Introduction: In Jenner v. Commissioner, 163 T.C. 7 (Oct. 22, 2024) (link to opinion), the U.S. Tax Court held that the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) was under no obligation to provide a husband and wife with a collection due process (“CDP”) hearing prior to offsetting Social Security benefit payments under the Treasury Offset Program (TOP)….
The Mukhi v Commissioner[1] case is another example of just how severe the penalties are for failing to report certain foreign financial activity timely; in this case, it was the failure to report foreign trusts, related trust activity, and ownership of a foreign corporation on Form 3520, Form 3520-A, and Form 5471 in a timely…
The Fairbank case demonstrates the power of IRC § 6501(c)(8) to provide the IRS the ability to assess taxpayers many years after the normal statute of limitations is closed if the taxpayer fails to file all required IRS international information reporting forms. In Fairbank v Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2023-19, the IRS argued that, despite the…
Tax Court Wife of Convicted White Collar Criminal Denied Innocent Spouse Relief Taxpayer-Wife sought relief from joint liability originating in part from Taxpayer-Husband’s embezzlement of funds from a church for which he was convicted of fraud, identity theft and tax evasion . The Tax Court upheld the IRS’s determination that Taxpayer-Wife was not eligible for…
In Lamprecht v Commissioner, TC Memo 2022-91 (link to case), a John Doe summons tolled the statute of limitations and allowed the IRS to assess a 20% accuracy related penalty more than 6 years after the Taxpayers’ original income tax returns were filed. The IRS was able to assess the penalty even though the Taxpayer…
Ruesch v. Commissioner, 154 T.C. No. 13 (2020)(link to case in Google Scholar) is the first Tax Court opinion that analyzes the IRS’s ability to certify “seriously delinquent tax debts” to the US State Department for potential “denial, revocation, or limitation of a passport” under IRC § 7345. The case was dismissed because the IRS…
Aspro, Inc. v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo 2021-8 (January 2021) is a cautionary tale for C corporations that look to zero out taxable income through post hoc management fees. In total the three shareholders received management fees in excess of a $1 million dollars a year for the years at issue (2012-2014). Although the management…
In Grajales v Commissioner, 156 T.C. No. 3 (2021), the Tax Court held the 10% tax in section 72(t) applicable to early distributions from qualified retirement plans is not subject to § 6751(b)(1). As a result, the § 72(t) 10% tax is not subject to the written supervisory approval requirement before being asserted against the…
In Ramey v Commissioner, 156 T.C. No. 1 (2021) (available in Tax Notes free resources here), the IRS mailed a final notice of intent to levy (LT11) to the taxpayer’s last known address (and actual address) via certified mail return receipt requested. The address was a shared office location (i.e., multiple businesses were located at…
Overview In Reflectxion Resources, Inc. v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2020-114 (August 3, 2020)(link), the U.S. Tax Court held that a Notice of Determination of Worker Classification (“NDWC”) was not in and of itself sufficient to provide the Tax Court with jurisdiction for all payroll tax periods raised in Reflectxion Resources, Inc.’s (“Taxpayer”) petition. In order…
