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of Mr. Sonnabend. If petitioner had not reported that income on
the ground that the provisions of section 66 did not require her
to do so, respondent might have concluded to the contrary after
examining her return and determined a deficiency in her income
tax. If that had happened, petitioner would have had the right
to file a petition for redetermination with this Court and invoke
the relief provided by section 66.6 See secs. 6211(a); 6213(a);
see also Hardy v. Commissioner, 181 F.3d 1002 (9th Cir. 1999),
affg. T.C. Memo. 1997-97; Morris v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo.
2002-17; Beck v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2001-198.
Unfortunately for petitioner, the foregoing scenario did not
occur. In short, the present action is not one for
redetermination as respondent did not determine a deficiency in
petitioner’s income tax. Rather, petitioner commenced the
present action asking this Court to review respondent’s denial of
her request on Form 8857 for “Innocent Spouse Relief”.
There is no question that the Tax Court is a court of
limited jurisdiction, and we may exercise our jurisdiction only
to the extent authorized by Congress. Sec. 7442. In Bernal v.
6 Under certain circumstances, sec. 66 provides that a
taxpayer may be relieved of liability from Federal income tax on
community property earned by a spouse. See Bernal v.
Commissioner, 120 T.C. (2003) (slip op. at 7), for a summary
of the relief provided by that section. Of particular note is
sec. 66(c), which, under the conditions enumerated in that
section, relieves a spouse of liability for tax on an item of
community property attributable to the other spouse.
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