janztaxnospam[at]aol.com (JanZtaxNOSPAM) writes:

- quote -

She needs to file her petition in Tax Court. It may be
time for her to hire a representative.

Phil Marti
Topeka, KS

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"JanZtaxNOSPAM" <janztaxnospam[at]aol.com> wrote:

- quote -

The taxpayer needs to petition the U.S. Tax Court. That
doesn't mean he necessarily needs to hire an attorney and
be prepared to go to trial. Once the petition is filed
and the case is docketed, your local IRS Appeals office
will contact the taxpayer about getting the case settled.
Appeals usually will give the taxpayer an opportunity to
meet face-to-face to explain his position. If the facts
are as straightforward as you say, it would seem that the
Appeals Officer would recommend a stipulated agreement
to settle the case with no change to the tax liability.

Once a Statutory Notice of Deficiency (SNOD) has been issued,
the only formal avenue available to the taxpayer to challenge
IRS' position without paying the tax first is to petition the
Tax Court. The petition filing fee is $60. The U.S. Tax Court
has a website where you can get more information. According
to the information posted under About the Court, "The vast
majority of cases are settled by mutual agreement without the
necessity of a trial." You can download a Petition for Small
Tax Cases by clicking on forms. The taxpayer's petition needs
to mailed to the Tax Court's address shown in the SNOD by the
90th day in order for the Tax Court to have jurisdiction.
I recommend it be mailed certified return receipt requested.


Barney Byrd

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JanZtaxNOSPAM <janztaxnospam[at]aol.com> wrote:

- quote -

Given that a 90 day letter has been issued, I would refer the
client to a qualified tax attorney.

MTW

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Let me start out by saying that I have consciously chosen
not to do representation work in my practice because I get
too frustrated dealing with the IRS. As a result, I probably
don't know enough about policies and procedures. So, I hope
someone has a suggestion about where to go next.

Someone who was not a client contacted me about a letter he
had received from the IRS. It turned out to be an
examination report. The report assessed additional tax of
$6000 which was somehow related to penalties for early
retirement plan distributions, and denial of a lifetime
learning credit. I say "somehow related" because there is
absolutely no information in the report that indicates how
this calculation was done. The AGI and taxable income of the
original return were not changed. The "new" IRA tax is
listed as $5409. On line 16a of the original return is
$33,188 with 0 taxable (all was rolled over). Line 15b is
$17,200, for a total retirement distribution of 50,388. None
was a SIMPLE so how could the penalty be $5409? (This is not
to say that it's impossible that there was another
retirement plan distribution that the clients missed but
that would have changed the AGI if the IRS was aware of it.)
And, there's no explanation for why the lifetime learning
credit was denied (they meet income restrictions).

I called the Atlanta office which issued the report and they
said they couldn't do anything; I should write a letter. I
called the taxpreparer hotline and they said they couldn't
do anything. So, I did write a letter on August 11 asking
for an explanation (just what I've said above) and attaching
the brokerage form that shows the rollover of the $33,188
distribution and a letter from the school, saying that the
spouse spent $17,200 on tuition (higher education, therefore
not subject to the early distribution penalty). I faxed the
letter to the # given to me by the GA office.

There has been no response to my letter but the taxpayers
recently received a notice of deficiency dated Aug 29 and
saying they have 90 days to petition tax court. So I tried
calling the GA IRS office again and again they said they
couldn't help. They couldn't even tell me if my letter had
been received but said "if you have an acknowledgement of
the fax being sent (which I do), it's been received."

Today I called the taxpayer advocate but she said she
couldn't do anything. She suggested I file an amended return
but THE ORIGINAL RETURN IS CORRECT (as far as I know)!!

Does anyone have any suggestions of where to go/who to
call/what to do next? Where are all those nice IRS people
who are so helpful when you bring your unresolved cases to
the NAEA and CSEA conferences???

Any help appreciated, Jan Zobel EA

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