Menu
Tax Notes logo

What’s Happening in Myers and Whistleblower Cases After the Decision the Statute is a Claims Processing Rule

Posted on May 4, 2022

In 2019 the D.C. Circuit held in Myers v. Commissioner, 928 F.3d 1025, that the language creating the Tax Court’s basis for jurisdiction to hear whistleblower cases did not create a jurisdictional filing deadline.  It also held the time period subject to equitable tolling.  So, can the subsequent history of Myers provide insight into how the Tax Court will handle equitable tolling cases in Collection Due Process cases (CDP)?  No, it cannot because the Court held off on looking into equitable tolling waiting for the outcome in Boechler, but the post-Myers cases do provide insight into what happens when no one raises the issue of late filing.

Since the Myers decision, it does not appear that the Tax Court has issued any other rulings on whistleblower cases deciding an equitable tolling issue.  This signals how rarely equitable tolling issues present themselves. The IRS Whistleblower Office Annual Report to Congress (of which the most recent report posted to IRS.gov is for FYE 2020; see https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p5241.pdf) says in Table 3 on page 24 that there were 118 IRC 7623(b) claims in litigation as of 9/30/20, but then confusingly notes:  “There are closed claims that are in litigation. Table 3 identifies only open claims.”  Does that mean that Tax Court cases are not in the 118 or are in the 118?  This probably means that the 118 cases in litigation are pending Tax Court cases.  The Tax Court has reported to Congress that during FYE 2021 there were 63 whistleblower (WB) cases filed.  https://www.ustaxcourt.gov/resources/budget_justification/FY_2023_Congressional_Budget_Justification.pdf

The benefit of Myers to taxpayers who file late, however, appears to be in prohibiting the Tax Court from issuing orders to show cause why a whistleblower case should be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction (LOJ).  This post will discuss four opinions below, each of which suggests that the Tax Court would have issued orders to show cause to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction due to late filing, had the filing deadline been jurisdictional.  This provides a window into what will happen with late filed CDP cases where the IRS does not raise the timing of the filing.    In Myers any benefit from the D.C. Circuit opinion as confirmed by the Supreme Court in Boechler will come from the application of equitable tolling.

Looking at the whistleblower cases decided since the Myers decision, Carl Smith found the following cases:

(1)  In Whistleblower 15977-18W, T.C. Memo. 2021-143 (12/29/21), the taxpayer lost on summary judgment because the Tax Court upheld a determination by the WB office that the WB did not provide specific enough information.  (Query whether the more recent D.C. Circuit case, Li v. Commissioner, would have required the Tax Court to dismiss this case for LOJ because the WB office did not appear to take any action on the claim beyond asking SB/SE to look into the claim.  There is no mention of any proceeding done against the taxpayer.)  The WB office issued a notice of determination to the WB on Oct. 16, 2017.  The WB, who lived overseas, may not have received the notice of determination until after the 30 days to petition expired.  In any event, the WB petitioned the Tax Court on Aug. 16, 2018.  The IRS did not raise to the Tax Court that the case should be dismissed for late filing.  Here’s footnote 3 from the opinion:

Petitioner resided outside of the United States when the petition was filed.  In Myers v. Commissioner, 928 F.3d 1025, 1036-1037, 442 U.S. App. D.C. 110 (D.C. Cir. 2019), rev’g and remanding 148 T.C. 438 (2017), the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held that the 30-day period for filing a petition to initiate a whistleblower action is subject to equitable tolling. The D.C. Circuit is the appellate venue for this case. See sec. 7482(b)(1) (penultimate sentence). We thus follow its precedent. See Golsen v. Commissioner, 54 T.C. 742, 757 (1970), aff’d, 445 F.2d 985 (10th Cir. 1971). Consistently with Myers, we hold that we have jurisdiction to consider this case. And since neither party has questioned the filing of the petition after the 30-day period or addressed the subject of equitable tolling, we will proceed to consider the pending motions.

The Tax Court did exactly what it should have. It no longer has the right to raise timeliness issues on its own. This will happen more and more now that the CDP cases have entered the pool of cases subject to the claims processing rule.

(2)  Similar is Damiani, T.C. Memo. 2020-132, where the court saw that, obviously, the petition was not timely filed.  Here’s a bit from the Damiani opinion:

The Office agreed with Mr. Wiggins’ recommendation and on June 14, 2019, issued a final determination letter rejecting petitioner’s claims. The letter stated in pertinent part that “[t]he claim has been rejected because the information submitted did not identify an issue regarding tax underpayments or violations of internal revenue laws.” The letter informed petitioner: “If you disagree with this determination, you have 30 days from the date of this letter to file a petition with the Tax Court.”

Petitioner petitioned this Court for review of the Office’s determination. Her petition was mailed from Germany, postmarked by Deutsche Post on July 31, 2019, and was received and filed by the Court on August 12, 2019.

. . . .

Consistently with Myers, we hold that we have jurisdiction to consider this case. And since neither party has questioned the filing of the petition after the 30-day period or addressed the subject of equitable tolling, we will proceed to consider respondent’s motion for summary judgment.

(3) Also similar is Friedel, T.C. Memo. 2020-131.  Here’s a bit from the Friedel opinion:

The Office agreed with both recommendations and issued on April 30 and May 8, 2019, final determination letters rejecting petitioner’s claims. Each letter stated in pertinent part that “[t]he claim has been rejected because the IRS decided not to pursue the information you provided.” The letters informed petitioner: “If you disagree with this determination, you have 30 days from the date of this letter to file a petition with the Tax Court.”

Petitioner petitioned this Court for review of the Office’s determinations. His petition was mailed from Germany, postmarked by Deutsche Post on June 11, 2019, and was received and filed by the Court on June 24, 2019.

. . . .

[S]ince neither party has questioned the filing of the petition after the 30-day period or addressed the subject of equitable tolling, we will proceed to consider respondent’s motion for summary judgment.

(4)  Also similar is Stevenson, T.C. Memo. 2020-137, where the court expressed concern that the petition might not have been timely, but did not actually find facts as to the 30-day deadline.  The court there wrote:

Section 7623(b)(4) provides that “[a]ny determination regarding an award * * * may, within 30 days of such determination, be appealed to the Tax Court (and the Tax Court shall have jurisdiction with respect to such matter).” The Office issued its determination letter to petitioner on April 10, 2019. He signed his petition on May 2, 2019, but the mailing date is unclear. See sec. 7502(a). The petition was received and filed by the Court on May 13, 2019, more than 30 days after the date on which the Office issued the determination letter.

. . . .

Since neither party has questioned the filing of the petition after the 30-day period or addressed the subject of equitable tolling, we will proceed to consider respondent’s motion for summary judgment.

In all of these cases, the IRS successfully moved for summary judgment.  Perhaps the IRS was so confident it would win on summary judgment that it did not bother to raise the petition untimeliness issues. In the amicus brief the Tax Clinic at the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School filed for the Center for Taxpayer Rights in Boechler at the cert. stage, we predicted this outcome.  It may well turn out that it is more important to taxpayers that the Tax Court can’t raise timeliness issues on its own if a deadline is not jurisdictional than that the taxpayers can also raise equitable tolling.

As the recent post on the application of 7459 pointed out by detailing the number of dismissals in deficiency, CDP, innocent spouse, and WB cases, there will be more (1) cases in which the IRS just misses the late filing and so doesn’t raise the issue than (2) cases where the IRS will raise the issue and the taxpayer will argue for equitable tolling.  It may be that the WBs in each of the above cases had an equitable tolling argument (e.g., non-receipt during the 30-day period, like Ms. Castillo), but they never had to present one.

DOCUMENT ATTRIBUTES
Copy RID