United States Seventh Circuit

In a case begun in 1986, now involving the estate of a well-known tax attorney, seeking review of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue's determination that the attorney had not paid all his taxes, judgment of the Tax Court is reversed and remanded as the Tax Court did not show the proper level of deference to the Special Trial Judge's (STJ) factual findings where: 1) STJ's factual findings are not clearly erroneous with respect to petitioner's tax liability and tax fraud; 2) there is no reversible error in the STJ's conclusion that petitioner was not the owner of the trusts in question, and as such, he is not liable for the tax deficiencies that the Commissioner assessed; 3) with respect to the partnership, the Tax Court lacked jurisdiction over the 1983, 1984, and 1986 tax years; and 4) STJ's conclusion that only the 1% interest that petitioner held in the partnership for the 1981 and 1982 tax years was taxable is not clearly erroneous.

Appellate Information

• Argued 05/27/2009
• Decided 12/01/2009
• Published 12/01/2009

Judges

• WOOD, Circuit Judge., Before CUDAHY, RIPPLE, and WOOD, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Seventh Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Randall G. Dick, San Francisco, CA, Richard H. Pildes (argued), New York University Law School, New York, NY, Karen L. Hawkins, Taggart & Hawkins, Oakland, CA, for Petitioners-Appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• Kenneth L. Greene, Tax Division, Appellate Section, Joan I. Oppenheimer (argued), Gilbert S. Rothenberg, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division, Immigration Litigation, Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General, Washington, DC, for Respondent-Appellee.