A Drama in Three Acts: Designated Orders Jan. 13 – 17 (Part Three of Three)

One may be excused for wondering if the question of the “value” of the IRM hasn’t already been fully established. After all, it is “a well-settled principle that the Internal Revenue Manual does not have the force of law, is not binding on the IRS, and confers no rights on taxpayers.” See, for example, my coverage of the Lecour v. C.I.R. order here or, more precisely, footnote 16 in Thompson v. C.I.R. 140 T.C. No. 4 (2013). So how does Judge Holmes find some daylight in the issue of whether the IRM creates some sort of obligation upon the IRS visa IRC 6330(c)(1)?

The answer is part due to an administrative law principle called the “Accardi Doctrine” (sometimes alternatively referred to as the Accardi “Principle” if you are scrambling to look it up in law review articles). Doctrine or principle, it is named after the Supreme Court case of United States ex. rel. Accardi v. Shaughnessy, 347 U.S. 260 (1954). That case, which may look both deceptively short and inconsequential to tax (it stems from a writ of habeus corpus), has largely come to stand for the proposition that agencies have to follow their own rules or face having their actions invalidated for abuse of discretion… though exactly which “rules” matter is something of an unsettled question. Is it just notice and comment regulations that Accardi cares about? Is it just for “legislative” regulations (which may or may not be the same question phrased differently)?

The Second Circuit interprets the Accardi doctrine as applying to those rules “promulgated by a federal agency, which regulated the rights and interests of others” as being “controlling on the agency.” Montilla v. INS, 926 F.2d 162, 166 (2nd Cir. 1992). As relevant to the question of whether this is only applicable to “notice and comment” regulations, the Second Circuit in Montilla gives a (blissfully) clear answer: it applies even “where the internal procedures are possibly more rigorous than otherwise would be required and even though the procedural requirement has not yet been published in the federal register.”

So we have the opening, at least in cases appealable to the Second Circuit, that “sub-regulatory” guidance (i.e. guidance that isn’t published in the Federal Register) may nonetheless be binding on the IRS under Accardi. But does this trickle all the way down to the IRM? Maybe, and maybe not (or at least not through Accardi). Judge Holmes doesn’t need to directly answer the Accardi doctrine question here, because he finds that IRS Appeals followed the IRM in any case.

Still, I promise to you, there are lessons to be learned from these unanswered questions that directly touch on the value of the IRM. Those lessons can best be learned by splitting the issue in two: (1) how the Tax Court views Accardi’s application to the IRM, and (2) how the Tax Court applies IRC 6330(c)(1)’s definition of “administrative procedures” to the IRM.

Starting with the Tax Court’s view of Accardi and administrative law, it may come as little surprise that Accardi has been infrequently discussed in earlier cases. Administrative law issues being raised in Tax Court has certainly gained steam in recent years, but it is still something of a rarity, and especially with earlier cases. In fact, when I searched Westlaw for Tax Court cases citing to Accardi I found only five -many of them with basically no discussion of the doctrine.

One of the cases that I believe gives a pretty good indication of the Tax Court’s thoughts on Accardi and the IRM is Capitol Federal Sav. & Loan Ass’n & Subsidiary v. C.I.R., 96 T.C. 204 (1991). In that case, the Court notes that “[a]gencies are not required, at the risk of invalidation of their actions, to follow all of their rules.” OK, so not all rules matter the same. There are different tiers. And what rules may the agency “not follow” without necessarily invalidating their actions? Those that are “general statements of policy and rules governing internal agency operations or ‘housekeeping’ matters, which do not have the force and effect of law.” These would include the IRM and are not “binding” on the agency in the Accardi mold.

In fact, the Supreme Court has (almost) weighed in on that issue in U.S. v. Caceres, 440 U.S. 741 (1979). Though Caceres is a (criminal) tax case that directly implicates the IRM, it doesn’t conclusively answer the question of how Accardi applies to the IRM. The defendant in Caceres wanted evidence of bribery suppressed because the IRS agent procured it without properly following IRM procedures (which the Court maddeningly refers to as “regulations” throughout the opinion). The Court ends up allowing the evidence despite failure to follow the IRM… but notes explicitly that this “is not an APA case.” In other words, it is not looking at whether to invalidate an agency action, but whether a constitutional right was violated. Not quite the same things. And we are really just concerned with whether an agency action should be found arbitrary and capricious, not whether our constitutional rights are (directly) violated.

I take the Tax Court’s attitude in Capital Federal Savings to be that Accardi only applies to legislative regulations, which are those that are meant to carry the force of law (and generally published in the federal register). Unless your Circuit has said something different, the Tax Court is unlikely to treat sub-regulatory guidance as equivalent to a legislative regulation, and thus unlikely to be binding on the IRS through Accardi. This holds especially true if the guidance is purely internal like the IRM.

Nonetheless, even if Accardi doesn’t apply that doesn’t mean that failure to follow subregulatory guidance can’t lead to a finding of “abuse of discretion.” if the IRS “fails to observe self-imposed limits upon the exercise of his discretion, provided he has invited reliance upon such limitations.” Capital Federal Savings at 217. Accardi might not get you much traction with the Tax Court (though to be sure, you should look to what your Court of Appeals has said on the topic), but that doesn’t mean you still shouldn’t point to sub-regulatory guidance when arguing about abuse of discretion. Indeed, that is generally your best (or only) indication of how the IRS is supposed to exercise their discretion in the first place.

So the IRM and Accardi probably don’t mix. What about the IRM and IRC 6330(c)(1) reference to “administrative procedures?” Here we may actually get somewhere with the Tax Court…

The focal point of this issue is not Accardi, but a different case cited by Judge Holmes (also authored by Judge Holmes): Trout v. C.I.R., 131 T.C. 239 -specifically Judge Marvel’s concurrence. With this analysis we move from the general to the specific: Accardi as a general doctrine about what rules agencies must follow (for my money, only legislative rules), and Trout as what a specific statute requires of the IRS in conducting CDP hearings. Really, it all hinges on the definition of what may be considered “any applicable […] administrative procedure.”

Trout was all about what procedures the IRS must follow when an OIC defaults, which can happen in any number of ways (failing to file and pay on time for the next five years, being among the more common). The IRS usually doesn’t rip up an OIC the moment these events occur, but rather gives the Offeror a chance to cure. Indeed, the IRM generally provides that numerous letters be sent in those instances before terminating the OIC. Just search “potential default” in IRM 5.19.7 to see for yourselves. The lead opinion in Trout addresses the issue mostly from contract law principles of material breach. Judge Marvel, and some later cases, however, put a stronger emphasis on the IRM and what responsibilities the IRS has emanating therefrom.

Judge Marvel is well-aware of the Court’s position that the IRM “do[es] not have the force or effect of law.” But if anything carries the force of law, it is a statute -and here we have a statute that explicitly compels IRS Appeals to verify that “any applicable law or administrative procedure have been met.” IRC 6330(c)(1). Again, any applicable administrative procedure. Might that broad language include the IRM? IRS Chief Counsel seems to have thought so. Judge Marvel notes that Chief Counsel Notice CC-2009-019 provides for IRC 6330(c)(1) that “The requirements the appeals officer is verifying are those things that the Code, Treasury Regulations, and the IRM require the Service to do before collection can take place.” [Emphasis added.] If the IRS’s own attorneys seem to think Appeals needs to verify the IRM was followed, who would argue against them?

In putting the IRM in play, Judge Marvel also puts the spotlight on an issue I have frequently had with IRS Notice of Determinations: the boilerplate recitation that Appeals “has determined that all legal and procedural requirements are concluded to have been met.” This, to me, is fertile ground that practitioners should be looking at whenever they are working with CDP cases: what review has Appeals really done, and have they documented it at all in the administrative file? Judge Marvel’s concurrence was joined by seven other judges, five of whom still sit as judges or senior judges. I do think this line of argument may well find a more receptive audience in the Tax Court than Accardi may. The Court is already willing to use the IRM as a yardstick for determining the IRS’s exercise of discretion (see Moore v. C.I.R., T.C. Memo. 2019-129, for one example). I don’t think it’s asking too much of Appeals to have them actually look at what happened leading up to collection: not every IRM violation should mean that it would be an abuse of discretion to sustain a levy. But failing to look at all, when Congress directs you to, certainly is.

Only not in this case, because as far as we can tell all IRM provisions were followed.

And so our trilogy covering the designated orders for the week of January 13 comes to an end. But as the credits roll, and for the sake of completeness, here are the other orders for the week of January 13 – 17 (and one bonus order)…

Other Orders: “Quick Hits”

Richlin v. C.I.R., Dkt. # 16301-16L (order here)

If you have questions about Treas. Reg. 1.6654-2(e)(5)(ii)(A) and whether you are entitled to the crediting of some payments from an ex (now deceased), this order may just be the thing you’re looking for.

Ramat Associates ,Wil-Coser Associates, A Partner Other than the Tax matters Partner, Et. Al v. C.I.R., Dkt. # 22295-16 (order here)

If you’d like to know about the standards for a motion to strike, this order just may be the thing you’re looking for.

Johnson v. C.I.R., Dkt. # 7249-19L (order here).

If you want to see the IRS get a pretty standard motion for summary judgment correct with Judge Gustafson, this order just may be the thing you’re looking for.

Bonus: Si v. C.I.R., Dkt. # 18748-18 (order here)

This order is actually from the week before the one I am covering, but it was the only one from that week and didn’t warrant a full post. It is an interesting look at the perils of trying to catch the IRS in a potential foot-fault of not sending the SNOD to the correct last known address… which backfires if you actually receive the SNOD with time to petition the Court (as this petitioner clearly did, since they filed a timely petition and then a motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction).