IRS Hell. Talk about bad record keeping. The Second Circuit found the records of the IRS so confusing that it remanded a case to the Tax Court for a determination of the following issues:

1. whether the tax payer's 1993 tax refund was sent to him by the IRS in 1994. (The taxpayer had requested that the refund be applied to his tax indebtedness. The IRS did not do so.)

2. if not, whether the tax payer received timely notice from the IRS that his refund had not been applied to his 1987 and 1989 tax deficiencies.

3. if not, whether his current tax liability should be consequently adjusted by, inter alia, an abatement of interest.

4. in any case, whether the current interest abatement that the tax payer had already received was correct in light of the IRS's failure to give the taxpayer appropriate withholding credits for 1987 and 1989 and the taxpayer's payment on June 21, 1994 of $6,681.22.

The Court cautioned the taxpayer, who had represented himself pro se, that the Tax Court would deal with these issues and no other issues that had already been adjudicated.

The decision in Wright v. CIR can be found here.