That’s Martin R. Dingman, who appeared on this blog in my blogpost “The Check’s The Thing,” 6/1/11. To save you rereading (or reading anew, if you weren’t among my faithful followers six years ago), Martin got SOL because, even though his attorney gave the returns and checks to the CID dudes and not to the relevant service center, the checks still got cashed in a timely way, thereby showing they got to the right place in time, and the SNOD (or maybe non-SNOD) was over the three-year limit.

Well, Martin’s done gone, but here’s another Taishofflaw alumnus trying the same gambit, but it crashes.

Here’s Scott Kimrey Goldsmith, Docket No. 21235-16L, filed 9/29/17. Scott Kim showed up 6/10/15, in my blogpost “’I Must Make Amends’” – Part Deux.”

Once again Scott Kim has drawn The Great Dissenter, a/k/a The Judge Who Writes Like a Human Being, s/a/k/a The Indomitable, Indefatigable, Illustrious, Industrious, Ineffable, Ineluctable, Incontrovertible, Implacable and Irrefragable Foe of the Partitive Genitive, Old China Hand and Master Silt Stirrer (drumroll and cymbal crash) Judge Mark V. Holmes.

You get two for the price of one today.

First, Scott Kim claims the notes of an AO, which were never included in the administrative record from his CDP, should have been included. Moreover, the notes show that Martin R. Dingman’s case was Scott Kim’s case, too.

No, says Judge Holmes. Reg. 301.6330-1(e)(3), Q&A E-8, says determinations are written documents, setting forth Appeals’ findings and decisions and sent by registered or certified mail. So although neither Section 6230 nor Section 6330 define “determination,” the Reg. does.

Judge Holmes enlightens us further.

“This tells us that the ‘determination’ that we analyze is the determination that we need to establish our jurisdiction in the first place — not an earlier draft, not preliminary notes, not an outline an IRS officer jots down to help her write a Notice of Determination. As we said in Lunsford v. Commissioner, 117 T.C. 159, 164 (2001), ‘[o]ur jurisdiction under section 6330(d)(1)(A) is established when there is a written notice that embodies a determination to proceed with the collection of the taxes in issue, and a timely filed petition.’ And this has to be what ‘determination’ means under I.R.C. § 6330(d)(1), which gives a taxpayer ‘within 30 days of a determination under this section [the right to] petition the Tax Court for review of such determination’ – if it were anything preliminary to this, how would a taxpayer even know he had a right to appeal or what to appeal from?” Order, at p. 5.

Anyway, Martin R. Dingman produced canceled checks. Scott Kim only has the Michael Corleone gambit.

Next is the prior opportunity to contest. Scott Kim did go to Appeals. That was his opportunity to contest.

Judge Holmes has a very useful practice tip, and as usual he’s put it in a footnote. Judge Holmes writes cool footnotes, as I said in my blogpost “The Great Dissenter – Part Deux,” 2/15/12.

“’Assessment’ is an important concept in tax procedure. It is the recording of a tax debt in the IRS’s records, I.R.C. § 6203, and it enables the IRS to use collection methods (such as liens and levies) without having to go to court. I.R.C. §§ 6321, 6331; see Bull v. United States, 295 U.S. 247, 260 (1935). The IRS generally has to give taxpayers whom it thinks owe income tax a notice of deficiency before assessing, which gives them the opportunity to challenge the proposed tax in Tax Court. I.R.C. § 6213(a). But trust-fund-recovery penalties are different: The Code makes them directly assessable, which means no judicial review before they are assessed. See, e.g., Wilt v. Commissioner, 60 T.C. 977, 978 (1973).” Order, at pp. 2-3, footnote 3.

Summary J for IRS. Go collect the TFRPs.