Opinion
1983-23 1984-23 2105-23
11-07-2024
RUBEN HAROUTYUNYAN, ET AL., Petitioner v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Respondent
ORDER
Mark V. Holmes, Judge.
These cases were on the February 12, 2024 Los Angeles, California trial calendar. They have in common a state-legal marijuana dispensary with section 280E problems, but complicated by its organization as an S corporation that may have been technically terminated five days into the tax year at issue. And in one of the cases there is an innocent-spouse affirmative defense.
The parties recently identified as a key issue in these cases exactlywhen the Barr Corporation operated as an S corporation. The resolution of this issue may cause their dispute to veer off into a time-consuming C corporation audit, and we spoke with the parties today to discuss how to move the cases forward in light of that possibility. There are a number of possible paths forward - settlement of the key issue, its severance and a brief trial, or setting it up for decision by submission under Rule 122 or by summary-judgment motion. The parties reasonably asked to have a month to talk about this among themselves, so it is
ORDERED that on or before December 5, 2024 the parties file a status report on their progress in figuring out how to resolve the S corporation issue.