This week’s podcast deals with two recent cases, one a win for taxpayers and one a loss. You can download the material (which consists of the two cases) from this link.

In the first case, Davis v. Commissioner, TC Memo 2005-202, a taxpayer had to foot the bill for over nearly $7,900 in fees to contest an IRS assessment because of a mix-up over his address that caused notices of the pending exam, as well as the notices prior to assessment when the case could have gone to appeals, to be sent to the address the taxpayer shared with his ex-spouse. The Tax Court held that while the IRS apparently misdirected one notice that should have gone to a different address per its own files, later notices that would have enabled the taxpayer to contest matters earlier went to the wrong address because the taxpayer continued to list his old address on the 1040s he filed.

In the second case, Allemeier v. Commissioner, TC Memo 2005-207, a taxpayer proves that what many tax preparers “know” is not necessarily the case—that obtaining an advanced degree will automatically cause education expenses to fail the test on whether the taxpayer has qualified for a new position and thus lose the deduction. Mr. Allemeier succeeded, representing himself, in having the court allow him to claim the costs of his MBA educational program over the objections of the IRS.

I’m uploading this show before I head to Tucson for a day, so it’s going up a little early this week. I’ll likely be taping the podcast for next week while in Tucson (I usually try and get them ready in advance so there’s less pressure to meet a schedule.