A federal district court rejected a taxpayer’s claim that it helped the IRS commit fraud, saying the claim was “nonsensical and wholly unsupported by any actual evidence.”
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri in Kurz v. United States on January 6 denied the taxpayer’s motion to set aside a judgment due to fraud on the court, pointing out that the last-ditch effort was a reargument on the merits of the case, which had been dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.
John M. Kurz filed a petition with the Tax Court in January 2018 challenging the IRS’s income tax determination for tax years 2000 to 2017. The Tax Court dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction in July 2018.
Kurz asked the district court to issue a permanent injunction against the IRS for garnishing his wages and issuing levies on his bank account, claiming the Tax Court’s dismissal for lack of jurisdiction should’ve barred the IRS from proceeding with collection activities.
The government responded by filing a motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction, which the district court granted because the taxpayer failed to establish an exception to the Anti-Injunction Act. Kurz then filed a motion to alter or amend the judgment, which the court denied.
On December 6, Kurz filed a motion to set aside the judgment because of "fraud on the court and unclean hands.” Kurz claimed that the IRS falsified records to justify stealing his property and that district court judges were conspiring with the executive branch to “obstruct the just outcome of income-tax related cases,” according to the opinion.
The court said that none of the matters asserted by Kurz “show with clear and convincing evidence that the government engaged in fraud or misrepresentation that prevented Mr. Kurz from fully and fairly presenting his case. Thus, Mr. Kurz’s motion will be denied.”
The taxpayer represented himself in Kurz v. United States, No. 4:19-CV-00310 (E.D. Mo. 2020).