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When Does Interest Start Running on a Transferee Liability

Posted on Dec. 7, 2018

We welcome back guest blogger Marilyn Ames. Marilyn is retired from Chief Counsel’s office but works with us on IRS Practice and Procedure assisting with many chapters because of the breadth of her knowledge. She has done a lot of writing on transferee liability and provides insight on a recent case in that area. Keith

When a taxpayer has an unpaid income tax liability, the Internal Revenue Code is clear that interest on the unpaid tax accrues from the original due date of the return. However, when the Internal Revenue Service attempts to collect liability under Internal Revenue Code § 6901, the transferee liability section, questions arise as to the ability of the IRS to collect interest on the unpaid tax debt.  Because Section 6901 is merely a procedural law, the Internal Revenue Service must look to state law or other federal law for the substantive provisions that allow collection of taxes from a person who receives property from the taxpayer. The Internal Revenue Code provides that a transferee is liable for interest on the unpaid tax debt after the Internal Revenue Service issues a notice of transferee liability, but does state law govern the collection of interest before this date? The Ninth Circuit addressed this in the recent case of Tricarichi v. Comm’r, 122 AFTR2d 2018-6634 (9th Cir. Nov. 13, 2018).

The transferee in this case, Michael Tricarichi, was the sole shareholder of West Side Cellular, Inc., which received a $65 million settlement in 2003. Before its return for 2003 was due, Mr. Tricarichi, who was then a resident of Ohio, sold his West Side stock in a “Midco” tax-shelter transaction, leaving West Side Cellular with insufficient assets to pay its corporate income taxes for 2003. Mr. Tricarichi received about $35.2 million in the transaction, and then moved to Nevada to enjoy the fruits of his labors. (The workings of the Midco transaction, which have been the subject of frequent litigation in the recent past, are outlined in Diebold Foundation, Inc. v. Comm’r, 736 F3d 172 (2d Cir. 2013)).

In 2012, the Internal Revenue Service issued a notice of transferee liability to Mr. Tricarichi, which was duly litigated in the Tax Court, the result being that the Tax Court determined that Mr. Tricarichi was liable for the full amount of West Side’s tax deficiency and the associated penalties and interest in the tidy total sum of about $35.1 million. In a separate opinion, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the Tax Court’s conclusion that Mr. Tricarchi was liable as a transferee under Internal Revenue Code § 6901 and the Ohio Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act, leaving the question of when and whether a transferee is liable for the amount of interest due on the transferor’s tax liability before the notice of transferee liability is issued to this opinion.

Mr. Tricarichi, the transferee, argued that Ohio law determined his liability for any interest before the notice of transferee liability was interested. Under Ohio law, Mr. Tricarichi would have owed nothing instead of the nearly $13.9 million that accrued between the due date for the 2003 return and the issuance of the notice of transferee liability in 2012. He cited the Supreme Court’s decision in Commissioner v. Stern, 357 US 39 (1958), for the proposition that state law should determine the existence and extent of transferee liability, including the amount of the interest that can be collected on the underlying claim – which in Mr. Tricarichi’s view would be the tax and penalties owed by the taxpayer, but not the interest that accrued between the due date of the taxpayer’s 2003 return and June of 2012 when the IRS issued the notice of transferee liability.

The Ninth Circuit disagreed, holding that Internal Revenue Service’s claim is computed under the Internal Revenue Code, and will include statutory interest. The extent of the liability to be determined under state law is actually a question of the amount of the claim that can be recovered from the assets transferred. When the taxpayer transfers sufficient assets to pay the underlying claim, including the interest that has been accruing under the Internal Revenue Code for the unpaid tax liability, it is unnecessary to look to state law for the creation of a right to interest. It is only necessary to look to state law for interest when the assets transferred are insufficient to satisfy the total claim for the liability of the transferor/taxpayer. In that case, the relevant state law determines whether the Internal Revenue Service may recover any prejudgment interest beyond the value of the assets transferred. The Ninth Circuit adopted the “simple rule” formulated by the First Circuit in Schussel v. Werfel, 758 F3d 82 (1st Cir. 2014) that “the IRS may recover from [the transferee] all amounts [the transferor] owes to the IRS (including section 6601 interest accruing on [the transferor’s] tax debt), up to the limit of the amount transferred to [the transferee], with any recovery of prejudgment interest above the amount transferred to be determined in accord with [state] law.”

Under this relatively simple rule, because West Side’s tax deficiency, including interest and penalties was $35.1 million, and Mr. Tricarichi received $35.2 million in assets from West Side, an amount in excess of West Side’s tax liability, Mr. Tricarichi was liable for the full amount of the $35.1 million. The fact that Mr. Tricarichi will also be liable for interest as a transferee from the issuance of the notice of transferee liability in 2012 is irrelevant to the determination that he received more from West Side in assets than the tax claim against West Side. As a resident of Nevada, Mr. Tricarichi should understand that his attempt to break the bank in his litigation with the IRS has left him busted.

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