Liroff v. Commissioner, Docket No. 3222-80.

Decision Date07 June 1982
Docket NumberDocket No. 3222-80.
Citation44 TCM (CCH) 47,1982 TC Memo 312
PartiesRichard B. Liroff and Harriet Liroff v. Commissioner.
CourtU.S. Tax Court

Barry I. Fredericks, 655 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y., for the petitioners. Richard J. Sapinski, for the respondent.

Memorandum Opinion

SHIELDS, Judge:

This case is before the Court on petitioners' motion for partial summary judgment1 under Rule 121.2 The question to be decided is whether respondent's deficiency notice was timely mailed within the period prescribed by section 6501(a)3 with respect to the years 1966 to 1969.

Respondent determined that deficiencies in income taxes and additions to the tax under section 6653(b) were due from Richard Liroff as follows:

                  Year              Deficiency   Addition to Tax
                  1966 ..........   $ 2,092.43     $ 1,046.22
                  1967 ..........       288.40         144.20
                  1968 ..........       904.22       2,588.61
                  1969 ..........    39,414.85      24,126.43
                  1970 ..........       —0—       10,878.78
                  1971 ..........    37,059.09      18,529.55
                  1972 ..........    12,737.00         —0—
                

Respondent determined the above deficiencies, but not the additions to tax, were due from Harriet Liroff.

Petitioners were legal residents of New Jersey at all times pertinent herein. They timely filed their original returns for 1966 to 1969. Then, on August 9, 1973, they filed amended returns for 1966 to 1969. The amended returns were not fraudulent.

On December 14, 1979, respondent mailed to petitioners his notice of deficiency for 1966 through 1969 and the other years set out above. He mailed the notice of deficiency more than three years after petitioners' amended returns for 1966 to 1969 were filed. However, he had not requested, and the petitioners had not executed an extension pursuant to section 6501(c)(4) with respect to 1966 through 1969 extending the three-year period provided by section 6501(a).4

Petitioners assert that upon their filing on August 9, 1973, of nonfraudulent amended returns for the taxable years 1966 to 1969 the three-year statute of limitations under section 6501(a) commenced to run. They note that respondent issued to them his notice of deficiency more than three years after they filed their amended returns. From this, they conclude that respondent's assessments of deficiencies and additions to tax for 1966 to 1969 are barred by section 6501(a) as a matter of law. Accordingly, they ask us to grant their motion for partial summary judgment with respect to 1966 through 1969.

Respondent contends that his assessments of deficiencies and additions to tax for 1966 through 1969 are not necessarily barred by section 6501(a). He claims that there are genuine issues of material fact in this case, such as whether the petitioners' original returns for 1966 to 1969 were fraudulent. Thus, he concludes that we must deny the petitioners' motion for partial summary judgment since we cannot render a decision as a matter of law.

The issue and facts in this case are indistinguishable from those presented in Kramer v. Commissioner, a Memorandum Opinion of this Court dated June 7, 1982 Dec. 39,071(M). There we decided that the taxpayers' filing of nonfraudulent amended returns commenced the three-year statute of limitations under section 6501(a). Since the respondent in Kramer v. Commissioner, supra, issued his deficiency notice more than three years after the taxpayers filed their amended returns, we held that he was barred from assessing deficiencies against them. This result was compelled by our decision in Klemp v. Commissioner Dec. 38,109, 77 T.C. 201 (1981).

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