Source: https://procedurallytaxing.com/debtors-still-trying-to-fight-against-one-day-rule/?shared=email&msg=fail
Timestamp: 2020-04-01 08:07:14
Document Index: 65644245

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 7430', '§ 301', '§ 524', '§ 7433', '§ 7433', '§ 2000']

Debtors Still Trying to Fight Against One Day Rule
October 24, 2019 by Keith Fogg 1 Comment
The case of In re Kriss, 2019 Bankr. LEXIS 3039, (Bankr. D. N.H. 2019) shows that debtors in the First Circuit (and undoubtedly the 5th and the 10th) still struggle with the one-day rule interpretation of their circuits. I have not written about this issue in some time but it still haunts those living in the wrong places.
As a quick reminder of the issue for those who may have forgotten or who have not read about it previously, three circuits have interpreted the language added to the unnumbered paragraph at the end of B.C. 523(a) in 2005 to mean that if a debtor files a tax return even one day late the debtor can never discharge that liability. The IRS does not agree with that interpretation of the bankruptcy code and the circuits looking at the issue most recently have not agreed with the issue; however, until the Supreme Court takes up the issue, Congress decides to clarify the language in the bankruptcy code or the circuits reverse themselves, taxpayers in these three circuits can obtain no relief of the tax debts through bankruptcy if they file their returns late. For a detailed discussion of the issue, see the prior posts here, here and here.
Mr. Kriss did not file his tax returns for 1997 and 2000 timely. The IRS prepared substitute for returns for these years and made relatively substantial assessments. Mr. Kriss later filed returns which the IRS treated as claims for abatement and used as a basis for reducing his liability. Mr. Kriss also did not timely file returns for 2008 through 2011. He filed a chapter 13 bankruptcy petition on June 19, 2012, and filed the late returns for 2008 through 2011 in July, 2012 as required by B.C. 1308(a) which provides:
Not later than the day before the date on which the meeting of the creditors is first scheduled to be held under section 341(a), if the debtor was required to file a tax return under applicable nonbankruptcy law, the debtor shall file with appropriate tax authorities all tax returns for all taxable periods ending during the 4-year period ending on the date of the filing of the petition.
The timing of his bankruptcy filing made the liabilities for 2009-2011 priority claims under B.C. 507(a)(8)(A)(i) and the status of the taxes for these years as priority claims required that Mr. Kriss provide for full payment of these liabilities in his chapter 13 plan. The older periods did not have priority status but rather were classified as general unsecured claims and did not require full payment in the plan. As in many chapter 13 cases general unsecured claims received little or nothing.
This case picks up after Mr. Kriss has completed his plan. As with the situation described in the recently blogged case of In re Widick, the post discharge receipt of a bill from the IRS for taxes he thought had disappeared moved Mr. Kriss into action. In this case the post discharge action of the IRS results in three issues addressed by the bankruptcy court: 1) the one day rule discussed above; 2) the collection of post discharge interest addressed in the Widick post; and 3) damages for wrongful collection.
With respect to the one-day rule issue as it applies to the general unsecured claims for 1997 and 2000, the IRS not only sent Mr. Kriss the first notice of liability, it sent him a seriously delinquent notice (meaning the non-payment of this debt would impact his passport), and it filed suit against him to reduce the liability to judgment. In response he admitted that:
the Late Filed Returns were untimely and does not contest that under the “one-day late rule” set forth in Fahey, the tax debts from those years are nondischargeable. Instead, the Debtor urges this Court to reconsider Fahey, reject the “one day late rule,” and adopt an alternate analysis set forth by the United States Tax Court in Beard v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 82 T.C. 766 (1984). The Debtor suggests that if the analysis in Beard were adopted, the Late Filed Returns may qualify as returns and, if so, any debts relating to the corresponding tax years were discharged.
Not surprisingly, Mr. Kriss does not get anywhere with the bankruptcy court on this argument. The bankruptcy court’s hands are tied by the circuit decision. It goes through the motions of explaining the Fahey decision and his argument before stating the obvious – that it cannot change the applicable precedent. If he wants to make this argument, he has only just begun and must pass through the district court on his way to the First Circuit to try to pursued that court to reconsider its decision. The bankruptcy court notes that he is not the first person to seek a reconsideration of the First Circuit’s decision in Fahey. As I have written before, the Fahey decision does not make good sense to me (or to the IRS), but the IRS easily wins this issue. It can continue to collect on the 1997 and 2000 liabilities and Mr. Kriss’ inability to file his returns on time will haunt him for decades once the IRS obtains a judgment.
Next, the court turns to the liability for the priority liabilities that the IRS seeks to collect after bankruptcy. Mr. Kriss paid the priority tax claim in full during the bankruptcy case. Because he did not timely file the returns for the three priority periods on the claim, the debt for these three years is non-dischargeable. As discussed in the Widick post, a debtor does not pay interest during a bankruptcy case except in situations of fully secured claims. Here, Mr. Kriss did not pay interest on the priority claims and the IRS wants that interest from him after discharge.
The problem the IRS faces stems from its form letters, which do not mention interest but state that Mr. Kriss has unpaid taxes. Any attempt to collect taxes violates the discharge injunction while the effort to collect interest after the discharge is permitted because of his late filing of the taxes. The bankruptcy court holds for the IRS to the extent it seeks to collect taxes but finds that it cannot rule on the summary judgment motion of either party until it has more facts regarding whether the IRS seeks only to collect interest or, as stated in its notices, it also seeks to collect tax.
The IRS could fix this problem going forward by rewriting its form letters. The collection of post discharge interest on priority claims arises in only a small percentage of its collection cases, but it needs to acknowledge that these cases represent a special situation and adjust its collection practices accordingly. By sending out its normal collection letters in these situations, it causes confusion for the debtors and the courts. The situation already confuses debtors if their bankruptcy attorneys have failed to alert them to this issue. The IRS should not compound the confusion by using letters with inappropriate descriptors of the liability.
The last issue concerns the liability of the IRS for violating the discharge injunction. The IRS argues that it has no liability, no matter how the second issues turns out, because Mr. Kriss did not seek to mitigate his damages. The court quickly agrees with the IRS to the extent that he seeks damages for emotional distress but fails to grant summary judgment to the extent that Mr. Kriss has actual damages, saving the decision on that issue until further factual development occurs. The court notes that the topic of exhaustion of administrative remedies has been the subject of much litigation stating:
[L]ess conclusive is the IRS’s argument that the Debtor is not entitled to attorney’s fees and costs, actual damages and/or sanctions resulting from the IRS’s post-discharge collection activities because he failed to comply with the exhaustion of administrative remedies requirement found in both 26 U.S.C. § 7430(b)(1) (awarding costs and certain fees) and 7433(d)(1) (governing civil damages for certain unauthorized collection actions). While the IRS admits that this issue has not been definitively decided by the First Circuit, it cites to cases such as Kuhl v. United States, 467 F.3d 145, 148 [98 AFTR 2d 2006-7379] (2d Cir. 2006), for the proposition that administrative exhaustion is jurisdictional in an adversary proceeding seeking attorney’s fees, and that failing to exhaust administrative remedies divests this Court of jurisdiction per 26 C.F.R (Treas. Reg.) § 301.7430-1.
Many other courts have “painstakingly” considered the issue of administrative exhaustion with repect (sic) to motions for awards of attorney fees, actual damages, and sanctions relating to discharge injunction violations, arriving at various and differing conclusions utilizing different statutory provisions and treasury regulations for their decisions. See In re Langston, 600 B.R. 817, 825 [123 AFTR 2d 2019-1262] (Bankr. E.D. Cal. 2019) (providing an extensive review of cases addressing this issue from multiple jurisdictions with varying outcomes). For example, in contrast to the Kuhl case cited by the IRS, the court in In re Graham, No. 99-26549-DHA, 2003 WL 21224773 [91 AFTR 2d 2003-2142] (Bankr. E.D. Va. Apr. 11, 2003) found that it had jurisdiction to award damages in the form of litigation costs to debtors who alleged IRS violations of § 524, even where they had not exhausted their administrative remedies, holding that: “26 U.S.C. § 7433(e)(2)(A) states that the exclusive remedy for recovering damages for violations of the Bankruptcy Code is to petition the bankruptcy court,” and within that section “there is no mention … of the need to exhaust administrative remedies.” Id. at *2. The Graham court held that 26 U.S.C. § 7433(e) was “quite clear” that the “bankruptcy court is the exclusive remedy for the violation of Bankruptcy Code provisions.” Id. (emphasis in original).
The ability to obtain damages for a stay violation is something we discuss at some length in IRS Practice and Procedure at 16.11[2]. You might look there if you face this issue. Here, Mr. Kriss will not receive damages if he cannot show that the IRS has violated the discharge injunction and that may turn on whether the IRS seeks to collect anything more than interest in the priority claims. Even if the IRS has tried to collect more than interest on the priority claims, he may have trouble showing actual damages the IRS has created by sending the post-discharge bill. This will leave him seeking attorney’s fees for fending against the wrongful collection and trying to convince the court to impose sanctions.
Filed Under: Bankruptcy, Return
The DOJ would cite Kuhl — a 2006 2d Cir. opinion — for the proposition that exhaustion of administrative remedies is a jurisdictional requirement of suit. But, any such case essentially predates the recent Supreme Court case law (starting in 2004) making claims processing rules generally nonjurisdictional. Just this year, as I noted in a post on June 11, 2019, in fort Bend County v. Davis, 139 S. Ct. 1843 (June 3, 2019), the Supreme Court held that Title VII’s charge-filing requirement, 42 U.S.C.S. § 2000e-5(e), which is essentially an administrative exhaustion requirement, is a merely a mandatory claims processing rule, not a jurisdictional requirement before suit can be brought in district court.
And, in Kim v. United States, 632 F.3d 713, 718-719 (D.C. Cir. 2011), that court held that failure to comply with the administrative exhaustion requirement of section 7433(d)(1) before bringing a suit for damages for wrongful collection actions is a merits affirmative defense, not a jurisdictional defect of the suit.