Euripides. Haste to sustain the assault!

Dionysus. Great gods, what a number of assaults!

Tanyard Farms, LLC, Tanyard Investors, LLC, Tax Matters Partner, Docket No. 11216-21, filed 1/14/25 echoes Euripides’ immortal words, as IRS echoes those of Dionysus, from Aristophanes’ 405 BC smash hit The Frogs. But the target of the assaults isn’t the plays of Aeschylus, rather 11 Cir’s resuscitation of the old “Boss Hoss any time before assessment” dictionary chaw that ex-Ch J Michael D (“Iron Mike”) Thornton first bit off. See my blogpost “Money-Back Guarantee Meets the Boss Hoss,”11/30/16*.

Even though Tax Court subsequently dissed that rationale, 11 Cir enshrined same in Kroner.**

Tanyard is Golsenized to 11 Cir, and concedes IRS’s motion for Boss Hoss partial summary J, while reserving its right to appeal. Of course IRS wants to protect Kroner as a goalmouth save in case they find out they’d blown the Boss Hossery in the middle of trial. For like reason Tanyard wants to demolish it.

The assault fails, says Judge Elizabeth Crewson Paris.

IRS coppered its bets by getting Boss Hoss signoffs before each of the two (count ’em, two) penalty forms were displayed to Tanyard. So, even under Tanyard’s desired reading of Section 6751(b), the supe had oversight over the RAs on the case when signoff occurred. Only thereafter was each penalty first announced to Tanyard.

* https://taishofflaw.com/2016/11/30/money-back-guarantee-meets-the-boss-hoss/

** https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca11/20-13902/20-13902-2022-09-13.html