those contributions.

The BR Court, relying on a November decision of the MT Supreme Court, held that an inherited IRA did not qualify based on the definition under the referenced Code section of retirement account.  I believe opt-out states cannot restrict exemption of retirement accounts beyond what is found under Section 522, but it might be possible to expand the exemption (speculation on my part).   Here, the MT statute did not broaden the definition to include inherited IRAs.

  • In August, we covered US v. Chabot, where the 3rd Circuit agreed with all other circuits in holding the required records doctrine compels bank records to be provided over Fifth Amendment challenges.  SCOTUS has declined to review the Circuit Court decision.
  • PLR 201547007 is uncool (technical legal term).   The PLR includes a TAM, which concludes reasonable cause holdings for abatement of penalties are not precedent (and perhaps not persuasive) for abating the taxable expenditure tax on private foundations under Section 4945(a)(1).  The foundation in question had assistance from lawyers and accountants in all filing and administrative requirements, and those professionals knew all relevant facts and circumstances.  The foundation apparently failed to enter into a required written agreement with a donee, and may not have “exercised expenditures responsibly” with respect to the donee.  This caused a 5% tax to be imposed, which was paid, and a request for abatement due to reasonable cause was filed.  Arguments pointing to abatement of penalties (such as Section 6651 and 6656) for reasonable cause were made.  The Service did not find this persuasive, and makes a statutory argument against allowing reasonable cause which I did not find compelling.  The TAM indicates that the penalty sections state the penalty is imposed “unless it is shown that such failure is due to reasonable cause and not due to willful neglect.”  That language is also found regarding Section 4945(a)(2), but not (1), the first tier tax on the foundation.  That same language is found, however, under Section 4962(a), which allows for abatement if the event was due to reasonable cause and not to willful neglect, and such event was corrected within a reasonable period.  Service felt that Congress did not intend abatement to apply to (a)(1), or intended a different standard to apply, because reasonable cause language was included only in (a)(2).  I would note, however, that Section 4962 applies broadly to all first tier taxes, but does specify certain taxes that it does not apply to.  Congress clearly selected certain taxes for the section not to apply, and very easily could have included (a)(1) had it intended to do so.

I’m probably devoting too much time to this PLR/TAM, but it piqued my interest. The Service also stated that the trust cannot rely on the lack of advice to perform certain acts as advice that such acts are not necessary.  I am not sure how the taxpayer would know he or she was not receiving advice if it asked the professionals to ensure all distributions were proper and all filings handled.  I can hear the responses (perhaps from Keith) that this is a difficult question, and perhaps the lawyer or accountant should be responsible.  I understand, but have a hard time getting behind the notion that a taxpayer must sue someone over missed paperwork when the system is so convoluted.  Whew, I was blowing so hard, I almost fell off my soapbox.

  • This is more B.S. than the tax shelters Jack T. is always writing about.  TaxGirl has created her list of 100 top tax twitter accounts you must follow, which can be found here. Lots of great accounts that we follow from writers we love, but PT was not listed (hence the B.S.).  It stings twice as much, as we all live within 20 miles of TaxGirl, and we sometimes contribute to Forbes, where she is now a full time writer/editor.  Thankfully, Prof. Andy Gerwal appears to be starting a twitter war against TaxGirl (or against CPAs because Kelly included so many CPAs and so few tax professors).  We have to throw our considerable backing and resources behind Andy, in what we assume will be a brutal, rude, explicit, scorched earth march to twitter supremacy.  We are excited about our first twitter feud, even if @TaxGirl doesn’t realize we are in one.
  • This doesn’t directly relate to tax procedure or policy, but it could be viewed as impacting it, and we reserved the right to write about whatever we want.  Here is a blog post on the NYT Upshot blog on how we perceive the economy, how we delude ourselves to reinforce our political allegiances (sort of like confirmation bias), and how money can change that all.

Filed Under: Abatement, Bankruptcy, Burden of Proof, Exam, Fraud, ID Theft, Offshore Disclosure, Reasonable Cause

Summary Opinions for November

December 22, 2015 by 1 Comment

1973_GMC_MotorhomeHere is a summary of some of the other tax procedure items we didn’t otherwise cover in November.  This is heavy on tax procedure intersecting with doctors (including one using his RV to assist his practice).  Also, important updates on the AICPA case, US v. Rozbruch, and the DOJ focusing on employment withholding issues.

read more...

I’ve got a bunch of Jack Townsend love to start SumOp.  He covered a bunch of great tax procedure items last month.  No reason for me to do an inferior write up, when I can just link him.  First is his coverage of the Dr. Bradner conviction for wire fraud and tax evasion found on Jack’s Federal Tax Crime’s blog.  Why is this case interesting?  Because it seems like this Doc turned his divorce into some serious tax crimes, hiding millions offshore.  He then tried to bring the money back to the US, but someone in the offshore jurisdiction had flipped on him, and Homeland Security seized the funds ($4.6MM – I should have become a plastic surgeon!).  His ex is probably ecstatic that the Feds were able to track down some marital assets.   I am sure that will help keep her in the standard of living she has become accustom to.

  • I know I’ve said this before, but you should really follow Jack Townsend’s blogs.  From his Federal Tax Procedure Blog, a write up of the Second Circuit affirming the district court in United States v. Rozbruch.  Frank Agostino previously wrote up the district court case for us with his associates Brian Burton and Lawrence Sannicandro.  That post, entitled, Procedural Challenges to Penalties: Section 6751(b)(1)’s Signed Supervisory Approval Requirement can be found here.  Those gents are pretty knowledgeable about this topic, as they are the lawyers for the taxpayer. As Jack explains, the Second Circuit introduces a new phrase, “functional satisfaction” (sort of like substantial compliance) as a way to find for the IRS in a case considering the application of Section 6751(b) to the trust fund recovery penalty.
  • The Tax Court in Trumbly v. Comm’r  has held that sanctions could not be imposed against the Service under Section 6673(a)(2) where the settlement officer incorrectly declared the administrative record consisted of 88 exhibits that were supposed to be attached to the declaration but were not actually attached.  The Chief Counsel lawyer failed to realize the issue, and forwarded other documents, claiming it was the record.  The Court held that the Chief Counsel lawyer failed to review the documents closely, and did not intentionally forward incorrect documents.  The Court did not believe the actions raised to the level of bad faith (majority position), recklessness or another lesser degree of culpability (minority position).  Not a bad result from failing to review your file!
  • This isn’t that procedure related, but I found the case interesting, and I’ve renamed the Tax Court case Cartwright v. Comm’r as “Breaking Bones”.  Dr. Cartwright, a surgeon, used a mobile home as his “mobile office” parked in the hospital parking lot.  He didn’t treat people in his mobile home (which is good, because that could seem somewhat creepy), but he did paperwork and research while in the RV.  Cartwright attempted to deduct expenses related to the RV, including depreciation.  The Court found that the deductions were allowable, but only up to the percentages calculated by the Service for business use verse personal use.  I’m definitely buying an Airstream and taking Procedurally Taxing on the road (after we find a way to monetize this).
  • The IRS thinks you should pick your tax return preparer carefully (because it and Congress have created a monstrosity of Code and Regs, and it is pretty easy for preparers to steal from you).
  • Les wrote about AICPA defending CPA turf in September.  In the post, he discussed the actions the AICPA has been taking, including the oral argument in its case challenging the voluntary education and testing regime.  As Les stated:

The issue on appeal revolves whether the AICPA has standing to challenge the plan in court rather than the merits of the suit. The panel and AICPA’s focus was on so-called competitive standing, which essentially gives a hook for litigants to challenge an action in court if the litigant can show an imminent or actual increase in competition as a result of the regulation.

On October 30th, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia reversed the lower court, and held that the AICPA had standing to challenge the IRS’s Annual Filing Season Program, where the IRS created a voluntary program to somewhat regulate unenrolled return preparers.  The Court found the AICPA had “competitive standing”, which Les highlighted in his post as the argument the Court seemed to latch on to.   For more info on this topic, those of you with Tax Notes subscriptions can look to the November 2nd article, “AICPA Has Standing to Challenge IRS Return Preparer Program”.  Les was quoted in the post, discussing the underlying reasons for the challenge.

  • Service issued CCA 201545017 which deals with a fairly technical timely (e)mailing is timely (e)filing issue with an amended return for a corporation that was rejected from electronic filing and the corporation subsequently paper filed.  The corporation was required to efile the amended return pursuant to Treas. Reg. 301.6011-5(d)(4). Notice 2010-13 outlines the procedure for what should occur if a return is rejected for efiling to ensure timely mailing/timely filing, and requires contacting the Service, obtaining assistance, and then eventually obtaining a waiver from efiling.  There is a ten day window for this to occur.  The corporation may have skipped some of the required steps and just paper filed.  The Service found this was timely filing, and skipping the steps in the notice was not fatal.  The Service did note, however, that efiling for the year in question was no longer available, so the intermediate steps were futile.  A paper return would have been required.  It isn’t clear if the Service would have come to the same conclusion if efiling was possible.
  • Sticking with CCAs, in November the IRS also released CCA 201545016 dealing with when the IRS could reassess abated assessment on a valid return where the taxpayer later pled guilty to filing false claims.   The CCA is long, and has a fairly in depth tax pattern discussed, covering whether various returns were valid (some were not because the jurat was crossed out), and whether income was excessive when potentially overstated, and therefore abatable.  For the valid returns, where income was overstated, the Service could abate under Section 6404, but the CCA warned that the Service could not reassess unless the limitations period was still open, so abatement should be carefully considered.

 

 

Filed Under: Abatement, Assessment, Fraud, Offshore Disclosure, Penalty approval, Return, Return Preparer Regulation, Tax Court, Timely Mailing

Summary Opinions for the week of 05/01/15

May 22, 2015 by 2 Comments

Happy Memorial Day weekend!  We won’t be posting on Monday, but will probably be back in full force on Tuesday.  I know we have a handful of guest posts coming up on really interesting topics and I’m certain Keith and Les have some insightful things to add following ABA.

In the week of May the 1st, we welcomed first time guest poster, Marilyn Ames, who wrote on NorCal Tea Party Patriots v. IRS and disclosure of return information.

Here are the other procedure items from that week:

read more...

  • A recent Tax Court decision brought back the analysis used by the Supreme Court almost 20 years ago on a similar but slightly distinct fact pattern.  The situation can be tough to follow at first because it plays out at the intersection of Sections 6511 and 6512.  It also involves reliance on the earlier Supreme Court decision which caused a change to Section 6512 after it was decided.  In Butts v. Comm’r, the Tax Court denied taxpayers’ request for refund as being untimely.  The taxpayers failed to file in ’07 and ’08.  In 2011 (and 2012), SNODs were issued for 2007 and 2008, and later that year the taxpayer filed for review in the Tax Court.  In 2013, taxpayers filed joint returns, claiming overpayment due to employer withholdings.  The Court stated SCOTUS reviewed an almost identical case in Lundy v. Comm’r.   The issue in both cases was if the refund amount was allowed under Section 6512(b)(3), which allows refunds of any amount paid:

(A) after the mailing of the notice of deficiency;

(B) within the period which would be applicable under section 6511(b)(2), (c), or (d), if on the date of the mailing of the notice of deficiency a claim had been filed (whether or not filed) stating the grounds upon which the Tax Court finds that there is an overpayment; or

(C) within the period which would be applicable under section 6511(b)(2), (c), or (d), in respect of any claim for refund filed within the applicable period specified in section 6511 and before the date of the mailing of the notice of deficiency.

Based on the facts in Butts and Lundy, (A) and (C) do not apply.  In Lundy, SCOTUS stated it considered:

the look-back period for obtaining a refund of overpaid taxes in the…Tax Court under 26 USC 6512(b)(3)(B), and decide[d] whether the Tax Court can awarded a refund of taxes paid more than two years prior to the date on which the [IRS] mailed the taxpayer a notice of deficiency, when, on the date the notice of deficiency was mailed, the taxpayer had not yet filed a return.  We hold that in these circumstances the 2-year look-back period in 6513(b)(3)(B) applies, and the Tax Court lacks jurisdiction to award a refund.

One difference in Butts and Lundy is that in Lundy the taxpayer made its request within three years of the filing date, whereas in Butts the request was made more than three years after the filing date.  Based on a prior version of the statute, Lundy was precluded from obtaining a refund because it was outside of two years and there was not a reference to the three year statute applicable. Section 6512(b)(3) was modified in 1997 by Congress, and now the minimum statute of limitations would be the three years from the filing date.

In Butts, under Section 6512(b)(3)(B), the Court stated it must look to the mailing date of the SNOD as a hypothetical claim date and determine if a timely claim could have been made then based on Section 6511.  This requires a review of the two year statute from the date of taxes paid, and three years from the due date of the return.  The withholdings for 2007 were treated as having been paid on April 15, 2008, while the initial SNOD was issued in June of 2011.  Since both statutes had passed, no claim for refund could be allowed.  There was a similar issue with the 2008 return.

  • Peter Hardy and Carolyn Kendall, attorneys from Post & Schell, and prior guest bloggers here at PT, have posted on Jack Townsend’s Federal Tax Crimes blog (two-timers!) on the Microsoft appeal in In re Warrant to Search a Certain E-mail Account.  The guest post can be found here, and Jack’s summary of related materials on the Stored Communications Act can be found here.  Although the post deals with a drug case, the impact could be far reaching regarding subpoena power over electronic communications in the cloud (including datacenters outside of the US).  Peter and Carolyn tie in the Service’s review of foreign accounts nicely.
  • It’s like speed dating, but it might cost more and you only get lucky if you don’t get picked.  The NY Times has an op-ed on the IRS speed audit, with agency cut backs causing reduced response time for taxpayers, which if not promptly responded to could result in important collection due process rights being forfeited.  The op-ed indicates that the IRS may be sending out follow up letters the same day as the initial letter, which the author argues is in violation of the updated taxpayer bill of rights issued last year.  When you are on the op-ed, check out the comments the NY Times has picked as important.  Carl Smith was highlighted for indicating a few other ways the tax system is failing taxpayers.  This practice may save time for the Examination Division of the IRS but pushes more cases into the collection stream which also impacts the IRS resources.
  • On April 20th, the Tax Court issued a decision in Yuska v. Comm’r, holding the automatic stay invalidated a Notice of Determination Concerning Collection Actions regarding a tax lien that was issued after the bankruptcy petition.  Importantly, the Court declined to follow the IRS’s suggestion that the Court distinguish this case from Smith v. Comm’r, which had similar facts but pertained to a levy.  The timing of events were very important in following Smith, and the Service also argued that the Court should instead follow Prevo v. Comm’r, which was a lien case where the collection action occurred before the BR petition.  In Smith, the Serviced began collection actions, and then the taxpayer filed a bankruptcy petition, followed by the Service issuing a notice of determination concerning the levy, and then the taxpayer petitioning the Tax Court for review of the levy action.  The Court held the continuance of the collection action violated the stay under 11 USC 362(a)(1).  In Prevo, the sustaining of the lien occurred before the BR petition.  As to differentiating between a lien and levy case, the Court found the administrative review of a lien was clearly part of the administrative collection process and subject to the ruling in Smith, even if future administrative review was possible. Although the Court declined to differentiate between the two in this case, Keith noted that if the stay stopped the CDP case there can be important differences.  In a lien case, the NFTL remains valid (if not enforceable) until after the stay is lifted.  In a levy case, the stay prevents the IRS from moving forward with the levy completely.  Keith didn’t read the case, and still came up with something much more insightful and helpful to add.
  • This is becoming a little like an advertisement for Jack Townsend’s Criminal Tax Crimes Blog.  Jack posted on the recent 7th Circuit case, US v. Michaud, which reviewed whether or not the IRS had authority to issue a summons in a criminal matter prior to a DOJ referral.  The statute in question is Section 7602(b) & (d), which was modified after US v. LaSalle Nat’l Bank to make it clear the IRS did have this authority.  The 7th Circuit had some additional thoughts on when the IRS couldn’t issue the summons.  Check out the post for a discussion of that point, and Jack’s always helpful thoughts on the matter.
  • Context is always important.  For instance, being suspended can be very good (we took our daughters rock climbing this weekend, and being suspended by the rope was really helpful), but it can also be pretty bad in the school, professional or corporate context.  Such was the case in Leodis C. Matthews, APC, a CA Corp. v. Comm’r, where the Tax Court held that it lacked jurisdiction  over a deficiency petition brought be a corporation (law firm) that California had suspended its corporate privileges for due to failure to pay state taxes.  Interesting point of law.  Can someone bring the petition on behalf of the corporation so it does not lose its ability to contest the tax?  Timing is also interesting.   Corp is suspended May 1, 2013, and 90 day letter is issued June 30, 2014.  Taxpayer petitions court Oct. 1, 2014 (presumably timely), and had its corporation reinstated November 26, 2014.  You would guess he was trying to deal with his state tax issue during the 90 day period.  I also wonder if there is a way to get limited rights reinstated, so that the corporation could have petitioned the Tax Court.
  • We all hear the scare tactics on the radio about how if you owe more than $10,000, the IRS is going to come and take your assets, steal your children, put you in jail, shoot your dog, etc.  We are lucky enough to know this is BS, and an effort to garner business.  Sometimes, however, the IRS can show up at your premises (probably armed), and take your stuff.  You have to owe a bit more than $10k, and the Service has to jump through a lot of hoops.  In re: The Tax Indebtedness of Voulgarelis is one such writ of entry case.  In Voulgarelis, the taxpayer apparently owed around $300k, possibly more, and ignored six notices of intent to levy.  The Service sought an order authorizing it to enter the premises and levy the tangible property, which was granted in accordance with GM Leasing Corp. v. United States, 429 US 338 (1977).
  • The Service has updated its list of private delivery services that count for the timely mailing is timely filing rules under Section 7502.  The update can be found in Notice 2015-38.  As we’ve discussed before, failure to file these rules can result in harsh results.  These results can be seemingly arbitrary when a taxpayer selects a quicker FedEx/UPS delivery method that isn’t approved, and cannot rely on the rule.
  • In information notice 2015-74, the IRS has reminded businesses of the temporary pilot penalty relief program for small businesses that have failed to properly comply with administrative and reporting requirements for retirement plans.  That program ends June 2nd.

 

Filed Under: Bankruptcy, Collection Activity, Collection Due Process, Exam, Offshore Disclosure, Seizure, Statutes of Limitation, Summons, Tax Court, Timely Mailing

Summary Opinions for the weeks of 3/06/15 through 3/20/15

April 2, 2015 by 4 Comments

Image from https://storesafewasnotsafe.wordpress.com/

This will be the last post for the week, as we will all be busy with family activities (and taxes).  We should be back on Monday with some new content, and it looks like next week will cover some really interesting areas, including the recent Godfrey case, and sealing Tax Court records.

We have been very lucky over the last month to have a lot of really great guest posts.  We cannot thank those guest posters enough for the quality content, especially as the three of us have been very busy with our various other jobs (or appearing before the Senate–perhaps more on that next week also).  For the weeks that SumOp is covering in this post, we had Mandi Matlock writing on TPA Most Serious Problem # 17 on how deficient refund disallowance notices are harming taxpayers.  Peter Lowy wrote on the really interesting Gyorgy case, which deals with the taxpayer’s requirement to notify the Service on a change of address, but also highlights a host of other procedure items.   Patrick Smith joined us again, writing on Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Associate, and illuminating us on APA notice and comment requirements for different types of rules and the possible eventual reversal of Auer.  We also welcomed Intuit’s CTO, David Williams who wrote a response to Les’ prior post on H&R Block’s CEO indicating it should be harder to self-prepare (which Les was potentially in favor of).  And, another first time guest blogger, Patrick Thomas, joined us writing on the calculation of SoLs on collections matters.

We were also very lucky again to have Carl Smith writing for us, this time updating us on the Volpicelli jurisdiction case and the Tax Court pleading rules on penalties looking at the El v. Comm’r case.  A thank you to all of our guests over those two weeks, and a special thanks to Carl for his continued support.

To the other procedure items (if you keep reading, the image will make more sense):

read more...

  • The Service released CCA 201510043, in which Chief Counsel stated a taxpayer is entitled to two sets of collection due process rights for the same period when there were two assessments; one for assessment arising out of a civil exam and the other from restitution-based assessment.  Section 6201(a) was recently (five years ago) amended to require assessment and collection of restitution in the same manner as tax.  The advice has a nice summary of cases outlining why this double assessment of the same tax is not double jeopardy.  Although the general rule is that a taxpayer is entitled to one CDP hearing with respect to tax and tax years covered by the CDP notice, there are situations where multiple hearings are appropriate.  The advice highlights Treas. Reg. 301.6320-1(d)(2) Q&A D1 and Treas. Reg. 301.6330-1(d)(2) Q&A D1 as examples of allowing two CDP hearings when there has been additional assessments of tax or new assessments for additional penalties.  The Advice determined that this situation was analogous and warrants two separate CDP hearings.
  • The Northern District of California in In Re Wilson held that penalties for failure to timely file were dischargeable when the original due date was outside of the three year look back under BR Code 523(a)(7)(b), but the taxpayer had extended the due date and the extended date was within the three years.  The Court indicated this was a case of first impression.  Another interesting BR Code Section 523 issue.
  • This clearly only pertains as a practitioner point, and not something any of our readers would personally need, but OPR has announced a standard information request letter to make a Section 6103 request for information maintained by OPR relating to possible violations of Circ. 230.  Info about the letter is found here, and you can get the actual letter here.
  • The Ninth Cir. affirmed the Tax Court in Deihl v. United States in finding a widow spouse did not qualify for innocent spouse relief.  In the case the Court did not find there was clear error by the Tax Court in reviewing the widow’s testimony and find it was not credible.  The surviving spouse provided testimony that conflicted with other evidence regarding the couples’ business, and she did not offer any third party testimony regarding the abuse.  The widow argued that since the Service did not offer contrary testimony regarding the abuse, the Tax Court had to accept her testimony, which the Ninth Circuit stated was incorrect.  Further, looking to Lerch v. Comm’r, a Seventh Circuit decision, stated that the Tax Court did not have to accept testimony that was questionable, even if uncontradicted (tough to overcome the presumption of guilt that comes along with a name like Lerch).
  • Gambling causes fits for the Service.  Tipped casino employees used to underreport frequently, but apparently casinos will provide estimates to the Service.  Gambling website accounts might be offshore accounts (even if sourced in US banks). Add to that list of problems how to treat bingo, keno and slot machine winnings.  This blurb will focus on slot machines.  New proposed regulations offered in a recent IRS Notice would provide a safe harbor to determine gains and losses from a slot machine.  The issue is that gains from “transactions” are included in income.  Losses are deductible to the extent of winning, but generally as itemized deductions.  For slot machines, a “transaction” is session based.  What is a session can be a point of disagreement between the Service and taxpayers.  This is apparently becoming more murky now that people don’t use actual coins.   So, what are those retirees on the bus trips to AC or Vegas to do?  The Service is soliciting suggestions, but the current proposed safe harbor states that a session of play:

A session of play begins when a patron places the first wager on a particular type of game and ends when the same patron completes his or her last wager on the same type of game before the end of the same calendar day. For purposes of this section, the time is determined by the time zone of the location where the patron places the wager. A session of play is always determined with reference to a calendar day (24-hour period from 12:00 a.m. through 11:59 p.m.) and ends no later than the end of that calendar day

The Notice then goes on to explain how to calculate gains and losses during the session.

  • Add this to the list of things that will not get you out of the failure to timely file penalties – taxpayer could not access tax records because his storage unite doors had frozen over.  The argument received an icy reception (oh, man that was bad) with both the Service and the Tax Court. See Palmer v. Comm’r., TC Memo 2015-30 (for some reason this isn’t up on the TC web page anymore – sorry).
  • If you are going to cheat on your taxes, you probably should do so using offshore accounts (I usually charge clients a .5 for that advice, and you all just got it for free!).  Check out Jack Townsend’s blog on US v. Jones, an “ordinary tax cheat”, as Mr. Townsend put it, who got dinged with 80% of the bottom of the guideline range for sentencing.  He was using “sophisticated means”, which seemed fairly run of the mill.  Jack compares this to the sentencing of another UBS client, who ended up getting 22% of the bottom of the guideline range.  Switzerland should use this in its promotional materials.
  • In MSSB v. Frank Haron Weiner, the Eastern District of Michigan found that Section 6332(a) did not establish priority for competing liens, and instead Sections 6321, 6322 and 6323 established the priority (in favor of the IRS in this case).  In MSSB, a debtor owed funds to the IRS and a lawyer named Frank.  The Service recorded four liens, each before December 3, 2012.  Around $1.6MM was owed.  On December 6, 2012, Frank sued the debtor to recover unpaid legal fees and won.  In 2013, Frank obtained a writ to garnish the debtors IRA (Michigan must not offer much in terms of creditor protection for IRAs).  The Service stepped in, arguing it had priority on the IRA.  Frank countered, arguing that Section 6332(a) would give him the money.  The Section states:

Except as otherwise provided in this section, any person in possession of (or obligated with respect to) property or rights to property subject to levy upon which a levy has been made shall, upon demand of the Secretary, surrender such property or rights (or discharge such obligation) to the Secretary, except such part of the property or rights as is, at the time of such demand, subject to an attachment or execution under any judicial process.

Frank’s position was that his claim was the type of claim referenced by the “subject to an attachment or execution under any judicial process.”  The Court, however, held that the language did not direct which claim (that of the IRS or Frank) had priority, and only stated that the financial institution did not have to turn the funds over to the IRS.  The Court then looked to the other lien provisions, and found the IRS had priority and directed payment.

  • I went to see roller derby one time, which was really entertaining.  A perfect mix of roller skating and WWF.  All of the young women have funny/clever names, and often have slogans.  The announcer said of one that she had “champagne for her real friends, and real pain for her sham friends.”  Unfortunately, this has really nothing to do with this next case, except the tax court was dropping some real pain on a sham partnership.  In Bedrosian v. Comm’r, the Tax Court held that whether legal fees paid by a sham partnership were deductible was an affected item subject to TEFRA, and the Court had jurisdiction to make such a determination.  This was not the Bedrosians’ first Tax Court rodeo, and they keep making new TEFRA law, which now comprises a substantial chunk of revised Saltzman and Book Chapter 8 dealing with general exam procedures and a growing subsection dealing just with the complex world of TEFRA.

Filed Under: Administrative Procedure Act (APA), Bankruptcy, Civil Penalties, Collection Activity, Collection Due Process, Equitable tolling, Innocent Spouse, Last Known Address, Levy, Lien, Offshore Disclosure, OPR, refund claim, Sentencing Guidelines, Sham Transaction, Statutes of Limitation, Tax Court, TEFRA
Next Page »