Judge Emin “Eminent”) Toro reminds AirBnB, Inc. & Subsidiaries, 167 T. C. 9, filed 9/2/26, that legal experts called judges are standard equipment for Tax Court trials, and these legal experts are good at disregarding legal conclusions from nonlawyers (Taishoff says they’re not bad at disregarding legal conclusions from lawyers, too). 

Likewise Rule 143(g) doesn’t apply to pretrial discovery jousts, such as AirBnB and IRS are having with dueling Rule 103 motions.

“Rule 143 provides evidentiary rules for trials before this Court. It is found in Title XIV of the Tax Court Rules of Practice and Procedure, titled ‘Trials.’ The Rule itself is titled ‘Evidence,’ and Rule 143(a) explains how ‘[t]rials before the Court will be conducted.’ Moreover, Rule 143(g), by its terms, applies to ‘any party who calls an expert witness.”” 167 T. C. 9, at p. 5. (Footnote omitted, but it says captions of statutes can be used to clear up ambiguity). No trial here, yet.

IRS has two (count ’em, two) declarations it put in supporting its Rule 103 from what sounds like a professional expert. The dispute is about what features of a “clean room” should have for reviewing ultra-secret computer software; don’t confuse this with the clean room used for electronic parts manufacture. See my blogpost “Do Your Homework and Clean Up Your Room,” 4/15/13.

AirBnB can always put inn their own experts’ declarations in support of their motion or in opposition to IRS counsel’s.

And maybe so might could be the declarations AirBnB wants stricken pertain to industry practices, which are OK under Rule 143(g). “The bulk of Mr. Myers’s statements appear to concern his view of standard protective order practices in the expert witness industry, so they might be acceptable without a written report under Rule 143(g)(3) in any event.” 167 T. C. 9, at p. 6, footnote 8.

“The expert witness industry?” Judge Eminent Toro got that right.