You can read the PMTA, but here are the conclusions reached in the PMTA:
- Restitution payments should be applied to the civil tax liabilities, including penalties and interest, for the year(s) involved in the criminal case. If an assessment for civil tax liabilities has not been made, the restitution payments should be held in the general fund until an assessment is made and then credited against the taxpayer's civil tax liabilities. When the restitution order does not specify how to apply payments, the Service has discretion to apply the payments to the applicable years in the order that best serves its interest.
- The Service cannot take administrative collection action to collect the restitution ordered. The Department of Justice through its Financial Litigation Units is responsible for collection and enforcement of the restitution order. The Department of Justice may enforce a judgment imposing restitution in accordance with the practices and procedures for the enforcement of judgments under Federal and State law.
- If the Service receives an undesignated voluntary payment or an involuntary payment for civil tax liabilities the Service may apply them in the order that best serves its interest. If some of the civil tax liabilities are for a year that was also involved in a criminal tax proceeding, the Service may decide that it is in its best interest to apply those payments first to the year(s) not involved in the criminal tax proceeding.
- If the amount of the restitution has not been fully paid when the Service determines that the amount of the civil tax liabilities are less than the restitution, the government should notify the court and move that it make appropriate modifications to the order. If the restitution is fully paid, then the excess is an overpayment that can be applied against the taxpayer's other outstanding tax liabilities and any balance refunded, after a claim for refund is filed. If no claim for refund is filed within the applicable period of limitations, then the excess can be moved to the general fund.
In the case of a subsequent chapter 13 bankruptcy discharging all tax liabilities contained in the restitution order, where would restitution payments be applied? Credited toward future tax liabilities?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous:
ReplyDeleteThanks for your question. I have not thought about the question and am certainly not a bankruptcy expert. I have rattling around in my brain, however, that there is no discharge for fraudulent items, and I would think that restitution relates to fraudulent items. I have not researched the issue, though.
Jack Townsend
When someone has a payoment arrangement in place for federal restitution, does that mean they will get to keep their fedeal tax return? The agreement states that they would.
ReplyDeleteWhats your thought on this matter?
Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteI am not sure what exactly your question is. Could you reshape it?
Thanks.
And on another point. Since you are anonymous, I do not know who you are. I would prefer that this message be sent to you "offline," but don't know how to do that.
I am sure you know that I monitor the comments and do not authorize some comments. I have rarely done that in your case because the substance of your comments is generally very good, even when made with a modicum of hyperbole. However, sometimes your comments go overboard and, in my judgment, the hyperbole swamps the substance of the message. In those cases, I will exercise my discretion to not approve the comments. I guess an alternative would be for me to edit to exclude the hyperbole and post the comment with attribution to "Anonymous;" I have not done that because they are your comments and not mine.
So, I guess my request would be to really think about your intended audience for the comments and ask yourself the question of whether the message is being effectively communicated.
Thanks again for your interest in this blog and for your generally very excellent contributions to the discussion.
Jack Townsend