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Tax Code – Spousal Relief

By: Derek Hawkins//October 18, 2021//

Tax Code – Spousal Relief

By: Derek Hawkins//October 18, 2021//

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7th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Frances L. Rogers v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

Case No.: 20‐2789; 20‐2790; 20‐2791; 20‐2869; 20‐2870; 20‐2871; 20‐2872; 20‐2873

Officials: BAUER, EASTERBROOK, and SCUDDER, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Tax Code – Spousal Relief

Married since 1967, John and Frances Rogers filed joint federal income tax returns for many years. They underreported their tax obligations many times over, and the misreporting was the product of a fraudulent tax scheme designed by John, a Harvard‐trained tax attorney. The fraud did not elude the Internal Revenue Service, though, and the many subsequent collection and enforcement proceedings in the U.S. Tax Court have not gone well for the Rogerses. Our court has affirmed the Tax Court’s rulings every time.

Before us now is another appeal by Frances challenging two Tax Court decisions denying her requests for what the Tax Code calls innocent spouse relief. Our review of the record shows that the Tax Court took considerable care assessing Frances’s pleas for relief, in the end denying them largely on the basis that she was aware of too many facts and too many warning signs during the relevant tax years to escape financial responsibility for the clear fraud perpetrated on the U.S. Treasury. While the tragedy of what Frances has endured over the years is in no way lost on us, we are left to affirm, for the Tax Court got it right.

Affirmed

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Derek A Hawkins is Corporate Counsel, at Salesforce.

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