Opinion
21958-21L
06-14-2022
VICTOR A. TRELLES, Petitioner v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Respondent
ORDER
MARK V. HOLMES JUDGE
This case was on the Court's April 4, 2022 trial calendar for Los Angeles, California. On December 22, 2021, respondent moved under Tax Court Rule 37(c) that the undenied allegations in paragraphs 8-11 of his answer be deemed admitted. On January 4, 2022 respondent moved without opposition for a continuance and a couple weeks later moved to remand.
It turned out that Mr. Trelles is not fluent in English. This caused problems in his ability to communicate with IRS Appeals in the period before his CDP hearing. Respondent quite correctly sought a remand to enable a more productive hearing. Mr. Trelles did not object.
The IRS tried to hold a supplemental CDP hearing on March 2, 2022 with the assistance of a Spanish translator so that Mr. Trelles could communicate more effectively. Things didn't go smoothly, and the IRS said that someone in the Trelles household twice hung up the phone. Mr. Trelles claims to have called in, but admits he didn't leave a message and then called a second time to ask for a translator. Yet he also admits that he himself hung up on the IRS "because I am always on alert for the number of unknown telephone areas and I disconnect them."
The IRS understandably wanted to renew its motion to deem allegations in its answer admitted.
We issued an order to Mr. Trelles to show cause why we shouldn't grant the Commissioner's motion.
Mr. Trelles did not in his response even state his view on the actual allegations in the Commissioner's answer that we ordered him to respond to. It is therefore
ORDERED that the Court's order to show cause is made absolute, and the undenied allegations in paragraphs 8 - 11 of the answer are deemed admitted.