George Azeh & Daniele Ambatta, Docket No. 1841-22, filed 4/6/23, claimed three (count ’em, three) personal exemptions, one each for George and Danielle, and one for a minor child from George’s previous marriage. George’s other minor child’s exemption belonged to George’s loved-once, per divorce decree.

George lost his previous job, got a new one that didn’t provide health cover, so joined the WI exchange. You can see where this is going.

George seems to have thought that he had a family of four, but he didn’t. The other minor child’s tax incidents go to loved-once. So the $100K 400% of poverty for year at issue for four families shrinks to $83K for threes.

“When determining family size, the size of the family is equal to the number of individuals the taxpayer is permitted to deduct as personal exemptions. § 36B(d)(1).” Transcript, at p. 7.

George’s and Daniele’s MAGI was $91K. Their APTC was $23K. So being $8K over the limit gets them a $23K deficiency. And $23K in insurance premiums is north of 25% of their MAGI.

IRS magnanimously folds the Section 6662 chops.

Judge Christian N. “Speedy” Weiler: “Finally, while we are sympathetic to the arguments made by Mr. Azeh at trial, we are unable to provide equitable relief from this tax deficiency, as we are obligated to apply the law as written by Congress.” Transcript, at pp. 8-9.

“The law as written by Congress” has been the target of enough condemnation from all points of the political spectrum to require no comment from me on this avowedly nonpolitical blog. So, instead of quoting Ebenezer Scrooge (which might be taken as political), I can only once again invoke Charles Dickens’ immortal words from Chapter 10 of Little Dorrit.