Opinion
27419-21L
03-08-2023
Walter C. Lange, Petitioner v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Respondent
ORDER & DECISION
Mark V. Holmes, Judge
This case is on the Court's March 6, 2023 trial calendar for Dallas, Texas. Respondent had moved on February 28, 2023 to dismiss this case for failure to state a claim. Petitioner did not appear when the case was called. We briefly heard from respondent on his motion, which we will now grant.
Background
Mr. Walter Lange is a frequent litigant in our Court. This is his fourth case in five years. In docket number 11492-17L he contested the IRS's determination to levy upon his assets to collect overdue penalties for filing frivolous tax returns for 2009 and 2012. He raised nothing but frivolous arguments in support of his frivolous positions and we not only ruled against him, but imposed a $2,500 penalty under IRC § 6673. He appealed, persisted in his frivolity, and had the Fifth Circuit impose a $8,000 penalty on him under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 38. Lange v. Commissioner, 748 F.App'x. 635, 636 (5th Cir. 2019).
In docket number 332-19 he challenged the notice of deficiency that the IRS sent him for his 2015 tax year. He again filed pages of tedious, silly arguments for why his taxable income wasn't taxable. And when he didn't show up at calendar call, we dismissed his case for failure to properly prosecute.
In his next case, docket number 18201-19, he challenged the notice of deficiency that the IRS had sent him for his 2016 tax year. He raised only frivolous arguments to justify his reporting zero income, and he again didn't show up at calendar call. This time we were lenient with him because he had moved to dismiss his own case. But we warned him of section 6673 penalties in his future if he persisted in his frivolity.
He has persisted.
Analysis
In this case, Mr. Lange challenges the IRS's determination to collect his unpaid tax bill for 2012 and 2013. When he first got the IRS's notice that it intended to levy on his property, he authorized a representative to discuss an installment agreement. But he then reverted to his old habits-he terminated his representative, and again started mailing in long arguments about how no one can collect tax by levy against his property because he's not a federal employer, distiller, or tobacco producer. He again cites to obsolete revenue acts from a century or more ago, and he seems to repeat arguments that he made in his first case about the procedure for assessing frivolous-return penalties. (This case is about collecting income tax owed because Mr. Lange didn't challenge notices of deficiency that the IRS sent him.)
We won't review all his arguments, keeping in mind that the Fifth Circuit itself has told him, “[w]e neither explain those arguments nor rebut them in detail, lest we thereby ‘suggest that these arguments have some colorable merit.'” Lange v. Commissioner, 748 F.App'x. 635, 636 (5th Cir. 2019)(quoting Crain v. Commissioner, 737 F.2d 1417 (5th Cir. 1984)). But to give third-party readers a taste of this gallimaufry:
• The Commissioner has to follow Revised Statute 3185-he doesn't, inasmuch as this is a nineteenth-century law long since superseded by the Code as it is today. See Tax Reform Act of 1986, Pub. L. No. 99-514, 100 Stat. 2085;
• There can be no levy unless the IRS gives verification of proper assessment to a taxpayer-no, an appeals officer must verify proper assessment but doesn't have to hand it to the taxpayer. See Craig v. Commissioner, 119 T.C. 252, 261 (2002);
• Liability was “falsely assumed in contradiction to self-assessment”- no, liability was assessed when Mr. Lange didn't contest the notices of deficiency sent to him. § 6213(a).
Mr. Lange needs to stop doing this. We recognize that his tax debts are not large compared to many in our Court. But his persistence in wasting the time of this Court and the IRS suggests another penalty is now appropriate.
It is therefore
ORDERED that respondent's February 28, 2023 motion to dismiss is granted. It is also
DECIDED that petitioner is liable for a $4,000 section 6673(a) penalty. It is also
ORDERED and DECIDED that respondent may proceed with the collection of petitioner Walter Lange's federal income tax liability for the tax years 2012 and 2013, as described in the Notice of Determination Concerning Collection Action(s) under Section 6320 and/or 6330, dated July 9, 2021.