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possible the correspondence that it receives from a multitude of
taxpayers. NILs and NFTLs are sent out in great volume: In
fiscal year 2003, for example, government statistics show that
the IRS issued more than 1.5 million levies and filed over
500,000 liens. TIGTA Rept. 2004-30-083, “Trends in Compliance
Activities Through Fiscal Year 2003,” Doc 2004-9294, 2004 TNT 84-
16, figs. 16 & 17 (April 2004).
The Code’s provisions on collection, and the IRS’s data
processing, are geared to a particular sequence of actions--
notice of levy, request for a CDP hearing, suspension of
collection, holding a CDP hearing, issuing a notice of
determination after a CDP hearing, judicial review, and only then
actually levying. We think the Commissioner is right when he
argues that allowing a taxpayer to disrupt this sequence with a
premature CDP request would be quite likely to cause prejudice.
It would, for example, let taxpayers unilaterally suspend
collection action against them under section 6330(e) even before
the IRS decided whether to try to collect through a levy. It
would cause confusion in calculating the period of limitations
affected by the suspension of collection that a proper CDP
request triggers. And it would force the IRS to look through
every piece of correspondence sent in by a taxpayer concerning an
unpaid liability to judge whether it sufficed as a CDP hearing
request.
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Last modified: May 25, 2011