Tax — vacatur

United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Civil

Tax — vacatur

Where the tax court entered incorrect findings of liability, the judgments should be corrected, rather than vacated.

“Our case law makes it clear that, absent a fraud that infected the Tax Court’s decision, the Tax Court cannot vacate a decision that has become final. Here, the Tax Court issued its decisions on June 8, and those decisions became final on September 6, 2011. The Commissioner does not contend that the June 8 decisions were the result of fraud. Consequently, the Tax Court did not have the authority to vacate those decisions. Instead, as was done in Michaels, the Tax Court should have corrected the initial decisions without vacating them.”

Vacated and Remanded.

12-2099 & 12-2100 Seven W. Enterprises, Inc., v. CIR

Appeals from the United States Tax Court, Ripple, J.