By Megan L. Brackney
Procedurally Taxing
January 7, 2020
Reasonable Cause
For all of the foreign information return penalties, reasonable cause is a defense. See I.R.C. §§ 6038, 6038A(d)(3), 6038D(g), 6039F(c)(2), 6677(d); Treas. Reg. § 1.6038-2(k)(3)(ii). The IRS applies the same standards for reasonable cause for failure to file income tax returns under I.R.C. § 6651 to failure to file foreign information returns, i.e., the exercise of ordinary business care and prudence. See e.g., Chief Counsel Advisory 200748006.
In determining whether taxpayers satisfy the reasonable cause standard, the IRS also applies the holding of United States v. Estate of Boyle, 469 U.S. 241 (1985), to the failure to file foreign information returns. Boyle articulates a non-delegable duty to file tax returns. In that case, the executor of an estate relied on a tax advisor to file the estate tax return, but the advisor missed the deadline. The Supreme Court explained that determining the due date and ensuring that the return was filed did not require any special tax expertise, and that taxpayers have a non-delegable duty to make sure that their returns are timely filed. Any other rule, according to the Supreme Court, would not be administrable. Id. at 249.
However, the Supreme Court specifically contemplated that a taxpayer can rely on a tax professional’s advice as to whether to file a particular return. As stated by the Supreme Court, “Courts have frequently held that ‘reasonable cause’ is established when a taxpayer shows that he reasonably relied on the advice of an accountant or attorney that it was unnecessary to file a return, even when such advice turned out to have been mistaken.” Id. at 250. Other courts have reached similar conclusions. See e.g., Estate of Liftin v. United States, 101 Fed. Cl. 604, 608 (2011) (an expert’s advice concerning a substantive question of tax law as to whether a return was required to be filed was reasonable cause). Accordingly, a taxpayer should be able to rely on the advice of a tax professional as to whether a foreign information return is required (as opposed to merely meeting a known deadline).
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