Filing a tax return after the assessment
by the IRS will not be considered a “proper tax return” under Beard standard
and would not make the tax debt dischargeable.
The 3rd Circuit court has just decided
a case regarding the dischargability of the tax debt, when a taxpayer files his
“tax return” after the Service assesses the tax deficiency. The court held that
under the long standing Beard v. Commissioned of Internal Revenue case, the
tax payer failed the fourth requirement of the test to make “. . . a honest and reasonable attempt to satisfy the requirements
of the tax law.” The court rejected the
approach adopted by the Eighth Circuit in In re Colsen that the “reasonable
attempt . . . focuses of the content of the form, not on the circumstances of
its filing.” Therefore, the court concluded that the tax payer’s forms 1040
were not a return for 11 U.S.C. 523(a)(1)(B) purposes and could not be
discharged. Following the same reasoning, the failed attempt to file a “return”
would not start a Statue of Limitation for collections’ purposes of the tax
debt and the Service could try to collect any time. IRC 6502.
Thomas Giacchi v. U.S.
Department of the Treasury Internal Revenue Service.
