Tax scam. Form with sign on a desk.
Judge Juan Vasquez in TCM 2022-55 has given us an opinion that has the elements of a really good novel. It is an innocent spouse case. The innocent spouse aspect is rather interesting, but the story of what created the deficiency is even more intriguing. Everybody’s name is, of course, now public record, but it is my practice in cases like this to not make the taxpayers any more famous. So we will call the couple Joe and Mary. Also part of the story is Dick, one of their now adult children and Mary’s Mom, whom we will call Mom.
A Long Story
In his coverage of the case, Jason Freeman notes it as “an example of how a taxpayer’s entire life story may be relevant to a determination of innocent spouse relief under section 6015(f) of the Code. The fact-pattern in issue spanned from 1972 through 2017“. It is important to keep in mind that what we have is the story that Judge Vasquez ended up accepting.
Joe and Mary married in 1972 after Mary graduated from college with a degree in art education. Joe was a Vietnam veteran. In 2011 his primary care physician diagnosed him with PTSD. It is tragic that this was not picked up in the seventies. It is good to keep that in mind as you follow along as Joe is pretty much the villain in this narrative.
In the 1980s Joe started a roofing installation business with the help of Mary’s brother who owned a business that manufactured roofing materials. Joe was initially successful but fell behind…
