Opinion
12103-20
04-04-2022
CHADD FOX, Petitioner v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Respondent
ORDER
Albert G. Lauber Judge.
With respect to petitioner's 2017 tax year, the IRS determined a deficiency of $93, 609 and an accuracy-related penalty of $18, 722. Petitioner timely petitioned this Court in October 2020. The principal issues raised in the petition involve substantiation of claimed deductions and credits.
This case was originally calendared on the Court's June 14, 2021, Denver, Colorado, trial session. On April 7, 2021, petitioner filed a motion for continuance to which respondent did not object. The Court granted that motion and subsequently calendared this case for remote trial on February 7, 2022, set for administrative purposes in Denver, Colorado.
On January 7, 2022, petitioner filed another motion for continuance. Petitioner's counsel represented that, due to health issues and financial difficulties, petitioner "has been unable to participate in trial preparation." Later the same day respondent filed a notice of objection to petitioner's motion. Respondent represented that he did not oppose a continuance; however, he noted that this case had already been continued once and represented that petitioner had repeatedly ignored his requests for documentation. Respondent emphasized that this is a substantiation case and that petitioner had yet to provide any documentation to substantiate his claimed deductions and credits.
On January 11, 2022, we granted petitioner's motion for continuance, but retained jurisdiction to monitor the parties' progress. We directed petitioner to supply respondent's counsel, by March 14, 2022, with all documents on which he would expect to rely at trial. We instructed respondent to file a status report by April 1, 2022, informing the Court of the status of petitioner's document production.
On March 31, 2022, respondent filed a status report representing that petitioner did not submit any documentation by March 14 or subsequently. Having 1 received no documentation from petitioner, respondent on March 29 filed a Stipulation of Facts including only the notice of deficiency on which this case is based and a copy of petitioner's Federal income tax return for 2017. On April 1, 2022, petitioner's counsel filed a status report explaining that petitioner's illness prevented him from gathering and producing documents. Petitioner's counsel represents that he "does not feel it would be productive in moving this case forward to order document disclosure . . . [until] petitioner is well enough to gather documents and assist counsel in the preparation of this case."
This case has been pending for nearly two years and petitioner appears to want to put it on hold indefinitely. This we are unwilling to do. In consideration of the foregoing, it is
ORDERED that petitioner shall submit to respondent's counsel, by June 20, 2022, all documents on which he would expect to rely at trial in support of his position. Absent extraordinary circumstances, petitioner will not be permitted to use at trial any documents not supplied to respondent's counsel by this deadline. It is further
ORDERED that respondent shall file with the Court, on or before July 8, 2022, a status report detailing the then-present status of the case. 2