Today we continue our reporting on designated orders. Guest blogger Samantha Galvin reports on three cases. Professor Galvin teaches and represents low income taxpayers in the tax clinic at the Sturm College of Law at the University of Denver – one of the oldest and best tax clinics for low income taxpayers. Keith.
Designated Orders: 5/8/2017 – 5/12/2017
Two out of three of last week’s designated orders involved the IRS moving to dismiss the case, in part, for lack of jurisdiction because the taxpayers did not petition the Tax Court on a Notice of Deficiency but ended up in Tax Court after walking down a different procedural path. In these types of cases, the IRS wants to ensure that all parties understand which issue(s) is in front of the Court.
read more... Choose Your Procedural Path Carefully Docket # 4354-16L, Schwartz v. C.I.R. (Order and Decision Here) The first case is a fairly common scenario, but it is a scenario in which new practitioners (and pro se petitioners) should be careful. Petitioners’ original 2013 tax return showed a balance due of approximately $44,000, but they did not make any payments. They received a Final Notice of Intent to Levy and timely requested a collection due process (CDP) hearing asking for an installment agreement or an offer in compromise. As part of the normal process, the IRS Appeals Office requested that the taxpayers submit a financial form and substantiation but taxpayers did not respond, nor did they participate in their CDP hearing phone conference. In October of 2015 (mistakenly referred to as 2016 in the Order and Decision), the taxpayers finally submitted a financial form, but again did not submit any substantiation. In December of 2015, the taxpayers received a statutory Notice of Deficiency (NOD) for tax year 2013 proposing to assess an additional $7,058 in tax and penalties. Taxpayers’ failed to timely petition the Tax Court for a redetermination pursuant to the NOD. On January 22, 2016 (less than a week after the deadline to petition the Tax Court on the NOD had passed), the IRS Appeals Office issued a notice of determination concluding the CDPhearing in which it sustained the proposed levy because the taxpayers did not submit any substantiation and because they had sufficient assets to pay the balance. This time the taxpayers petitioned the Tax Court claiming the IRS unfairly assessed penalties and seeking review of the NOD. The IRS moved to dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiction to the extent the matter related to the NOD and the Tax Court granted the motion. Additionally because the taxpayer did not raise the issue of penalties during the administrative process, the Court held they were precluded from doing so in Tax Court. The IRS’s motion to dismiss not only prevented the taxpayers from disputing the underlying liability, but also impacted the standard of review used by the Tax Court. On a deficiency case, the standard of review is “de novo” which generally means the Court will review the case without being bound by what the IRS or taxpayer has done to resolve the case prior to coming to Court. On a CDP hearing case, such as this when the underlying liability is not properly at issue, the Court reviews the case for an “abuse of discretion” which is whether the exercise of discretion by IRS Appeals was without sounds basis in fact or law. The court reviewed the notice of determination for abuse of discretion and found that Appeals did not abuse its discretion in sustaining the proposed levy, since the taxpayers failed to participate in the CDP hearing and did not submit financial information or substantiation. As a result, the Court granted the IRS summary judgment. Take-away points: Innocent Spouse Relief is the Only Dispute Docket # 15590-16, Starczewski v. C.I.R. (Order Here) Similar to the Schwartz case (above) this is another case where the taxpayers did not petition the Tax Court on a Notice of Deficiency (NOD), but unlike the Schwartz case it seems like the taxpayers did not intend to dispute the underlying liability. In this case taxpayer wife and taxpayer husband ended up in Tax Court after the taxpayer wife’s request for innocent spouse relief was denied by the IRS (presumably this means the case involves taxpayer ex-wife and taxpayer ex-husband). Taxpayer husband intervened, which is permissible in an innocent spouse case and allows the non-requesting spouse the opportunity to testify about why the requesting spouse should not be granted relief. When an intervening spouse is successful, both spouses remain jointly and severally liable for the deficiency. The IRS filed a motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction as to the NOD, stating that the Tax Court only had the jurisdiction to determine whether petitioner (taxpayer wife) should be relieved of liability. The Tax Court gave the petitioner (taxpayer wife) and intervenor (taxpayer husband) an opportunity to respond and neither did, but later in a telephone conference taxpayer husband had no objections and taxpayer wife’s counsel affirmatively consented to the Court granting the IRS’s motion. Once all parties were made aware that a dispute to the liability was not before the Tax Court, the Court allowed the innocent spouse relief question to proceed to trial. Take-away points: When Petitioners are Prisoners Docket # 29472-12, Martinez v. C.I.R. (Order and Decision Here) This case involves a taxpayer/petitioner who is currently an inmate in the Texas prison system, but the deficiency arose from tax years 2009 and 2010 (only 2009 was still at issue, because IRS had been granted summary judgment for 2010). In those years, the taxpayer was not yet in prison and he was a school teacher. The IRS sent him a Notice of Deficiency (NOD) after he began serving time and he timely petitioned the Tax Court asking for the deficiency to be redetermined. The deficiency arose from the taxpayer’s failure to substantiate gross receipts on his Schedule C and expenses on his Schedule C and Schedule A. The Tax Court prefers to resolve cases expeditiously, even when a taxpayer is in prison. In this case, the taxpayer petitioned the Tax Court in 2012 and the decision was issued in 2017 so this case had been going on for a while. The Court worked with the taxpayer through the stipulation and summary judgment process (presumably for 2010) but then ordered the taxpayer to file written testimony stating his disagreement of the NOD for 2009 but the taxpayer failed to do so. The Tax Court used its Rule 123(a) power which allowed the Court to default the taxpayer’s case, and pursuant to that rule, enter a decision against him. Taxpayers without substantiation are a common phenomenon even when they are not in prison, so it was likely nearly impossible for the petitioner in this case to retrieve old records – but to view this as just another lack of substantiation case may be incorrect, because the Court took the time to describe the difficulties involved in resolving cases when a taxpayer/petitioner is in prison. The Court referenced the BTK serial killer’s Tax Court case (in which the Court allowed the BTK killer to participate in trial via phone pursuant to Tax Court Rule 143). The Court also discussed that writs of habeaus corpus ad testificandum, which is an order from the court that a prisoner be brought to court to testify, are difficult to manage and security concerns make transportation difficult. Those concerns allow the Court to weigh the amount at issue with the need to find economical solutions for resolving the case. Take-away points: There is another way to deal with prisoners, which is to try the case inside the prison. In the Richmond office, we had more than our fair share of spy cases in which the spy neglected to report the income from spying on their tax return. In the case of master spy, Aldrich Ames, he sought to contest the determination of additional income in Tax Court. The Court decided to try the case inside the maximum security prison in Allenwood, PA. John McDougal and Richard Stein tried the case for the office against Mr. Ames who represented himself. The opinion is reported here. Keith
About Samantha Galvin
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