Remember poor Ray Fouche, the bus operator victimized by the late and infamous Manzoor Bey? No? Then see my blogpost “The Cover-up”, 11/23/11, wherein I retold Ray’s sad tale and lauded her legal team for convincing Judge Vasquez to let Ray off the hook for the unpaid payroll taxes which the late and infamous Manzoor Bey stole.

Unhappily for Ray and her team, Second Circuit wasn’t having it. And now Ray is remanded to Tax Court to have the unpaid taxes taken out of her hide.

See City Wide Transit Inc. v. Com’r, Docket No. 12–1040–ag, decided 3/1/13, Judge Wesley.

“Some have suggested that the Commissioner of Internal Revenue (“Commissioner”) rarely loses in tax court, tax court decisions are rarely appealed, and federal circuit courts rarely reverse tax court decisions. See, e.g., James Edward Maule, Instant Replay, Weak Teams, and Disputed Calls: An Empirical Study of Alleged Tax Court Judge Bias, 66 Tenn. L. Rev. 351, 353, 401 (1999) (reviewing empirical studies). Despite some of these expectations, after losing in tax court, the Commissioner appealed, and we now reverse.”

Ray’s team argued Manzoor filed false returns to cover up his embezzlement, not to defraud the US of A. Irrelevant, says Judge Wesley.

“By concluding that the Commissioner failed to prove that Beg intended to evade City Wide’s taxes and that, at best, tax evasion was but an ‘incidental,’ ‘secondary effect’ to Beg’s embezzlement scheme, the tax court inappropriately substituted motive for intent. The statute is agnostic as to the attendant motivations for submitting a fraudulent return and only requires that the Commissioner prove a fraudulent return was filed with an intent to evade, that is avoid, paying a tax otherwise due. Thus, ‘if one of [a conspiracy’s] objectives, even a minor one, be the evasion of federal taxes, the offense is made out, though the primary objective may be concealment of another crime.’ Ingram v. United States, 360 U.S. 672, 679–80, 79 S.Ct. 1314, 3 L.Ed.2d 1503 (1959). Moreover, ‘if a “tax evasion motive plays any part” in certain conduct, an “affirmative willful attempt” to evade taxes may be inferred from that conduct.’ United States v. Klausner, 80 F.3d 55, 63 (2d Cir.1996) (quoting Spies v. United States, 317 U.S. 492, 499, 63 S.Ct. 364, 87 L.Ed. 418 (1943)). The Commissioner only had to prove that Beg intended to underpay the Commissioner taxes that City Wide owed when he filed a fraudulent return on City Wide’s behalf, not that he intended to avoid City Wide’s taxes for City Wide’s benefit.”

Sorry Ray and team, you get a first-class Taishoff “good try”. But IRS gets the money.

Judge Wherry is calling “Batter up!” to Jason Giambi and Kristian Giambi (and telling IRS to take the field) in Docket No. 2961-11, Order filed 4/24/13.*

The Cleveland Indians slugger and his lingerie-designing spouse, along with IRS, filed a joint status report and stip of agreed issues on 2/1/13.

The rest, according to Judge Wherry, is silence.

So let’s get on with it. Either give Judge Wherry a status report or tell him when he can expect decision documents by 5/22.

And I wish I knew what this case was about. Sounds interesting.

*Giambi 2961-11 4 24 13

Edited to add, 9/2/21: Jason and Kristian stiped out 7/1/13, but the stiped decision is sealed.

But No Explanation

No, not the 1950s television show, but the name carries weight today, 4/23, even though Tax Court issued no opinions today, and the designated orders don’t give much, barring Joe Insinga, the star of my blogposts “Did Nothing”, 3/13/13, and “A Voyage of Discovery”, 3/30/13. Joe hauls down his battle flag and consents to a dismissal of his whistleblower petition without prejudice today, with no explanation.

So here’s another unexplained phenomenon, a full Section 6673(a) frivolity penalty in Docket No. 5657-10, filed 4/23/13, nailing Laurel Ann Curtis.

Now Laurel Ann has a four-year string of deficiencies going back to 1994, with additions and penalties galore, but why the full-Monty frivolity sanctions, Judge Thornton?  How can we counsel clients without knowing exactly what will cause Tax Court to drop the Big Hammer?

Even where, as here, the frivolous taxpayer doesn’t respond to IRS’ motion for sanctions, Tom Jefferson’s “decent respect to the opinions of mankind” should impel the Court to tell us why.