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BEGHE, J., dissenting: I respectfully dissent from the
granting of respondent’s motion to dismiss for lack of
jurisdiction. The Court’s action perpetuates needless
inefficiency in judicial administration of the new collection
provisions and plays into the hands of tax protesters.
Petitioners have gummed up the works, created delay in the
collection of relatively small amounts obviously due, and
multiplied the proceedings with respect to frivolous return
penalties whose assessment properly bypassed the deficiency
procedures of the Tax Court.
The Court should have denied the motion and taken
jurisdiction, overruled Van Es v. Commissioner, 115 T.C. 324
(2000), and put an end to the matter by holding that the hearing
requirement was satisfied and that respondent’s determination to
collect the assessments should be upheld. By electing to
petition the Tax Court, rather than the appropriate district
court, petitioners should have been held to have waived their
right to appeal the Appeals officer’s determination that they
were liable for the frivolous return penalties.1
1 Applying the doctrine of waiver would have been especially
appropriate in the case at hand, where the arguments made in the
attachments to petitioners’ amended returns are patently
frivolous and have been repeatedly rejected in our published
opinions. Petitioners argued that no section of the Internal
Revenue Code makes them liable for income taxes on their wages.
See United States v. Connor, 898 F.2d 942, 943-944 (3d Cir. 1990)
(“Every court which has ever considered the issue has
unequivocally rejected the argument that wages are not income”);
see also Reading v. Commissioner, 70 T.C. 730 (1978), affd. 614
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