Opinion
12797-21P
04-07-2022
HENDRIEKA FITZPATRICK, Petitioner v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Respondent
ORDER
David Gustafson Judge
Now pending in this case is a motion for summary judgment filed by the Commissioner. We will order petitioner Hendrieka Fitzpatrick to file a response.
Ms. Fitzpatrick's petition challenges a notice that was issued to her by the Internal Revenue Service--i.e., a "Notice of certification of your seriously delinquent federal tax debt to the State Department" (a copy of which is attached to her petition). The IRS's certification to the State Department (pertinent to its passport function) is made under I.R.C. § 7345; and the "seriously delinquent tax debt" that the notice asserts is more than $100,000 in unpaid income tax assessed against her for 2013. Her complaint insists that it is impossible that she owes this amount of tax. That is, the petition seems to challenge the liability. However, in a passport case under section 7345, we do not have jurisdiction over a taxpayer's challenge to a tax liability. See Ruesch v. Commissioner, 154 T.C. 289 (2020). We review only the IRS's certification of the unpaid status of that liability and the requirements of section 7345. The Commissioner therefore filed a motion (Doc. 13) to dismiss Ms. Fitzpatrick's dispute of a deficiency in her 2013 income tax, and we granted that motion to dismiss by our order of March 8, 2022 (Doc. 18).
The Commissioner also filed a motion (Doc. 15) for summary judgment as to Ms. Fitzpatrick's challenge to the IRS's certification under I.R.C. section 7345 that she is an individual owing seriously delinquent tax debt. We have not yet ruled on that motion. In compliance with our order (Doc. 18), the Commissioner filed on April 6, 2022, a supplement (Doc. 19) to his motion for summary judgment.
We will now order Ms. Fitzpatrick to respond to the motion for summary judgment as supplemented. Our order of January 28, 2022 (Doc. 16), explained to Ms. Fitzpatrick the nature of a motion for summary judgment and the means for responding to it. She should review that explanation. It is
ORDERED that, no later than May 13, 2022, Ms. Fitzpatrick shall file a response to the Commissioner's motion for summary judgment (Doc. 15) as supplemented (Doc. 19). Under Tax Court Rule 121(d), if Ms. Fitzpatrick does not respond to the motion for summary judgment, then a decision may be entered against her. It is further
ORDERED that the Clerk of the Court shall include, with the service of this order on Ms. Fitzpatrick, copies of our two orders (Docs. 16 and 18) discussed above.