Law360 Quotes Christopher Rizek: Top 5 Federal Tax Cases Of 2018

In the first half of 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court narrowed a tax obstruction statute and addressed the taxation of railroad company stock options, while circuit courts considered the right to be heard by the Internal Revenue Service Appeals Office and the substance-over-form doctrine.

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Facebook v. Commissioner

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Christopher Rizek, a tax attorney and member at Caplin & Drysdale, said that assuming the Facebook decision is not reversed, the case is important for two reasons.

“First, it confirms that there is no statutory right to administrative appeal of routine income tax deficiencies, which has long been the service’s position,” he said. “Second — and this is what’s really new and different about it — it holds that the Taxpayer Bill of Rights provision added to the code in 2015 doesn’t create new rights or enforceable remedies for the enumerated rights.”

Rights and remedies can only be found by looking to other parts of the IRC, as the statute’s language says, Rizek told Law360.

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Excerpt taken from the article “Top 5 Federal Tax Cases Of 2018: Midyear Report” by Amy Lee Rosen for Law360.