Gessert v. U.S.

Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
Income Tax
Citation
Case Number: 
No. 09-3380
Decision Date: 
January 3, 2013
Federal District: 
E.D. Wisc.
Holding: 
Affirmed
Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendant’s motion to dismiss plaintiffs’ action under section 7433 of Internal Revenue Code alleging that IRS agent used improper efforts to collect on tax liability and improperly applied voluntary tax payments made by plaintiff-entity to entity’s non-trust portion of its tax liability, which in turn caused plaintiff-CEO of said entity to incur increased personal liability for balance of tax owed on trust fund portion of entity’s tax liability. Plaintiff-CEO lacked standing to assert any claim under section 7433 since IRS agent sought collection only from plaintiff-entity. Moreover, plaintiff-entity could not assert section 7433 claim since entity failed to allege any economic harm arising out of IRS agent’s alleged conduct. Moreover, plaintiff-CEO refund and abatement claim failed because plaintiff-entity did not provide specific written direction to IRS agent to apply voluntary payments to trust fund portion of its tax liability.