2011 Decisions

Opinions of the United

States Court of Appeals

for the Third Circuit

3-14-2011

Heidi Hartmann v. Commissioner of Internal

Reven

Precedential or Non-Precedential: Non-Precedential

Docket No. 10-3773

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Recommended Citation

"Heidi Hartmann v. Commissioner of Internal Reven" (2011). 2011 Decisions. Paper 1664.

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NOT PRECEDENTIAL

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT

___________

No. 10-3773

___________

HEIDI A. HARTMANN,

Appellant

v.

COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE

____________________________________

On Appeal from the United States Tax Court

(T.C. No. 2096-10)

Tax Court Judge: Honorable John O. Colvin

____________________________________

Submitted Pursuant to Third Circuit LAR 34.1(a)

February 24, 2011

Before: SLOVITER, FISHER and WEIS, Circuit Judges

Opinion filed: March 14, 2011

___________

OPINION

___________

PER CURIAM.

Heidi Hartmann, proceeding pro se, appeals from the United States Tax 

Court’s order dismissing her petition for review for lack of jurisdiction, and from its 

subsequent order denying her motion for reconsideration. For the reasons that follow, we 

will affirm. 
2

I.

Because we write for the parties, who are familiar with the background of 

this case, we discuss that background only briefly here. On December 5, 2007, the 

Internal Revenue Service’s (“IRS”) Office of Appeals issued a Notice of Determination 

Concerning Collection Action pursuant to 26 U.S.C. §§ 6320 and/or 6330, approving a 

proposed lien and/or levy upon Hartmann’s property to collect unpaid income taxes for 

tax year 2004. Hartmann timely petitioned the Tax Court to review that determination. 

On August 21, 2008, the Tax Court, apparently pursuant to an agreement by the parties, 

issued a decision sustaining the determinations in the Notice “except as provided herein.” 

The court provided that Hartmann’s 2004 income tax liability was $36,077, plus penalties 

totaling $6000. Attached to the court’s decision were the parties’ stipulations that (1) the 

$36,077 tax liability did not include a prepayment credit for that same amount, and (2) 

“interest is not included in the above-referenced penalties and . . . interest will be 

assessed as provided by law on the penalties due from [Hartmann].” Neither party 

appealed from the Tax Court’s decision. 

In January 2010, the IRS apparently issued a notice of levy to UBS 

Financial Services, Inc. (“UBS”), directing UBS to withdraw funds from Hartmann’s 

account so that they could be applied to satisfy interest the IRS claimed she still owed on 

her 2004 tax liability. Shortly thereafter, Hartmann filed a petition for review in the Tax 

Court and moved to restrain the collection of funds from her UBS account, alleging that 

she had already paid the full amount of interest owed. The petition itself indicated that 
3

she was challenging a Notice of Determination Concerning Collection Action.

On June 21, 2010, the Tax Court denied Hartmann’s motion and dismissed 

the case, concluding that it lacked jurisdiction to consider the petition because Hartmann 

was actually challenging a notice of levy, not a notice of determination. The court further 

held that to the extent she sought to reopen her earlier case as an alternative to pursuing 

her petition, she could not do so because that case was now final. Hartmann 

subsequently filed a motion for reconsideration of the Tax Court’s June 21, 2010 

decision, but the court denied that motion on August 23, 2010. Hartmann now seeks 

review of these last two Tax Court decisions. 

II. 

We have jurisdiction pursuant to 26 U.S.C. § 7482(a)(1). We exercise 

plenary review over the Tax Court decisions challenged here. See PNC Bancorp, Inc. v. 

Comm’r, 212 F.3d 822, 827 (3d Cir. 2000) (stating that this Court exercises plenary 

review over the Tax Court’s legal conclusions).

“The Tax Court is a court of limited jurisdiction,” Comm’r v. McCoy, 484 

U.S. 3, 7 (1987) (per curiam), and it “may exercise jurisdiction only pursuant to specific 

legislative enactments.” Maier v. Comm’r, 360 F.3d 361, 363 (2d Cir. 2004). As the Tax 

Court explained in its June 21, 2010 decision, its jurisdiction to review certain IRS 

collection activity under either § 6320 or § 6330 is triggered only when the IRS Office of 

Appeals issues a notice of determination and the taxpayer files a timely petition for 

review. See 26 U.S.C. §§ 6320(c), 6330(d)(1); Boyd v. Comm’r, 451 F.3d 8, 10-11 & 
4

n.1 (1st Cir. 2006); Orum v. Comm’r, 123 T.C. 1, 8 (2004), aff’d, 412 F.3d 819 (7th Cir. 

2005). Because Hartmann’s January 2010 petition sought to challenge a notice of levy, 

not a notice determination, the Tax Court properly dismissed the petition for lack of 

jurisdiction.

Nor did the Tax Court err in rejecting Hartmann’s alternative request to 

reopen her earlier case. The Tax Court’s decision in that case became final in November 

2008, when the time for filing an appeal expired. See 26 U.S.C. §§ 7481(a)(1), 7483. 

Once a Tax Court decision becomes final, that court generally lacks jurisdiction to disturb 

it. See, e.g., Stickler v. Comm’r, 464 F.2d 368, 370 (3d Cir. 1972) (per curiam); 

Davenport Recycling Assocs. v. Comm’r, 220 F.3d 1255, 1259 (11th Cir. 2000); Harbold 

v. Comm’r, 51 F.3d 618, 621 (6th Cir. 1995). Although courts have identified a few 

limited exceptions to this jurisdictional bar, see Davenport Recycling Assocs., 220 F.3d 

at 1259 (stating that “narrow exceptions to this rule have been permitted when: (1) the 

decision is shown to be void or a legal nullity for lack of jurisdiction . . . ; (2) there has 

been fraud on the court; or (3) the decision was based on mutual mistake”), none of those 

exceptions applies here. Accordingly, because Hartmann sought to reopen her earlier 

case after it had become final, the Tax Court lacked the authority to reopen it.
5

In light of the above, we find no reason to disturb the Tax Court’s June 21, 

2010 decision.1 Additionally, Hartmann has not shown that the Tax Court erred in 

denying her motion for reconsideration. As a result, we will affirm the Tax Court’s 

decisions entered on June 21, 2010, and August 23, 2010, respectively.

 

1 Despite Hartmann’s claim to the contrary, it appears that she does have a means 

of challenging the IRS’s conclusion that she still owes interest on her 2004 tax 

liability. See 28 U.S.C. § 1346(a) (providing that the district courts have original 

jurisdiction over “[a]ny civil action against the United States for the recovery of 

any internal-revenue tax alleged to have been erroneously or illegally assessed or 

collected”). It seems doubtful, however, as to whether she could prevail on the 

merits of such a challenge.