It’s a slow summer Friday in Tax Court, 8/15/14. I was casting about for something to blog, and was so far down the path to deserved obscurity that I was about to edify my readers with IR-2014-80, 8/12/14 (talk about yesterday’s papers), wherein IRS was announcing proudly that “its cornerstone ‘Taxpayers Bill of Rights’ document is now available in six languages.

“Newly-revised versions of Publication 1, Your Rights as a Taxpayer, are now posted on IRS.gov in English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Russian and Vietnamese.”

For more, see my blogposts “Righting a Wrong”, 6/14/14, and “Somebody Does Read This Blog – Part Deux”, 6/14/14.

Had somebody told me fortyfive years ago today that IRS would be publishing the “cornerstone Taxpayers Bill of Rights document” in Vietnamese, my reply would have contained many of Mr. Spock’s colorful metaphors. Well, live and learn.

But I have something better. Ch J Michael B. (“Iron Mike”) Thornton always has his eye on the essential, and lets nothing get in the way.

Case in point: Robert E. Zorn, Docket No. 15573-14, filed 8/15/14. Rob starts off in the usual way, with a petition. But he doesn’t bother sending in the sixty buck filing fee or a waiver request.

Ch J Iron Mike gives Rob the usual second chance to pony up or plead poverty. Rob replies to Ch J Iron Mike with “various largely unintelligible or nonsensical communications from petitioner that suggested petitioner would not be coming forward with the filing fee.” Order, at p. 1.

So Ch J Iron Mike, who will let you into Tax Court if you send in a money order, even without a petition (see my blogpost “Show Me The Money”, 11/13/13), tosses Rob.

But Rob, quick off the mark, sends in an Application for Fee Waiver. And Ch J Iron Mike buys it, because it might have crossed in the mail with the tossing Order, and tosses his toss, letting Rob in.

So remember Ch J Iron Mike’s cornerstone rule: Show Me The Money.