Every Supreme Court justice has one of these moments: they’re the lone dissenter. The late Justice Antonin Scalia had many of these moments. Justice Neil Gorsuch has found himself at odds with his colleagues over a recent tax case that he feels allows the Internal Revenue Service to escape accountability.
It’s a marathon tale: Jennifer Zuch has been at war with the IRS over a tax liability she felt was wrongly issued. Her then-husband was credited for a $50,000 payment, which she feels should have been issued to her. This circus dates back to 2010. The agency then filed a levy against Zuch and her property to collect that debt. While her tax returns showed that Ms. Zuch was owed a refund, the IRS would instead siphon that money to pay the liability. Eventually, the debt was paid off, the IRS withdrew its lien, and the US Tax Court agreed with the government that the court no longer had jurisdiction over a matter where the levy was no longer an issue. They agreed with the tax court in an 8-1 Supreme Court ruling.
But will no one be held into account here? Gorsuch wrote that what transpired here is that a government agency with broad powers was allowed to escape a review by the Federal Tax Court. We don’t know if the complaint was valid or not—that’s a problem. No doubt, a legitimate complaint will be filed, and the IRS will be allowed to more or less run out the clock (via Fox News):
Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote a dissent to the Supreme Court’s decision to limit the U.S. Tax Court's authority in certain Internal Revenue Service (IRS) cases, asserting that the federal tax collecting service could avoid accountability in the future.
Gorsuch wrote the dissent to the high court's opinion in Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Zuch, a case that centers on Jennifer Zuch's dispute with the IRS that began in 2012 over the agency’s moves regarding her late 2010 federal tax return filing.
"Along the way, the Court’s decision hands the IRS a powerful new tool to avoid accountability for its mistakes in future cases like this one," Gorsuch wrote in his dissent.
[…]
The decision will not only prevent Zuch from recouping her overpayments that she believes the IRS has wrongly retained, but give the IRS a way to avoid accountability, Gorsuch wrote in his dissent.
"The IRS seeks, and the Court endorses, a view of the law that gives that agency a roadmap for evading Tax Court review and never having to answer a taxpayer’s complaint that it has made a mistake," the justice wrote.
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