Dixieland Boondockery means valuation trials. Valuation trials mean expert witnesses. Expert witnesses, unlike the butterflies in the 1969 play, aren’t free. For IRS to find expert witnesses means competitive bidding.

So when Boulder Pines Land Holdings, LLC, Boulder Pines Fund Manager, LLC, Partnership Representative, Docket No. 8479-23, filed 10/28/24, want to shift venue from Jacksonville, FL to Atlanta, GA , IRS objects, claiming they “will be prejudiced by changing the place of trial because he has already entered into contracts with experts for this case. Those experts submitted bids and were awarded contracts based on Jacksonville as the place of trial.” Order, at p. 1.

The Boulder Pines claim their fact witnesses will come from around Atlanta, GA, and the boondocks in question are in Green County, GA (and no, I don’t know where that is, either).

Of course, as Judge Elizabeth Crewson Paris points out, both IRS and the Boulder Pines’ trusty and high-priced attorneys have offices in Atlanta, GA. Taishoff says, if googlemaps are telling the truth, it’s a fifteen-minute walk from one to the other.

So, Section 7446 says the Ch J shall prescribe place of trial, giving petitioners the best shot at a trial with as little inconvenience or expense as possible. And Tax Court’s Form 5 obligingly lets petitioners choose their own, as does Tax Court precedent.

So Judge Elizabeth Crewson Paris brushes aside IRS’ objection, and sets venue at The A.

Taishoff says, strange that the aforesaid trusty attorneys, who have almost a luxury box at Tax Court since they practice there so often, chose Jacksonville, FL, for place of trial. I seem to remember, long ago and definitely far away, when canny petitioners picked off-the-wall trial venues as a stall. See my blogpost “Same Time, Next Year” 3/3/17.*

But here trial is set for a couple months from now (hi, Judge Holmes). How come trusty attorneys didn’t notice the inconvenient venue before now?

Poor pro ses get confused by Form 5, simple as it is. The ABA Tax Section, to which august body I do not belong, in a show of solicitude for said poor pro ses, laid a whuppin’ on me when I suggested modifying Form 5 to require petitioners show some nexus between place chosen and the issues for determination at trial. Their high-and-mightinesses said poor pro ses can’t get even the simplest forms right.

Well, as I said another time, maybe the ABA Tax Section was right, as even high-priced trusty attorneys can’t get it right. See my blogpost thus entitled.**

Or maybe, just maybe, the Dixieland Boondockers have found a new tactic.

* https://taishofflaw.com/2017/03/03/same-time-next-year/

** https://taishofflaw.com/2017/12/15/maybe-the-aba-tax-section-was-right/