The sixty-buck-ticket-to-justice, if invoked, can lead the invokers down paths not dreamt of when they mailed in the petition for redetermination of deficiency.

Maybe you don’t owe Our Nation’s Treasury at close of play, but if you think Mr. Lew and his coadjutors owe you, you can’t just walk away from 400 Second Street, NW.

Case in point, Neal G. Brower & Deborah A. Brower, Docket No. 22260-14, filed 1/26/15.

Neal & Deb filed the petition all right, but now move to dismiss, attaching a “no change” letter from IRS.

Now maybe their motion should be recharacterized as a motion for entry of decision, because dismissing a petition for redetermination of deficiency, where Tax Court has jurisdiction, means entering decision for everything IRS claimed in the SNOD.

And Ch J Michael B. (“Iron Mike”) Thornton is a master recharacterizer. Not a Tax Court working day goes by without Ch J Iron Mike spinning straw into gold–or whatever.

But IRS is not happy. It seems Neal & Deb submitted an amended return, claiming they’re owed money, and IRS wants to duke it out here and now.

Ch J Iron Mike, exponent of judicial economy, agrees.

Motion to dismiss denied, and “…petitioner shall file an Amendment To Petition setting forth, if so be the case, their claim for overpayment….” Order, at p. 1.

Takeaway– When you petition, more than you think is on the table.