The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California has issued an order allowing the Internal Revenue Service to serve a John Doe Summons on the California State Board of Equalization. A John Doe Summons is defined by Section 7609(f) of the Internal Revenue Code and is used by the IRS to gather information from a third party about a class or group of taxpayers suspected of not complying with the internal revenue laws. It is called a John Doe Summons because the IRS doesn’t know the specific names of the alleged violators but is seeking to identify them through the summons process. John Doe Summons have been used to implicate taxpayers in domestic and international tax-advantaged transactions with banks like Wachovia, HSBC and UBS.
In this particular matter, the Internal Revenue Service is seeking information about the transfer of real estate between family members for less than full value. The IRS believes that such transfers are being used to avoid Federal Gift Tax liabilities. The investigation is most likely to affect decedents who passed away in 2010 or before and whose final Federal Estate Tax Return has not yet been filed or is still subject to audit because the lifetime gift tax exclusion for those years was only $1 million. The lifetime exclusion for 2011 and 2012 is more a robust $5 million dollars. Nonetheless, a Federal Gift Tax Return, Form 709, is required in any year which a gift of more than $13,000 is made. Failure to file a gift tax return is subject to a Section 6651 penalty.
The IRS targeted the California State Board of Equalization because it receives records of all California real property transfers to ensure compliance with Proposition 13, the well known California voter initiative which limits annual property tax assessment increases. The judge found that the IRS satisfied the technical requirements to serve the summons and ordered enforcement. The California BOE likely will be turning over the records at the beginning of the new year and you can expect the IRS to start initiating examinations based on what it collects sometime on 2012.
Read the order and memorandum here:
In the Matter of the Tax Liabilities of John Does, No. 2:10-mc-00130-MCE-EFB, (E.D. CA, December 15, 2011)