The Tax Court upheld the IRS’s certification of a seriously delinquent tax debt, allowing the State Department to deny or restrict the taxpayer’s passport.
Holding
The Court granted summary judgment to the IRS. It sustained the passport certification under §7345 because the taxpayer owed more than $1.6 million in assessed, unpaid, and enforceable trust fund recovery penalties, and no statutory exception applied.
Why It Matters
Passport certification cases are narrow. The Court can only decide whether the certification was correct.
Missed CDP deadlines still matter years later. They foreclose later attempts to block certification.
Installment agreements or offers in compromise must be active and accepted to block certification.
Prior CDP litigation precludes relitigation of collection issues in a passport case.
Timeline
2014–2018: IRS issues multiple lien and levy notices for trust fund recovery penalties. No CDP hearings requested.
March 24, 2021: IRS issues a levy notice for the March 31, 2016…
