Answer to the Petition
Reading the Answer to the petition without the petition in front of you won’t make any sense. The respondent’s Answer simply admits, denies, or objects to statements made in the petition by paragraph number without repeating the statements. When you receive the Answer, you will have to refer to your original petition to see which questions they are answering. I’ve included a SAMPLE Answer to Petition in the Appendix so you will know what one looks like. When you receive an answer it's a good idea to combine the IRS replies with your petition statements for easy reference. The petition and its answer are baseline documents for your case. You should become thoroughly familiar with your statements and the answers you received in order to pursue the facts you will need to establish to carry your case. The answers to the petition give you a starting point for your informal and, if necessary, formal discovery. See the chapter on Discovery for more information. I’ve seen many petitions and answers. There is a remarkable variety of answers to the same or similar statements of errors and facts. Different IRS attorneys treat the same statements differently. Petitions with their answers are useful learning tools. I will be posting examples on this site as I accumulate them. The IRS has 45 days from the petition’s filing date to make any motions[1] concerning it and 60 days from that date to file an answer. The most common motion is a motion to dismiss the petition for various reasons. The most common reasons for motions to dismiss are that you filed late, depriving the court of jurisdiction, or that you did not state a claim on which relief could be granted. The second reason is the hardest to get a handle on. It means usually that you didn’t state any specific error that is within the power of the court to correct. For example, if you claimed in your petition that the IRS is ...
[1] A Motion is a call by one of the parties for the court to make a determination and issue an order to implement the decision. I discuss them at more length in the chapter on Motion Practice.
The words you see above IN BLUE are active hyperlinks in the E-Book version of "ON YOUR OWN IN TAX COURT." The E-Book edition contains extensive links to statutes, regulations, case law, and other useful authorities and resources. There is also an Appendix of actual court documents submitted by both sides. The purchase of the book includes a free half hour consultation with the author about your case.