United States Tax Court

The court held that taxpayers cannot terminate a fixed-date Form 872 consent to extend the assessment period by submitting Form 872–T, which is designed to terminate Form 872–A. Because the taxpayers’ Forms 872 remained effective when the IRS issued the deficiency notices, the notices were timely and the Commissioner…

The United States Tax Court held that Tax Court Rule 143(g) does not apply to declarations submitted in support of a pretrial discovery protective‑order motion and consequently denied Airbnb's motions to strike those declarations.

The court sustained the deficiencies, additions to tax, and accuracy-related penalties determined against petitioner for 2015 through 2019. Respondent met its burdens of production through third-party income records, account transcripts, substitutes for returns, and penalty-approval forms, while petitioner offered no…

The Court held that petitioners were entitled to a 2010 theft-loss deduction of $925,000 for funds transferred in connection with the purported $70 million investment deal, but not for additional amounts advanced to cover Mr. Visel's living expenses.

The Tax Court sustained the Commissioner's FPAA adjustments reclassifying $170,764,863 of reported qualified dividend income (QDI) from Swiss Equities as ordinary dividend income and disallowing a $25,614,729 foreign tax credit (FTC).

The Court denied the Commissioner's motion to dismiss, holding that the Final Partnership Adjustment was properly issued and mailed and that the partnership's petition was untimely.

The Tax Court granted the Commissioner partial summary judgment, holding that Delavau Holdings, LLC — a disregarded entity deemed to liquidate into HBM in a section 332 liquidation on June 30, 2018 — was a 'predecessor' of HBM under Treas. Reg.

The Tax Court held that Siemens was entitled to the full dividends-received deduction for its foreign-source dividend under section 245A. The court held that the Extraordinary Disposition Rules could not limit that deduction because they conflicted with the statute's clear text and exceeded Treasury's delegated…

The court determined that the conservation easement was worth $800,000 because the property had a $1,440,000 before value and a stipulated $640,000 after value. It held that the partnership improperly allocated the charitable-contribution deductions because the allocations did not reflect the partners who held…

The court held that the Eilers had to include the full amounts of their credit-reporting litigation settlements in gross income, including amounts paid directly to their attorneys.

The Court held that the Commissioner properly used a supplemental assessment to recover employment taxes that had been mistakenly assessed as zero and refunded to petitioner. Because the erroneous assessment misstated petitioner’s liability by the entire amount of its reported employment tax, it was imperfect in a…

The Court held that it had jurisdiction because the whistleblower's information was forwarded to an examination team while the target's examination remained open under the applicable IRS definition of a closed case.

The court granted the Commissioner’s motion for partial summary judgment, holding that CSC Financial’s retroactive election to be disregarded required the note issuance and contribution to be treated for tax purposes as CSC Germany’s contribution of its own note.

The court held that petitioners’ receipt of letters offering review by IRS Appeals gave them an opportunity to dispute their section 6707 penalty liabilities, so they could not challenge those liabilities in their CDP hearings or in this Court.

The Tax Court held that section 7701(o) requires a relevancy determination separate from its two-part economic-substance test, and that the doctrine is relevant to the Patels’ microcaptive transactions.

The court denied 39 nonparticipating partners’ motions for leave to participate in a partnership proceeding after the tax matters partner and the Commissioner agreed to a settlement.

The Tax Court held that wages disallowed as deductions under section 280E do not count as “W–2 wages” when calculating the section 199A deduction. It reasoned that section 199A excludes from qualified business income items not allowed in determining taxable income, so those wages cannot be properly allocable to…

The Tax Court held that the petitioner’s bankruptcy filing did not automatically stay his pending whistleblower-award case under 11 U.S.C. § 362(a)(8), because the Court’s review of the award denial could not affect his tax liability.

Applying the principles of the QTIP regime, the court held that Bruce made no taxable gift in connection with the trust commutation and related transactions, even assuming a transfer occurred under section 2519.

The Court held that it had jurisdiction to review LaRosa’s timely petition for equitable innocent-spouse relief even though the underlying claim might not qualify for relief. On summary judgment, it concluded that section 6015(f) relief is limited to unpaid taxes or deficiencies and that an erroneous refund consisting…

The Tax Court held that section 7508A(d) automatically postpones the filing deadline for a qualified taxpayer’s Tax Court petition when the disaster declaration specifies an incident date.

The Court held that the Treasury proceeds regulation for conservation-easement deductions was procedurally invalid because Treasury did not respond to a significant comment during rulemaking.

The Tax Court held that, assuming New York law governs, New York would recognize Semone and Ziona Grossman’s Israeli marriage under its place-of-celebration rule, including Israel’s determination that Semone was eligible to remarry.

The Tax Court concluded that the Commissioner did not abuse his discretion by using a comparable profits method with the supply points as tested parties and independent bottlers as comparables, and that the resulting allocation required recomputation of the Mexican branch’s section 987 losses.

The court held that Brzyski was not entitled to the claimed dependency exemptions, head-of-household status, child tax credits, or earned income tax credit for 2016. He did not prove that he was married to the children’s mother and therefore could claim the children as stepchildren; the children also did not meet the…

The court held that the regulation limiting economic-hardship relief under section 6343(a)(1)(D) to individual taxpayers is a permissible interpretation of a statute that is silent or ambiguous on whether such relief extends to nonindividuals.

The Tax Court granted the whistleblower’s motion to compel production of requested audit documents. It concluded that deciding the Commissioner’s unsettled statutory argument about when the IRS proceeds on whistleblower information was not appropriate in this discovery dispute, and that the Commissioner had not shown…

The Tax Court granted the Commissioner's motions for reconsideration and to vacate its prior decision. It held that the general limitations provision in section 6501 governs because the specific provision in section 4979A(e)(2)(D) only extends the section 6501 period, and the taxpayer filed no qualifying return for…

The court granted the taxpayer’s motion to consider corollary issues from its prior opinion, while leaving the prior primary holdings unchallenged. It held that interest on the loan was deductible because the loan served a substantive banking purpose, but the spread was not income because it arose from the…

The court held that the settlement officer did not abuse her discretion in sustaining the proposed collection actions, including by relying on county tax assessments and public property records when evaluating the taxpayer’s available equity.

The Tax Court allowed the Commissioner to amend the answer because Phillips had notice of the issues and would not be prejudiced. It found that his bowling was not conducted with an actual and honest profit objective, and that he could not substantiate any Schedule C deductions even assuming a profit motive.

The court held that the 1993 deficiency was time-barred because the return preparer’s error was negligent, not fraudulent, but that the assessment periods remained open for 1994 and 1995 because the preparer fraudulently understated tax, and were extended to six years for 1996 and 1997 because substantial income was…

The Tax Court affirmed the Commissioner’s determination to treat the petitioner’s church tithing and his children’s college expenses as conditional, not necessary, expenses in a partial payment installment agreement.

The Tax Court held that only the 600 preferred shares Alfred J. Richard owned before his death were includable in his estate; the additional 140 shares belonged to his wife’s estate under her will.

The court denied reconsideration of its conclusion that section 2036 applied, finding no substantial error or unusual circumstance warranting a change. It also held that the estate could not increase the marital deduction for partnership interests and underlying assets that Clyde Sr.

The Tax Court held that the petitioner could not deduct his 2006 payments to his former wife as alimony because the divorce decree did not require the payments to terminate at her death, as federal law requires.

The Court denied the petitioner's request for reconsideration after treating his filing as a motion to vacate, holding that a court need not provide a detailed refutation of frivolous anti-tax arguments.

The Court held that the Appeals Office could consider additional evidence on remand, including a certified-mail list, because the remand supplemented the original hearing and required clarification of whether the notice of deficiency was properly mailed.

The Tax Court held that the IRS regulation imposing a two‑year deadline for requesting innocent‑spouse relief under §6015(f) is invalid and, applying the equitable‑relief factors, granted Ms. Pullins relief from joint and several liability for 1999, 2002 and 2003 (except for her own $719 under‑withholding).

The court held that the transfer of IBM stock to Derivium was a taxable sale in 2001, not a loan or a qualifying securities-lending arrangement, because Derivium received the stock’s ownership rights and Calloway had no obligation to repay the advance.