The United States has the power to place a lien on a taxpayers’ property and rights to property when that taxpayer has unpaid federal taxes.[1] The government is statutorily authorized to bring a civil action to enforce this lien under Internal Revenue Code (IRC) § 7403.[2] While § 7403 generally provides that courts are to adjudicate lien enforcement actions on …
The United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee recently issued an order dismissing a taxpayer’s petition to quash an IRS summons.[1] The case provides a lesson in the importance of certain rules that arise in the context of litigating with the government–particularly in the context of seeking to quash an IRS summons. The court’s order found that the …
A recent case reveals the perils of maintaining the attorney-client and work product privileges. As it demonstrates, additional precautions may be necessary in the context of privileged documents that are utilized in the tax context, particularly where those documents are used to support a reporting position. United States v. Sanmina Corporation & Subsidiariesinvolved a dispute between the IRS and …
On July 18, 2018, the Eleventh Circuit issued its decision in Presley v. United States.[1]The holding of the Court focused on upholding the Internal Revenue Service’s ability to issue summonses to banks that may hold private and confidential information of third-parties. In particular, the Court held that the IRS may issue a summons to a bank to obtain a law …
The Taxpayer Advocate recently issued her annual report to Congress, identifying the ten tax issues that are most litigated in federal courts. For purposes of this list, the term “litigated” refers to cases in which a court issued an opinion—so the list does not necessarily capture all of the most heavily disputed issues that are typically disposed of short of …
Is a summons issued by the IRS to examine books, records or other data in the custody or control of a foreign related party enforceable? The Internal Revenue Code provides the IRS with a mechanism to summon such records in certain situations – or to effectively impose a penalty against the domestic reporting corporation (“DRC”) (defined below) for failing to …
The Taxpayer Advocate recently issued her 2015 Report to Congress. As part of that report, the TAS is required to identify the ten tax issues most litigated in federal courts. See IRC § 7803(c)(2)(B)(ii)(X). Perhaps not surprisingly, there was not a significant change from last year’s list of the most litigated tax issues. (Note: For these purposes, “litigated” means cases …
