Recently in Tax Law Category

In an appeal from a tax court's post-trial decision to adopt the Commissioner of Internal Revenue's computation of the taxpayer's estate tax deficiency rather than the taxpayer's own computation, the order is affirmed where: 1) the tax court did not abuse its discretion in computing the amount of the deficiency; and 2) the tax court did not abuse its discretion by adopting the Commissioner's Rule 155 computation.

Read Powell v. Comm'r. of Int'l. Rev., No. 08-9005

Appellate Information

Filed September 11, 2009

Judges

Opinion by Judge Holloway

Counsel

For Petitioner:

Edith Moates, Norman, OK

For Respondent:

Patrick J. Urda, Attorney, Tax Division, United States Department of Justice, Washington, DC

Nathan J. Hochman, Assistant Attorney General, Washington, DC

In a challenge to collection due process determinations issued by the IRS's Office of Appeals regarding plaintiff's tax obligations, summary judgment for defendant is affirmed where, because plaintiff failed to articulate any cognizable violation of the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) in connection with the imposition of the failure-to-pay penalties, section 3512(a) of the PRA provided him with no protection from those penalties.

Read Springer v. Comm'r. of Int'l. Rev., No. 08-9004

Appellate Information

Filed August 31, 2009

Judges

Opinion by Judge McKay

Counsel

For Appellant:

Jerold Barringer, Nokomis, IL

For Appellee:

Nathan J. Hochman, Attorney, Tax Division, Department of Justice, Washington, DC

Michael J. Haungs, Attorney, Tax Division, Department of Justice, Washington, DC

Defendant's tax evasion conviction is affirmed, where the delay prior to the District Court's hearing on his motion to dismiss the indictment did not violate the Speedy Trial Act, as the Act did not require the dismissal of an indictment whenever the defendant files a pre-trial motion and retracts it at a hearing held more than seventy days later.

Read the full decision in US v. Smith, No. 08-8019.

Appellate Information:

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF WYOMING (D.C. NO. 2:07-CR-00125-CAB-1)
Opinion filed on June 18, 2009

Judges:

Before TACHA, O'BRIEN and McCONNELL, Circuit Judges.
Opinion by McCONNELL, Circuit Judge.

Counsel:

Henry F. Bailey, Jr., Bailey Stock & Harmon, Cheyenne, Wyoming (Jared S. Crecelius, Bailey, Stock & Harmon and Ronald Petty, Cheyenne, Wyoming, with him on the brief), for Defendant-Appellant.

Gregory Davis, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. (Nathan J. Hochman, Assistant Attorney General, Alan Hechtkopk and Elissa Hart-Mahan, Tax Division, Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., with him on the brief), for Plaintiff-Appellee.