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Jurisdiction of Bankruptcy Courts to Hear Innocent Spouse Cases

Posted on July 20, 2021

The case of In re Bowman, No. 20-11512 (E.D. La. 2021) denies debtor’s motion for summary judgement 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.

The court addresses the issue of its jurisdiction at the outset of the opinion.  It first cites 28 U.S.C. § 1334 and the Order of Reference from the district court before stating that this is a core proceeding.  This part of the opinion addresses the basic issue of bankruptcy courts’ jurisdiction in all issues, stemming from the litigation in the Marathon Oil case from 40 years ago (challenging the basic authority of bankruptcy courts under the then-newly-created bankruptcy code).

Moving past the bankruptcy court’s basic basis for jurisdiction, the court hones in on its ability to hear an innocent spouse case. It first states:

Although it is true that “Section 6015(f) does not allow a bankruptcy court to exercise initial subject matter jurisdiction over an innocent spouse defense because only the Secretary [of the IRS] receives the equitable power to grant innocent spouse relief under that Section,” here, it is undisputed that the Debtor sought such relief from the Secretary in July 2019 and the Secretary denied the request.  

This aspect of jurisdiction would apply to any court hearing an innocent spouse case. In essence, the statute requires a taxpayer claiming this relief to exhaust their administrative remedies before seeking to have a court determine relief.

Next, the court turns to its specific ability to hear an innocent spouse case and cites heavily from an earlier case from Texas:

Section 6015(e)(1) states that, in a case where an individual requests equitable relief under Section 6015(f), “[i]n addition to any other remedy by law, the individual may petition the Tax Court to determine the appropriate relief available to the individual under this section . . . .” 26 U.S.C. § 6015(e)(1)(A). It is unambiguous that a Tax Court—and not just the Secretary—may grant relief to an individual. Moreover, the remedy available in the Tax Court is “[i]n addition to any other remedy provided by law.” 26 U.S.C. § 6015(e)(1)(A).

11 U.S.C. § 505 is another “remedy provided by law.” Section 505(a)(1) specifically provides bankruptcy courts with remedial power over tax liabilities and penalties . . . . This statutory language provides a bankruptcy court with the power to determine the legality of taxes and tax penalties.

Pendergraft v. United States Dep’t of the Treasury IRS (In re Pendergraft), 119 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 2017-1229 (Bankr. S.D. Tex. Mar. 22, 2017)

Because it determines that the tax liability directly impacts the administration of the bankruptcy case and because the IRS has filed a proof of claim seeking to have Ms. Bowman pay the liability for which she seeks relief, the court finds that it has jurisdiction while also noting that the IRS has not objected to its jurisdiction.

The opinion is important for being only the second court to deal with the issue of whether a bankruptcy court has jurisdiction to decide § 6015 relief.  The court says that it does have such jurisdiction because 6015(e)(1)(A) (giving the Tax Court jurisdiction) is only “in addition to any other remedy provided by law” and that the bankruptcy court is another such remedy.  The court cites the Pendergraft case, which is the only other opinion from a bankruptcy court on this matter.  The court conveniently doesn’t mention all the district court opinions holding that 6015 relief jurisdiction does not exist in collection suits or (in one opinion) in refund suits, but resides only in the Tax Court.

The last district court case to render an opinion on this issue was Hockin v. United States, 400 F. Supp. 3d 1085 (D. Or. 2019).  We blogged on the Hockin case here.  In Hockin, the district court rejected earlier district court opinions and found it had jurisdiction to hear an innocent spouse case.  The case never went to trial because the parties settled.  The issue highlighted differences in the Tax Division of the Department of Justice where the trial sections argued that the district courts lacked jurisdiction while the appellate section simultaneously argued that they had jurisdiction and used that argument as a basis for dismissing innocent spouse cases filed late in the Tax Court as having missed a jurisdictional deadline.  The Tax Clinic at Harvard filed an amicus brief in Hockin pointing out the dissonance in the positions taken within DOJ, and the court noted the conflicting positions.

Perhaps the failure to raise jurisdiction as an issue in Bowman means that DOJ has abandoned the issue that only the Tax Court has jurisdiction to hear innocent spouse cases, or perhaps a split now exists within the trial sections at DOJ.  Another possibility is that DOJ distinguishes between district court and bankruptcy court cases raising this issue.  In its motion to dismiss in the Hockin case, DOJ stated:

The language of Section 6015(e)(3) explicitly strips the Tax Court of jurisdiction once a refund suit is filed in district court, which avoids parallel proceedings. But another court explicitly rejected Boynton. In re Pendergraft, 16-33506, 2017 WL 1091935, at *3 (S.D. Tex. B.R. Mar. 22, 2017). That court held that it could consider an innocent spouse defense as part of a bankruptcy court’s powers to determine the amount or legality of a tax under 11 U.S.C. § 505. The court was unconcerned with the possibility of inconsistent judgments, finding that jurisdiction cannot be “based on a hypothetical possibility that concurrent proceedings could produce inconsistent results. That issue, if it ever exists, should be left to Congress.” Id.

Pendergraft is an outlier decision, and it ignores Boynton’s most convincing point: if Congress intended to provide two equally accessible lanes for a taxpayer to seek review of an innocent spouse determination, why does Section 6015(e)(3) treat the process as a one-way street? The Tax Court is clearly divested of jurisdiction when a refund suit is filed in district court, yet the statute is silent on the reverse scenario. Section 6015 sets out a clear, detailed process for funneling review of innocent spouse determinations to the Tax Court. That statute provides no such scheme for the district courts.

DOJ did not try to distinguish Pendergraft because bankruptcy is different.  In Pendergraft, the DOJ argued that the availability of a Tax Court 6015 action precluded 6015 relief under BC 505. The Pendergraft opinion provides a lengthy response disagreeing with the DOJ and its citations — but one that does, in part, rely on the purpose of BC 505.  Section 505 grants jurisdiction to bankruptcy courts to resolve tax merits issues.  The Pendergraft court says that BC 505 is a remedy encompassed by the “in addition to any other remedy provided by law” clause in 6015(e)(1)(A).

Going past the jurisdictional issue, the court in Bowman declined petitioner’s invitation to grant her relief based on summary judgment.  Here is her motion and here is the DOJ response.  She sought relief under 6015(f) but did not submit an affidavit or much other information related to the factors that the IRS has established as required for relief in Rev. Proc. 2013-34.  The court found that insufficient evidence was presented to allow it to grant relief at this stage.  Of course, she can still succeed if she puts on adequate evidence at trial.  At least, based on the court’s finding of jurisdiction, she will have that opportunity.

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