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...
Sometimes the respondent will make allegations against you in his answer that were not made in the notice. If he does, you have 45 days to deny those allegations with a Reply to the Answer. If you don’t reply, respondent can move the court to deem any allegations he...
You have 30 days from the service date of the Answer to file a motion concerning it. The service date is the date on the Certificate of Service that accompanies all formal court documents. I’ve seen and filed a number of motions seeking explanations of vague,...
After the Service has answered the petition and you’ve replied if necessary, the next step is often an appeals conference with the IRS Office of Appeals. Appeals is in theory a separate and independent branch of the Service, but for all practical purposes, if you are...
Black’s Law Dictionary defines trial discovery as: “the pre-trial devices that can be used by one party to obtain facts and information about the case from the other party…” It’s hard to exaggerate the importance of discovery for petitioners in a Tax Court case....
Request for Admissions Requests for Admissions (or simply “admissions”) are similar to the Facts section of a petition. They are simple statements of fact (or the application of the law to a fact) and are offered to your opponent for him to admit or deny. You will...
There are several ways you can ask for documents in informal discovery. See Rules 72 and 73. First, you can make informal requests of both your opponent and any non-hostile third parties, for copies of or the opportunity to copy, documents you need to establish your...
‘Interrogatories’ is a fancy word for questions, more specifically, written questions that must be answered in writing and under oath. Rule 71. You may only give interrogatories to your opponent, not to third parties. In the formal discovery process, the rules limit...
