Author: Bryan Camp
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Lesson From The Tax Court: The Difference Between Tax Assessments And Tax Liabilities
When I teach Tax Practice and Procedure, my students regularly confuse the concepts of assessment and liability. They think that taxpayers have no liabilities until-and-unless the IRS properly assesses those liabilities. No assessment, no liability! And if the IRS abates an assessment, why that nukes the liability as well. No assessment, no liability! The taxpayers
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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Harpaz Reviews Regulatory Mismatches In The US And EU By Knoll, Mason & Schoen
This week, Assaf Harpaz (Georgia, Google Scholar) reviews a new work by Michael S. Knoll (Penn; Google Scholar) Ruth Mason (Virginia; Google Scholar), and Wolfgang Schön (Max Planck), Regulatory Mismatches in the United States and the European Union. Interstate commercial actors often face regulatory mismatches, which refer to differences in legal regulations between states. Regulatory mismatches are
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Lesson From The Tax Court: The New Regulation On Supervisory Approval Of Penalties
Section 6751(b) requires supervisory approval before the IRS can assess certain penalties. The statute is untouched by the recently enacted BBBA. In late December Treasury published these final rules on how the IRS must comply with the statute. Professor Caleb Smith shared some good thoughts on them on this Procedurally Taxing post. This Lesson is an
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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Harpaz Reviews Azam’s The Global Minimum Tax And Intra Western Tax Competition
This week, Assaf Harpaz (Georgia, Google Scholar) reviews a new work by Rifat Azam (Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya; Google Scholar), The Global Minimum Tax and Intra Western Tax Competition, 44 Berkeley J. Int’l L. ___ (2026). Implementation of the OECD’s two-pillar solution, including the Global Minimum Tax, has been thrown into disarray following President Trump’s January 2025
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Lesson From The Tax Court: No Equitable Tolling For Brain Farts
Tax practice is like comedy: timing is critical. In tax, however, messing up timing is no laughing matter. As the sainted Justice Holmes once wrote (in a tax case, nach): “Men must turn square corners when they deal with the Government.” Rock Island R.R. v. United States, 254 U.S. 141, 143 (1920). That is especially
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Lesson From The Tax Court: A Captivating Lesson On Insurance
I still don’t carry dental insurance. I have not found a plan where the numbers make sense. The benefits are so limited that by the time I would need them I will have paid more in premiums than the benefits are worth. The game is not worth the candle. So I take the money I
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Lesson From The Tax Court: After Loper-Bright, Hold The Mayo?
How much deference should courts give Treasury regulations? Until 2011, courts answered that question differently from how they evaluated deference to regulations issued by other federal agencies. In that year, however, the Supreme Court decided that Treasury regulations should be treated the same way as all federal regulations. Mayo Foundation v. United States, 562 U.S.
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Lesson From The Tax Court: The Difficult Path To Equitable Tolling
When a taxpayer contests IRS collection actions in a Collection Due Process (CDP) hearing, the hearing is officially over when the Office of Appeals issues a formal Notice of Determination. Section 6330(d)(1) gives taxpayers 30 days from the date of that Notice to petition the Tax Court for judicial review of the Office of Appeals
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Lesson From The Tax Court: The 150 Day Rule For Filing Tax Court Petitions
Section 6213 generally gives taxpayers 90 days after the IRS mails them a Notice of Deficiency (NOD) to petition the Tax Court for review. That’s the 90-day rule. But some lucky taxpayers get 150 days instead of the usual 90. That’s the 150-day rule. Who are those lucky taxpayers? Well, the statute says the 150-day
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Lesson From The Tax Court: Taxpayers Behaving Badly 2024
Once again my last new blog of the year presents cases where something in the facts made me just shake my head (SMH in texting parlance). You can find the previous lists here (for 2018), here (for 2019), here (for 2020), here (for 2021), here (for 2022) and here (for 2023). This year I have
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Lesson From The Tax Court: The Limits Of IRS Assessment Powers
Many people imagine the IRS as a kind of huge and powerful being, “whose frown, and wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command” regularly oversees enforcement of what many believe are outrageous penalties for errors in complying with increasingly twisted reporting requirements. Today we learn a lesson about possible limits of the IRS powers to
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Lesson From The Tax Court: To Get Deductions For Criminal Activity, Make It Your Business
I was going to blog today on a great case involving application of the Cohan rule to help a taxpayer establish their basis in property when they had lost their records. Pak v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2024-86. I decided not to because Les Book did such a nice job blogging about it here on Procedurally
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Lesson From The Tax Court: Form Trumps Substance On Phantom S Corp Income
This past June, the Supreme Court issued an opinion in Moore v. United States, 144 S.Ct. 1680 (June 20, 2024). There, the taxpayers were shareholders of an American-controlled foreign corporation called KisanKraft and were being taxed on a portion of the corporation’s income that had been earned long ago and far away but never actually
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Lesson From The Tax Court: The Shrinking §469 Exception For Active Participation
Section 469 generally denies taxpayers the ability to use net losses from passive activities to offset income from active activities. Renting real property is a passive activity. But there are some exceptions when it comes to renting real estate. Two are relevant for today’s lesson. First, taxpayers who are real estate professionals can deduct such
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Lesson From The Tax Court: Finding Safe Harbors From The §72(t) Early Distribution Penalty
Congress wants taxpayers to save for retirement. To encourage such savings, Congress authorizes a smorgasbord of tax-advantaged retirement plans that taxpayers can use. Authority for such plans are scattered in different statutes, such as §401, §403, and §408. Again, the purpose of these provisions is to allow taxpayers to save for retirement. Congress give other
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Lesson From The Tax Court: Proving Last Known Address
Many statutes require the IRS to send taxpayers notices. What confuses my students (and many taxpayers) is that the statutes rarely require that the taxpayer actually receive a particular notice; they just require the IRS to properly send the notice. And the IRS will always meet the statutory requirement if the IRS sends the notice
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Lesson From The Tax Court: When Is An Excise Tax Really A Penalty?
“The power to tax involves the power to destroy.” Justice John Marshall in McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. 316, 431 (1819). “Sometimes a tax is…just a tax.” — Sigmund Freud’s Tax Advisor. Today’s lesson is about how to tell when an excise tax is really a penalty. The answer I learn is: “why do you
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Lesson From The Tax Court: Taxpayer Excused From Providing Sewage-Soaked Receipts
Section 162 permits taxpayers to deduct all the “ordinary and necessary expenses” they incur in carrying on their trade or business. Generally, we know that taxpayers who claim §162 deductions must substantiate them. Generally, we know that means taxpayer must provide receipts. Cohan v. Commissioner, 39 F.2d 540 (2d Cir. 1930) Of course, taxpayers must
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Lesson From The Tax Court: Choose Your Return Preparer Carefully
In Stephanie Murrin v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2024-10 (Jan. 26, 2024), Judge Urda decided that the fraudulent acts of a return preparer starting in 1993, made an honest taxpayer liable for some $65,000 in deficiencies resulting from the 30-year old fraud of someone else, plus some $15k in §6662 penalties. That is, the return preparer’s
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Lesson From The Tax Court: For Whom The SOL Tolls
A recent Tax Court precedential decision raises a really interesting question about the application of §7451’s tolling provision to seemingly late-filed Tax Court Petitions. In Madiodio Sall v. Commissioner, 161 T.C. 13 (Nov. 30, 2023) (Judge Buch), the deadline for the taxpayer to file his Petition fell on Thanksgiving Day. We all know that means
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Lesson From The Tax Court: Changes
Change happens. After talking with Paul I will be changing from a once-a-week article to a once-a-month article. So my Lessons From The Tax Court series will continue in 2024, but now on the first Monday of each month, starting February 5th. By my count I've written somewhere between 312 and 320 weekly Lessons From
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A Year Of Lessons From The Tax Court (2023)
Here is a chronological listing of all the Lessons From The Tax Court I posted in 2023, with links to the Lesson, the primary case discussed, and its author. I have also listed the primary Code sections mentioned or discussed in the Lesson. At the end of the chronological listing, you will find a table