Frank R. McNamara and Collette M. McNamara, T. C. Sum. Op. 2023-22, filed 6/26/23, find that their MA home secured the mortgage thereon for only five (count ’em, five) months, and not twelve months, during year at issue. Thus Reg. Section 1.163-10T(h) disallows Frank’s and Collette’s deduction, which they based upon a 12-month, and not a 5-month, average balance. The 5-month calculation puts Frank and Collette over the $1 million total indebtedness cutoff.

And the magic number is how long the home secured the mortgage debt.

No mention of chops, but Frank and Collette claim reliance upon examples in IRS Pub 936, Home Mortgage Interest Deduction, “to assert they correctly used a 12-month period to calculate the average monthly mortgage debt for their Massachusetts home.” T. C. Sum. Op. 2023-22, at p. 4.

Well, STJ Eunkyong (“N’Yawk”) Choi says of course that’s not good enough to ward off the tax bite when the statute and the regs clearly say otherwise.

But it seems to have allowed Frank and Collette to avoid the chops.

Taishoff says that if the statute and regs, or either, is so obtuse that IRS’ own pamphleteers get it wrong, maybe Congress and Treasury should pull a Habakkuk 2:2 and do a better job.