Author: Bryan Camp
-
Lesson From The Tax Court: Who Is An IRS Employee’s Immediate Supervisor For §6751 Penalty Approval?
Today’s lesson involves yet more litigation over IRS compliance with the penalty approval process required by the formerly toothless §6751(b)(1). In Sand Investment Co., LLC, et al. v. Commissioner, 157 T.C. No. 11 (Nov. 23, 2021) (Judge Lauber), the Tax Court continues teaching us the scope and operation §6751(b), a series of lessons it started…
-
Lesson From The Tax Court: How To Mess Up Your Checkbook IRA
The idea that freedom means control over your own destiny s arguably the most defining characteristic of American culture. It is most certainly the basis on which various companies promote “checkbook IRAs.” If you Google that term you will find a gaggle of companies urging people to take full control of their retirement funds, to…
-
Lesson From The Tax Court: Not Every Decision Comes With An Opinion
Once a taxpayer petitions the Tax Court to contest a Notice of Deficiency (NOD), the Tax Court will issue a decision in the case. The taxpayer has no option to nonsuit the case like plaintiffs can do in state courts or in federal district courts. It’s what I call the Hotel California rule: the taxpayer…
-
Lesson From The Tax Court: A Hard Choice Is Still A Choice
I have a strict attendance policy in that a student is either either there or not. I don't do excused absences. Students get six absences with no penalty and with no questions asked. Their seventh absence, however, results in a one-increment reduction of their final grade (B+ to B, e.g.), again with no questions asked. …
-
Lesson From The Tax Court: Whistleblower Died, But His Claim Survived
The IRS has long been authorized to award informants a fee for information. Informants unhappy with their awards, however, have not always had easy access to judicial review. That changed in 2006 when Congress modified §7623 to permit taxpayers to ask the Tax Court to review “any determination regarding an award.” §7623(b)(4). Tax Reform and…
-
Lesson From The Tax Court: Of Distributive Shares And The CDP Mashup
Sometimes our biggest problems are self-created. In Taryn L. Dodd v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2021-118 (Oct. 5, 2021) (Judge Lauber), the taxpayer was attempting to repudiate a tax liability she had self-reported but had not paid. Her multi-year slog through Collection Due Process (CDP) involved three trips to the Tax Court. Only in the third trip do…
-
Lesson From The Tax Court #200: The Great Divide
Today's Lesson is an appropriate one for my 200th post. While the line separating my 199th from my 201st post is not big—not a great divide—the line does make visible a degree of effort and consistency that might otherwise be obscure. So, yeah, I'm kinda proud about crossing this line. The concept of Adjusted Gross…
-
Classic Lesson From The Tax Court: Sex And Deductions
I was going to title this week’s blog “The Concept of Inherently Personal.” But I could not resist trying to put some clickbait in the title. Today I want to discuss two classic cases from Tax Court. They explore the never-ending balancing act needed to decide when an expense is deductible when it has both…
-
Lesson From The Tax Court: The Many Rooms Of Tax Court Power
All federal courts (except the Supreme Court) are created by Congress. Congress defines the extent to which each federal court can invoke the power of the federal government to coerce the parties before them. The fancy legal term for that power is “jurisdiction.” Like all other federal courts, the Tax Court is a court of…