Taxable Talk

The IRS puts two liens against you. You fight the case, filing a lawsuit against the Commissioner of the IRS, claiming $4.5 million in damages for slander of title, inconvenience, aggravation, and generally annoying behavior. But you lose in District Court. You file an appeal to the Court of Appeals (here, the 10th Circuit). The IRS asks for the appeal to be summarily rejected, and that you pay a penalty for making a frivolous appeal.

If you're going to file a lawsuit against the IRS, you had better have legal grounds; being annoyed isn't enough according to the District Court that first ruled on this case. When the petitioner, Delbert Kyler, appealed, he told the Court that the IRS, "extorts money and property," "exploits the power of the United States for criminal thuggery," and that the U.S. Attorney was "obviously unschooled in the legal arts ... [and] expects this court to bend over backwards and kiss his ... allegedly royal ass."

You and I may be laughing. Unfortunately for Mr. Kyler, the Court just wasn't in a laughing mood, found his appeal frivolous, and ordered him to pay the "unschooled ... legal arts" practitioners of the United States Attorney's Office their legal fees of $8,000.

Case: Kyler v. Everson, 10th Circuit

Hat Tip: Tax Professor Blog