Bryan Camp has published an article on the TaxProf Blog, titled “Lesson from the Tax Court: IRS Can Issue Multiple ‘Final’ Spousal Relief Determinations ”, which discusses the outcomes of Nilda E. Vera v. Commissioner, 157 T.C. No 6 (Aug. 23, 2021). The article begins as follows:
Yogi Berra would have been a great tax practitioner. In Nilda E. Vera v. Commissioner, 157 T.C. No 6 (Aug. 23, 2021), Judge Buch does his best Yogi Berra imitation by teaching us that just because the IRS issued one “final determination” about an innocent spouse claim does not prevent it from issuing a second “final determination” to the same taxpayer when the taxpayer resubmits the same claim for the same year. That means taxpayers potentially get a second opportunity to petition the Tax Court for review of an IRS rejection even when the taxpayer missed the first opportunity. The Tax Court thus interprets the law to encourage taxpayers to keep resubmitting equitable relief claims because one never knows when the IRS might issue a second final determination, either deliberately or, as here, because of a goof-up. As Yogi might have said: it ain’t final until it’s final! So when at first your claim’s denied, file, file again. In the context of §6015(f) relief requests, that is not actually a bad result. Details below the fold.
Click here to see the full article: “titled “Lesson from the Tax Court: IRS Can Issue Multiple ‘Final’ Spousal Relief Determinations ”
Posted by Marin Larkin, Associate Editor, Wealth Strategies Journal.
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