Opinion
7890-21
06-30-2021
Walter G. Doncourt & Mary R. Doncourt Petitioners v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue Respondent
ORDER OF DISMISSAL FOR LACK OF JURISDICTION
MAURICE B. FOLEY CHIEF JUDGE
On March 8, 2021, the Court received from petitioners a letter, attached to which was a copy of a notice of deficiency dated January 4, 2021, issued to petitioners with respect to the 2018 taxable year. To protect petitioners' statutory time period within which to begin a case, the Court filed that letter as a petition to commence this proceeding at Docket No. 7890-21. Subsequently, on June 9, 2021, the Court received from petitioners a further letter indicating that petitioners did not intend by the initial correspondence with this Court to begin a case herein and that petitioners had worked administratively through the Internal Revenue Service to resolve the 2018 tax matters through payment. On that basis, petitioners requested that this proceeding be closed.
At that juncture, further review of the record suggested a fundamental jurisdictional defect, calling into question the validity of the purported notice of deficiency dated January 4, 2021. In particular, both the petition and the more recent letter explained, and attached documentation supporting, that the deficiency had been paid in September of 2020. If the amount of an alleged deficiency has been paid prior to issuance of a statutory notice pertaining thereto, the determined amount fails to qualify as a deficiency within the meaning of the governing provisions of the Internal Revenue Code. Thereupon, the Court by Order served June 15, 2021, directed respondent to show cause in writing why this case should not be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction, on the ground that no valid notice of deficiency, as authorized by section 6212 and required by section 6213(a) of the Internal Revenue Code to form the basis for a petition to this Court, had been issued to petitioners with respect to taxable year 2018.
On June 29, 2021, respondent filed a reply to the Order To Show Cause. Therein, respondent confirmed, and provided supporting documentation in the form of an account transcript to establish, that payment of the deficiency had been received by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in September of 2020. Respondent further concurred that the case should be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.
The premises considered, it is
ORDERED that the Court's Order To Show Cause, served June 15, 2021, is hereby made absolute. It is further
ORDERED that, on the Court's own motion, this case is dismissed for lack of jurisdiction on the ground that the purported notice of deficiency is invalid.