TAX COURT OPINION

Case: B. Johnstone Chubet, III
Docket Number: 27023-07L
Judge: Colvin
Opinion Type: bench
Filed: 05/14/2009
Pages: 6

UNITED STATES TAX COUR T WASHINGTON , DC 2021 7 B . JOHNSTONE CHUBET, III , Petitione r V . COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE , Respondent O R D E R Docket No . 27023-07L . Pursuant to Rule 152(b), Tax Court Rules of Practice and Procedure, it i s ORDERED that the Clerk of the Court shall transmit herewith to petitioner and to respondent a copy of the pages of the transcript of the trial in the above case before Judge Joseph Robert Goeke at Hartford, Connecticut, on April 20, 2009, containing his oral findings of fact and opinion rendered at the, conclusion of the trial . In accordance with the oral findings of fact and opinion, decision will be entered for responden t (Signed ) Joseph Robert Goeke Judg e Dated : Washington, D .C . May 14, 2009 SERVED May 15 2009 3 1 Bench Opinion by Judge Robert Joseph Goek e 2 Chubet v . Commissioner Docket No . 27023-07L 3 April 20, 200 9 4 THE COURT : The Court has decided to render 5 oral findings of fact and opinion in this case and the 6 following represents the Court's oral findings of fact 7 and opinion . The oral findings of fact and opinio n 8 shall not be relied upon as precedent in any other 9 case . 10 The Petitioner timely filed a petition in 11 12 this case seeking review of ~T' determination to A- uphold the filing of a federal tax lien against the 13 Petitioner for the taxable year 2002 involving federal 14 income tax . The Petitioner brought this case before 15 the Court as a .regular case and at the time th e 16 petition was filed the Petitioner resided in the State 17 of Connecticut . Prior to trial, Respondent filed a 18 motion for summary judgment and the Court ordered 19 Petitioner to respond to Respondent's motion on or 20 before April 15, 2009 . The Petitioner failed to 21 respond and Petitioner failed to appear when this case 22 was . called for trial or disposition of the motion on 23 April 20, 2009 . After review of Respondent's motion, 24 the Court has decided to render a Bench Opinion 25 regarding the motion and to grant the motion . The Heritage Reporting Corporation (202) 628-4888 4 1 basis for the Court's analysis is that the Petitioner 2 failed to raise any issue which is the subject fo r 3 review by the Court in this proceeding as we will 4 explain herein . 5 Petitioner failed to file federal income tax 6 return for the taxable year 2002 . Petitioner was sent 7 a notice of deficiency by Respondent on June 3, 2005 . 8 Petitioner did not petition the U .S . Tax Cour t 9 relative to this notice of deficiency . Respondent 10 attached information to the statutory notice which 11 establishes Petitioner's liability for the year 2002 . 12 Respondent attached information to the motion fo r 13 summary judgment which shows that the liability for 14 2002 was assessed after Petitioner failed to petition 15 the Tax Court and that that liability remains unpaid . 16 Subsequently, Respondent issued t o 17 Petitioner IRS Letter 3172, Notice of Federal Tax Lien 18 Filing and a right to a hearing under IRC Sectio n 19 6320 . This letter was issued on March 21, 2007 . In 20 response to this notice, Petitioner timely filed Form 21 12153, Request for a Collection Due Process Hearing . 22 This form was received by Respondent on April 26 , 23 2007, and a conference was scheduled with Petitioner 24 for September 20, 2007, by Respondent's appeal s 25 office . Petitioner failed to attend this scheduled Heritage Reporting Corporatio n (202) 628-4888 5 1 conference . In preparation for the schedule d 2 conference the settlement officer pursuant to he r 3 affidavit attached to Respondent's motion for summary 4 judgment, reviewed the transcript of Petitioner' s 5 account and verified that Petitioner owed federal 6 income tax for the year 2002 . Given Petitioner' s 7 failure to appear and failure to submit any collection 8 alternatives to Respondent, Respondent's settlemen t 9 officer issued a notice of determination concerning 10 collection action under Section 6320 and/or 6330 , 11 upholding Respondent's proposed collection action with 12 respect to Petitioner's income tax liability for 2002 . 13 As stated previously, Petitioner then filed a timely 14 petition with this Court for review of tha t 15 determination . 16 The Court's review of a collection notice of 17 determination under these circumstances is limite d 18 because the Court cannot review the underlying 19 liability . Because the underlying liability wa s 20 previously determined in a notice of deficiency and 21 Petitioner had an opportunity to petition tha t 22 liability to the Tax Court after the receipt of the 23 notice of deficiency, the Court simply does not have 24 jurisdiction to review the liability issue at thi s 25 time and Petitioner has not raised the liability with Heritage Reporting Corporatio n (202) 628-4888 6 1 the settlement officer in any event . Petitioner di d 2 not raise any other issues with the settlement officer 3 because Petitioner failed to appear and meet with the 4 settlement officer . 5 In the Form 12153 the Petitioner sent to the 6 settlement officer, the Petitioner maintained that he 7 would not be given work if the federal tax lien 8 remained on file against him . And he checked the box 9 on the form seeking an offer of compromise and lie n 10 withdrawal . The settlement officer forwarded a letter 11 to the Petitioner dated June 21, 2007 requesting that 12 the Petitioner submit the information that would b e 13 necessary to consider an offer of compromise . 14 Petitioner did not respond to this letter, and a 15 second letter was issued on August 1, 2007 also 16 requesting information necessary to conside r 17 alternatives to enforce collection action . The second 18 letter also scheduled a hearing for September 20 , 19 2007 . Just prior to the hearing the settlemen t 20 officer was informed by the Petitioner that he would 21 not be able to attend the hearing . The settlemen t 22 officer indicated that he would reschedule the hearing 23 if the Petitioner provided the necessary information 24 to consider alternatives to collection through federal 25 tax lien within one week of the originally schedule d Heritage Reporting Corporation (202) 628-4888 1 hearing . Petitioner failed to respond to that letter 2 and the settlement officer issued the notice o f 3 determination which precipitated the current 4 controversy . 5 The settlement officer in the notice o f 6 determination indicated that because the Petitioner 7 did not file the requested financial data and tha t 8 lack of information coupled with un-filed tax returns, 9 left the settlement officer with no alternative but to 10 determine that a federal tax lien was not overl y 11 intrusive since Petitioner offered no less intrusive 12 method of collection . Given the fact that we could 13 not consider the underlying tax liability and that 14 Petitioner did not provide information sufficient to 15 allow the settlement officer to consider a n 16 alternative to collection, we are left with n o 17 recourse but to uphold Respondent's determination and 18 the decision will be entered for Respondent in this 19 case . 20 This concludes the Court's Oral Findings of 21 Fact and opinion in this case . 22 (Whereupon, at 12 :15 p .m ., the bench opinion 23 in the above-entitled matter was concluded . ) 24 25 Heritage Reporting Corporation (202) 628-4888