Supreme Court Gives Taxpayers More Power To Fight The IRS
Patrick Temple-West, Reuters
BusinessInsider.com
Jun. 19, 2014
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled unanimously that taxpayers have a right to challenge an Internal Revenue Service summons enforcement action in court when they can show the tax agency might have issued the summons in bad faith.
The tax-collecting IRS argued taxpayers already have opportunities to challenge a summons, but the nine justices ruled in favor of a Florida man who demanded an evidentiary hearing about the motives of IRS officials for issuing a summons.
Michael Clarke of West Palm Beach said the IRS issued a summons as retribution against him and his business partners for resisting an audit.
In a nine-page opinion written by Justice Elena Kagan, the Supreme Court said: “A taxpayer has a right to conduct an examination of IRS officials regarding their reasons for issuing a summons when he points to specific facts or circumstances plausibly raising an inference of bad faith.”
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