Tax Court In Brief | Middleton V. Commissioner | Trust Fund Recovery Penalty Assessment And Collection Due Process

• Published date: 11 April 2022
• Subject Matter: Tax, Tax Authorities
• Law Firm: Freeman Law
• Author: Freeman Law

The Tax Court in Brief - April 4th- April 8th, 2022

Freeman Law's "The Tax Court in Brief" covers every substantive Tax Court opinion, providing a weekly brief of its decisions in clear, concise prose.

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Tax Litigation: The Week of April 4th, 2022, through April 8th, 2022

• Scholz v. Comm'r, T.C. Summary Opinion 2022-5 |April 4, 2022?|Panuthos, J. | Dkt. No 20743-19S
• Salter v. Comm'r, T.C. Memo. 2022-9 |April 5, 2022?|Lauber, J. | Dkt. No. 10776-20
• Continuing Life Communities Thousand Oaks LLC v. Comm'r, T.C. Memo. 2022-31 |April 6, 2022?|Holmes, J. | Dkt. No. 4806-15
  
• Norberg v. Comm'r, | April 5 2022?| Lauber, A. | Dkt. No 12638-20L
• Metz v. Comm'r, T.C. Memo. 2022-33 | April 7, 2022 | Weiler, J. | Dkt. No. 16784-19

Middleton v. Comm'r, T.C. Memo. 2022-28 | April 4, 2022?|Kerrigan, J. | Dkt. No. 8158-19L

Short Summary: In 2007, Lineation Marketing Co. (Lineation) was a business entity. Luke Middleton was the managing officer and the only bank account signer for Lineation. In 2016, Lineation dissolved. The IRS undertook the collection of employment tax liabilities of Lineation for prior tax years. A Trust Fund Recovery Penalty Assessment (TFRP) was approved and notices of TFRP were sent to Middleton. After years of procedural due process, collections notifications, settlement efforts, and determinations as to the underlying tax liability, an IRS settlement officer verified all requirements of administrative procedures were met, and the Office of Appeals sustained the proposed levy action with respect to the TFRPs in issue. Middleton challenged the determination of his tax liability.

Primary Holdings:

• The Tax Court may consider an underlying tax liability on review only if the taxpayer properly raised the issue during the CDP hearing. Here, appropriate notices of tax liability and of due process rights were mailed to Middleton at his last known address and he did not respond to the letters or dispute his receipt of them during his administrative proceedings with the Office of Appeals. The record showed that all procedural and review requirements were met by the IRS and its settlement officers. The Office of Appeals did not abuse its discretion.

Key Points of Law:

• Where a taxpayer's underlying liabilities are not at issue the Tax Court's review of a notice of determination is for abuse of discretion. See Sego v Comm'r, 114...