I went to my corner

[jainen]

I went to my corner for a while--fair enough. Took the time to run a little on-line CPE over at Kleinrock, and here is what I learned.

Courts have held that a revenue ruling is not entitled to the deference accorded a statute or a Treasury regulation. However, the courts have not been clear on exactly how much weight revenue rulings do carry.

The Fifth Circuit has stated that revenue rulings are generally "given weight as expressing the studied view of the agency whose duty it is to carry out the statute."

In contrast, the Tax Court's position is that "revenue rulings are nothing more than the legal contentions of a frequent litigant, undeserving of any more or less consideration than the conclusory statements in a party's brief."

[JG EA]

Plum in the pie

Jack had the same problem in his corner. It may be all well and good to find a revenue ruling but if you can't use it then it only serves one purpose. You will remember that Jack did not eat the plum. It's only purpose was self congratulation.

PS to board control: I am not denigrating poster - I'm trying to be funny

JG

[Bees Knees]

Its all relative. What is the purpose of using the Revenue Ruling?

If you want to avoid the accuracy related penalty, Revenue Rulings are listed in the regs as “Substantial Authority,” and can be used to get you out of the penalty if it happens to turn out that your position is wrong, but you relied on a Revenue Ruling to formulate your position.

If you want to argue with an IRS auditor over something and you took a position in line with a Revenue Ruling, you will win the argument, as an auditor will likely back down if you show him or her anything official looking that is in writing.

If you take the argument to appeals because the auditor is unreasonable, appeals will likely drop the issue if your position is supported by a Revenue Ruling, because appeals is mainly interested in the official written position IRS takes on an issue.

The only time the Revenue Ruling appears to have little value is when you take a position contrary to a Revenue Ruling, the IRS digs in their heels, you take it to Tax Court, and the Tax Court tells IRS; “Big deal, we don’t care what your Revenue Ruling says, let’s look at the law…”

I think from the taxpayer’s point of view, Revenue Rulings are win win, because they help you in audits when you are on their side, and have little authority in court when you decide to go against them.

[OldJack]

Well said Bees....

[Bees Knees]

For that matter, I think IRS Publications are treated similarly. I’ve had auditors back down when you show them what is written in a Pub. But trying using one in court. The courts put IRS Pubs in the category of next to zero in importance.