Cesare Giaquinto confronts the famous line from the 1977 Mel Brooks classic “High Anxiety” when his attempt to claim he’s not responsible for a bunch of TFRPs from his employer founders on his failure to claim the certified letter from IRS containing the Letter 1153, the key to appealing from the determination to assess the TFRPs of his employer against him as a responsible person.

Judge Marvel has the story in 2013 T. C. Memo. 150, filed 6/12/13.

Cesare worked for Salvadeo, and filled out a Form 4180, Report of Interview with Individual Relative to Trust Fund Recovery Penalty or Personal Liability for Excise Taxes, when a Revenue Officer called to find out why Salvadeo hadn’t paid $95K worth of withholdings.

But Cesare never sent in a Form 433-A, because Salvadeo told him not to. Cesare also didn’t pick up his certified mail on three occasions, and only got the Letter 3172 telling him about the tax lien IRS was filing against him.

IRS gets a USPS employee to testify that they left USPS Forms 3849s, attempted delivery notices, for Cesare. “Where the Commissioner has shown that he properly sent the appropriate notice to a taxpayer by certified mail and that the mail carrier left USPS Forms 3849, we have sometimes found that the taxpayer’s failure to claim delivery of the certified mail was deliberate.” 2013 T. C. Memo. 150, at p. 12 (Citations omitted).

“Petitioner contends that he had no reason to avoid or refuse any mailing from the IRS that would have given him the opportunity to contest the sec. 6672 trust fund recovery penalties. Our cases, however, are replete with instances where taxpayers thought that ignoring or refusing mail from the IRS would make their tax problems disappear.” 2013 T. C. Memo. 150, at p. 14, footnote 9 (Citations omitted).

Needless to say, Cesare lost his chance to contest his responsible personhood. His tale of nonreceipt doesn’t convince Judge Marvel, who finds deliberate refusal to receive the Letter 1153.

Compare and contrast with Antonio Lepore’s story, as told in my blogpost “You Didn’t Get It – Part Deux”, 5/31/13.