Premature IRS Tax Assessments due to Surge in Tax Court Petitions

2021-12-10

The United States Tax Court issued a December 8, 2021, press release, following on On July 23, 2021, and August 16, 2021, press releases, regarding the significantly increased number of petitions received this 2021 year. From January 1, 2021, through November 30, 2021, the Court received 33,300 petitions.

Approximately 20% of the total petitions filed were filed electronically. Electronic petitions were up to 30% in October and increased to 36% in November. There is no backlog with respect to electronically filed petitions.

The Court continues to process petitions expeditiously, and the number of paper filed petitions that have yet to be processed continues to drop as the number of electronic petitions increases.

IRS tax assessment isto be delayed if the taxpayer filed a Tax Court petition within 90 days of the date of the IRS Notice of Deficiency. The delay in processing Tax Court petitions delays notice to the IRS of the petition filing and has resulted in the IRS prematurely assessing tax before the matter is heard in Tax Court. The IRS created a dedicated email address in October 2020 for petitioners to reach out with concerns about premature assessments or enforcement actions: taxcourt.petitioner.premature.assessment@irs.gov.