Opinion
22260-22S
06-26-2023
PAUL WAYNE HARDENBERG, Petitioner v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Respondent
ORDER
Ronald L. Buch, Judge.
The purpose of this order is to re-serve the notice of trial in this case.
The Commissioner sent a notice of deficiency dated July 11, 2022, to Paul Hardenberg. That notice determined a tax deficiency of $11,626 plus various penalties and additions to tax for 2018. From that notice, we infer (without deciding) that Mr. Hardenberg did not file a tax return for 2018.
Mr. Hardenberg filed a timely petition. On October 3, 2022, Mr. Hardenberg mailed a petition to the Court by certified mail. The petition was prepared using the Court's standard petition form (T.C. Form 2) and provided all of the necessary information, along with the filing fee, to invoke the Court's jurisdiction.
The petition contained frivolous arguments. As happens all too often, Mr. Hardenberg appears to have been misled by information on the Internet. He states in his Petition "I googled who is a taxpayer and I don't meet any of the requirements of a taxpayer. There is no law that I'm a taxpayer."
On May 3, 2023, the Court sent Mr. Hardenberg a Notice Setting Case For Trial and a Standing Pretrial Order for Small Tax Cases for his case. They were returned to the Court with the statement "Refused for cause without dishonor" written on each page. (It is unclear what Mr. Hardenberg intends by his use of the word "refused" in this context, where he apparently received an envelope, opened it, and wrote on each page contained in it.)
Abraham Lincoln is often reported as having said "Don't believe everything you read on the Internet." That quote, along with its attribution to President Lincoln, can be found on the Internet. The attribution of that quote to President Lincoln is as accurate as the information Mr. Hardenberg appears to have found regarding one's tax filing and payment obligations. (To state the obvious, the attribution of this quote to President Lincoln is apocryphal; the Internet did not exist during President Lincoln's lifetime.) Instead, we offer these sources, which we are confident Mr. Hardenberg can locate with his Internet research skills:
. Wnuck v. Commissioner, 136 T.C. 498 (2011)
. Waltner v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2014-35, aff'd, 659 Fed.Appx. 440 (9th Cir. 2016)
. Kernan v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2014-228, aff'd, 670 Fed.Appx. 944 (9th Cir. 2016)
By reading the opinions in those cases, Mr. Hardenberg will see that we have previously addressed arguments like those he presents in his Petition. While at it, we also recommend that Mr. Hardenberg research 26 U.S.C. § 6673, which authorizes the Court to impose a penalty of up to $25,000 when it appears to the Court that a taxpayer's position is frivolous or groundless.
Currently this case is scheduled to be called at the session of the Court beginning on September 18, 2023, in St. Paul, Minnesota. If Mr. Hardenberg and the Commissioner resolve this case by agreement before then, or if this case is decided by motion before then, this case will not be called. Absent a resolution, however, this case will likely be called at that session. Because Mr. Hardenberg may have sent his only copy of the Notice Setting Case For Trial, which contains the date, time, and address for the trial session, back to the Court, it is
ORDERED that the Clerk shall place the "refused" mail in the correspondence file for this case. It is further
ORDERED that the Clerk shall serve a copy of the Notice Setting Case For Trial along with this Order.