CITES BY TOPIC: Tax Court

Tax Court Website: http://www.ustaxcourt.gov/rules.htm

RULE 13. JURISDICTION

(a) Notice of Deficiency or of Transferee or Fiduciary Liability Required: Except in actions for declaratory judgment, for disclosure, for readjustment or adjustment of partnership items, for administrative costs, or for review of failure to abate interest (see Titles XXI, XXII, XXIV, XXVI, and XXVII), the jurisdiction of the Court depends (1) in a case commenced in the Court by a taxpayer, upon the issuance by the Commissioner of a notice of deficiency in income, gift, or estate tax or, in the taxes under Code chapter 41, 42, 43, or 44 (relating to the excise taxes on certain organizations and persons dealing with them), or in the tax under Code chapter 45 (relating to the windfall profit tax), or in any other taxes which are the subject of the issuance of a notice of deficiency by the Commissioner; and
(2) in a case commenced in the Court by a transferee or fiduciary, upon the issuance by the Commissioner of a notice of liability to the transferee or fiduciary. See Code secs. 6212, 6213, and 6901.

(b) Declaratory Judgment, Disclosure, Partnership, Administrative Costs, or Review of Failure To Abate Interest Actions: For the jurisdictional requirements in an action for declaratory judgment, for disclosure, for readjustment or adjustment of partnership items, for administrative costs, or for review of failure to abate interest, see Rules
210(c), 220(c), 240(c), 270(c), and 280(b).

(c) Timely Petition Required: In all cases, the jurisdiction of the Court also depends on the timely filing of a petition. See Code sections 6213, 7502; with respect to declaratory judgment actions, see Code sections 7428, 7476, and 7478; with respect to disclosure actions, see Code sections 6110; with respect to partnership actions, see Code sections 6226 and 6228; and with respect to review of failure to abate interest actions, see Code section 6404(h).
(d) Contempt of Court: Contempt of Court may be punished by fine or imprisonment within the scope of Code section 7456(c).
(e) Bankruptcy and Receivership: With respect to the filing of a petition or the continuation of proceedings in this Court after the filing of a bankruptcy petition, see 11 U.S.C. section 362(a)(8) and Code section 6213(f)(1). With respect to the filing of a petition in this Court after the appointment of a receiver in a receivership proceeding, see Code section 6871(c)(2).

Tax Court Background:

The Feds cleverly renamed an administrative dept within the IRS to a “Tax Court.” Now after you are fried in this bogus “court,” they can claim you have received the final step of your due-process rights, which includes a hearing before an independent tribunal. Of course, it is laughable to think of Tax Court as independent, esp. since it formerly was just another department in the IRS agency. The only people who win in this “court” are those who live a total cash existence, having no accounts, W-4’s or 1099’s.

Justice Scalia delivers a scathing dissenting opinion in the case of Freytag vs. Commissioner (1991) on this Tax Court subject.

http://caselaw.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=501&invol=868

The Tax Court is indistinguishable from my hypothetical Social Security Court. It reviews determinations by Executive Branch officials (the Internal Revenue Service) that this much or that much tax is owed - a classic executive function. For 18 years its predecessor, the Board of Tax Appeals, did the very same thing, see H. Dubroff, The United States Tax Court 47-175 (1979), and no one suggested that body exercised “the judicial power.”

We held just the opposite:

“The Board of Tax Appeals is not a court. It is an executive or administrative board, upon the decision of which the parties are given an opportunity to base a petition for review to the courts after the administrative inquiry of the Board has been had and decided.” Old [501 U.S. 868, 912] Colony Trust Co. v. Commissioner, 279 U.S. 716, 725 (1929) (Taft, C.J.).

Though renamed “the Tax Court of the United States” in 1942, it remained “an independent agency in the Executive Branch,” 26 U.S.C. 1100 (1952 ed.), and continued to perform the same function