Assessable Yet Not Assessed Taxes Could Cost You a Malpractice Claim

By Cathy Moran, Esq., (Redwood City, CA)

Eighteen years elapsed between the close of the 2003 tax year and the Tax Court’s 2021 decision Barnes v. Comm'r, T.C. Memo. 2021-49 (U.S.T.C. May 4, 2021) regarding the debtors’ 2003 tax liability.

While the most recent decision in the debtors’ battle with the IRS challenged the discretion of a tax officer in rejecting debtors’ settlement offer after completion of debtors’ Chapter 11, the case is instructive to Chapter 13 lawyers for two points:

taxes that are not assessed, but . . .

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