No, there’s neither porridge nor dorm rooms in The Glasshouse in The City of the Unenfranchised. Judge Patrick J. (“Scholar Pat”) Urda, a true polymath, denies a spot for the interloper Goldilocks therein.

Lontrac Enterprises, LLC, Lontrac Investors, LLC, Tax Matters Partner, Docket No. 272-18, filed 8/22/24, still gamely pitching after yesterday’s brush-off of a couple their exhibits (hi, Judge Holmes), want to squelch Boss Hossery.

The Lontracs claim the RA who handed out the chops had two (count ’em, two) immediate  supervisors, one of whom gave the Section 6751(b) sign-off too soon, while the other gave it too late.

” We are not persuaded that Lontrac Investors is entitled to summary judgment on this issue. ‘[A]n agent’s “immediate supervisor” is most logically viewed as the person who supervises the agent’s substantive work on an examination.’ Sand Inv. Co., LLC v. Commissioner, 157 T.C. 136, 142 (2021). This depends on who had the ‘familiarity with the facts and legal issues presented by the case . . . [so as] to supply the approval that Congress believed desirable.’ Id. In this case, both SRA W and SRA G apparently supervised RA T’s work, raising factual questions as to who was the immediate supervisor for purposes of section 6751(b) and whether both were actually immediate supervisors who could approve penalties at different stages in the process.” Order, at p. 2. (Names omitted).

For the Sand Investors‘ story, see my blogpost “Changing Hosses in Midstream,” 11/23/21.

But Judge Scholar Pat’s real bœuf with this move gives me the title for this sermonette.

“… Lontrac Investors’ motion with respect to penalty approval seems to employ a Goldilocks strategy, whereby SRA W’s approval was too early and SRA G’s too late and none was just right. Neither the factual record nor legal principles annunciated by this Court or the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit support Lontrac Investors’ request for summary judgment on this point.” Order, at p. 2. (Names omitted).

Bears are safe at US Tax Court; Goldilocks doesn’t have a look-in.