it’s the usual Section 6511 credit-for-overpayment lookback case, but John R. Moran & Carolyn P. Moran, Docket No. 1934-20, filed 4/22/22, signed a Form 872 SOL extender, so Section 6511(c)(2) is in play. This gives an extended lookback to six (count ’em, six) months after assessment can be made under the extender deal. But this only covers “…the portion of the tax paid after the execution of the agreement and before the filing of the claim or the making of the credit or refund, as the case may be, plus the portion of the tax paid within the period which would be applicable under subsection (b)(2) if a claim had been filed on the date the agreement was executed.” Order, at pp. 4-5.

Subsection (b)(2) provides the three-year-or-two-year lookback.

John & Carolyn claim three years, because they made an oral claim at exam.

Unhappily, they stiped that they had made no claim prior to issuance of the SNOD. Judge Ashford is not letting them out. So two years doesn’t help them, as the clock has run.

But even if John & Carolyn had made an oral claim and not stiped, an oral claim is a no-go.

“While a taxpayer’s request for refund that does not meet all of the requirements of a formal claim for refund may nevertheless be treated as a claim that may later be perfected for the purposes of the limitations of section 6511…, as respondent also correctly points out, even an informal request for refund must include a written component…. Conversations between a taxpayer or a taxpayer’s representative and an IRS revenue agent may not serve as a substitute for a written claim for refund. Thus, even if petitioners’ allegations regarding oral statements made during the examination of the [year at issue] return are accepted as true, those statements do not constitute a valid informal or protective claim for refund.” Order, at pp. 5-6 (Citations omitted).

IRS agrees there’s a $29K overpayment, but John & Carolyn get none of it, either by way of cash or credit.

Takeaway- Ya gotta try it. Make the written claim, if you have any colorable grounds. Make it early, at exam. Make it again in your petition. Just don’t be frivolous; even if you aren’t chopped, you blow your credibility if you frivol.