-16- 5. Section 6673(a)(1) Penalty The Court now considers sua sponte whether to impose a penalty against petitioner pursuant to section 6673(a)(1). That section provides that the Court may require a taxpayer to pay to the United States a penalty not in excess of $25,000 whenever, among other reasons, it appears either that the taxpayer instituted or maintained the proceeding primarily for delay or that the taxpayer’s position in the proceeding is frivolous or groundless. The record in this case convinces us that petitioner was not interested in disputing the merits of either the deficiency in income tax or the additions to tax respondent determined in the notice of deficiency. Rather, the record demonstrates that petitioner unreasonably prolonged the proceeding by serving on respondent and filing with the Court repetitious, groundless, and frivolous documents. In the petition, motion for summary judgment, and several other documents petitioner has submitted to the Court, petitioner raised frivolous tax-protester arguments and contentions that have previously and universally been rejected as such. See, e.g., Dashiell v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2004-210 (as to petitioner’s allegation that no Internal Revenue Code section makes him liable); Smith v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2003-45 (as to petitioner’s allegation that the deficiency determined is an excise tax). Petitioner knew orPage: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011