James D. Sullivan, T. C. Memo. 2025-92, filed 8/27/25, tried to file amended returns splitting the lump-sum retirement benefit he took from Defense Finance and Accounting Services over a couple years (hi, Judge Holmes). Since he hadn’t reported the draw on his year-at-issue return and didn’t attempt to file the amended returns until four (count ’em, four) years after his unpetitioned year-at-issue SND had issued and while he was at Appeals on a NITL, this did not fare well.

STJ Jennifer E. (“Publius”) Siegel: “He withdrew the returns under threat of sanctions pursuant to section 6702 (imposing a penalty for frivolous tax submissions), and the amended returns were not processed.” T. C. Memo. 2025-92, at p. 3.

Note, however, “(A)s part of the process of verifying that all administrative and procedural requirements had been met, the SO discovered that the accuracy-related penalty reflected in the Notice of Deficiency had not been properly approved. The SO had the penalty abated.” T. C. Memo.2025-92, at p. 3.

As the penalty was north of $14K, that’s not too bad.