That is not what you want your client to say when he’s seeking abatement of interest on a liability for which he requested credit from an overpayment, but received a refund check instead. Especially when your client has taken a Section 7201 fall for tax evasion. And even more so when your client is on the PDT list; see IRM 25.4.1.1.1 (Oct. 31, 2018).

Spoiler alert- PDT means “potential danger to IRS employees.”

Michael J. Hogan, Docket No. 11229-15, filed 6/9/21, has been around Tax Court before in the days before I launched this my blog. This time he wants Section 6404 abatement. He claims IRS says it made no mistakes.

Judge Buch agrees with MJ that IRS did make mistakes, but none has risen to the level of unreasonable delay. And MJ stiped that the refund check he got, rather than the credit against liability he requested, was OK by him.

Putting MJ on the PDT list isn’t enough. “He did not establish that there was an error in designating him as a PDT. Even if that were erroneous, he did not establish that the designation caused any error, delay, or additional interest. And given his repeated efforts to avoid payment, he clearly did not establish that he would have paid his tax earlier.” Transcript, at p. 16.

If you get a refund check when you wanted a credit, send back the check with a clear and concise statement of what liability you want credited. Testifying at trial “I sat on it,” Transcript, at p. 18, does not help your client’s cause.

But need I add MJ was pro se?