Despite a relatively small number of orders designated during the week of September 23, they were diverse and interesting. I discuss three below, but the orders not discussed addressed: IRS’s motion for summary judgment in a case where petitioner cited the book, “Cracking the Code” to support his position (here); and a motion to stay (here) and a motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction (here) from petitioners in a consolidated docket case involving converted partnership items.
Docket No. 15277-17, Maria G. Leslie v. C.I.R. (order here)
This first order piqued my interest because it covers a topic that comes up in the individual income tax class that I teach every year. The order addresses the IRS’s motion for summary judgment and the case involves alimony and the deduction for legal fees under section 212. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act separately impacted both of these issues by eliminating the income inclusion (and corresponding deduction) of alimony for divorces decreed post-2019, and by suspending miscellaneous itemized deductions (so below-the-line attorney’s fees cannot currently be deducted). The analysis in this order is still helpful and relevant to past, and perhaps, future years.
A deduction for legal fees is allowed when the fees are incurred to produce or collect income. Since alimony is considered income by virtue of section 71(c) legal fees related to alimony could be deducted, prior to the TCJA changes. Legal fees related to other costs of divorce are not deductible, so it is important that taxpayers (or more importantly, their divorce attorneys) distinguish between the fees paid for each cause of action.
To determine whether the fees are deductible, the Court must look to the origin of the claim and not the taxpayer’s purpose or desired outcome in the case.
In this specific case, there is a lot at stake for the petitioner. Her ex-husband worked with the firm that handled the class action lawsuit against Enron and for which he received a $50 million fee after the marriage ended.
Originally, a marital settlement agreement (“MSA”) was reached which entitled petitioner to 10% of her ex-husband’s earnings. The amount received under the MSA was determined to be alimony income to the petitioner in an earlier Tax Court case.
Later, petitioner had second thoughts about the MSA and incurred legal fees in three separate proceedings: 1) to set aside the MSA for lack of legal capacity, 2) for an order to show cause as to why she should receive the percentage of earnings as dictated by the MSA nevertheless (her ex-husband deposited her percentage into a trust account for her benefit, but she was barred from accessing it), and 3) for damages for breach of fiduciary duty to her with respect to the MSA negotiations under California Family Code which allows a suit for damages if a breach by her ex-husband results in impairment to her undivided one-half interest in the community estate.
The Court looked to origin of the claim for each proceeding and determined that petitioner was only entitled to deduct legal fees for the second proceeding, because it related to the alimony income in the trust account and her ability to collect it. The IRS’s motion for summary judgment was denied with respect to this part.
The other proceedings were not entitled to a legal fee deduction because the origin of the claim in the first proceeding was related to a flaw in the MSA, and in the third proceeding arose from a duty that her ex-husband had to her as a result of their marriage. In other words, the origin of the first and third claims did not involve the production or collection of income. The IRS’s motion for summary judgement was granted with respect to these parts.
The parties were ordered to submit settlement documents or a status report by the end of November.
Docket No. 6446-19L, Wendell C. Robinson & May T. Jung-Robinson (order here)
In this order the petitioners have filed a motion for summary judgment because they believe they have already paid their 2012 liability of $88,000 with a combination of withholding and a check sent with their return. They argue that as a result of the liability being paid in full, and since the assessment statute is closed, the IRS’s proposed levy cannot be sustained.
In response, the IRS explains that the petitioners’ return contained mathematical errors, so they owed $13,267.20 more than what their return originally reflected. The IRS used its math error authority to correct the returns, so no notice of deficiency was issued. There has been considerable coverage by PT on various math error authority issues (for example: here and here) and it was an “Area of Focus” in former NTA, Nina Olson’s Fiscal Year 2019 Objectives Report to Congress.
The Court has an issue with the IRS’s use of math error authority in this case – mainly that Appeals’ notice of determination makes no mention of the mathematical corrections permitted by section 6213(b)(1), nor of whether the petitioners were notified of the corrections, as required, to give them an opportunity to request abatement. Abatement can be requested under section 6213(b)(2)(A) and doing so entitles the taxpayer to deficiency procedures.
The Court would like more evidence on this issue, so it denies petitioner’s motion.
Docket No. 17799-18L, Michael Balice v. C.I.R. (order here)
This case involves an interesting scenario in the CDP world that I have not encountered – it is one where a taxpayer timely requests a CDP hearing but is not provided with one. Keith covered the topic in 2015 (here), and in 2016 (here) after the IRS provided guidance on how its attorneys should handle the issue in Chief Counsel Notice (“CC”) 2016-008. The issue has also come up in at least one other designated order post (here).
In this order, it appears that Counsel may not have adhered its own guidance and the IRS has moved to dismiss the case alleging that the petitioner took only frivolous positions in his CDP requests for a levy and lien.
The IRS argues that the Court should grant summary judgment in their favor because they did not violate petitioner’s due process rights by denying him a CDP hearing. In the IRS’s view, petitioner had an opportunity to raise issues regarding his liability and the validity of the lien in other courts (because the DOJ had the case for a period of time) and petitioner’s request was properly disregarded because it only raised frivolous issues. IRS also argues that there is no benefit to remanding the case to Appeals, which the Court may be permitted to do, because of petitioner’s frivolous arguments and because Appeals lacks the authority to compromise petitioner’s liability due to the DOJ’s involvement.
The Court isn’t convinced by the IRS’s arguments and reviews the history of the case. Earlier on, as a result of the Office of Appeals’ view that the petitioner’s request was frivolous, it did not communicate with the petitioner in any of the usual ways. The petitioner did not receive an explanation of the process and Appeals did not request any financial information.
The only correspondence Appeals sent to petitioner was a notice of determination sustaining the NFTL (petitioner’s request related to his proposed levy was not timely). This denial of a CDP hearing is permitted under section 6330(g), but Thornberry permits the Tax Court to review the “non-hearing” for an abuse of discretion.
That opportunity for review is potentially helpful for petitioner in this case. The Court reviews the form letter that petitioner submitted with his CDP request and nothing seems frivolous about it. If only some portions of petitioner’s request are frivolous, then Appeals may have abused its discretion in denying the CDP hearing. The Court also identifies a section 6751 supervisory approval issue and the IRS has not demonstrated it has met its burden. As a result, rather than grant the IRS’s motion, the Court sets the motion for argument during the upcoming trial session.