4.6 Filing Near the Deadline

Get the Tax Court petition filed to protect the taxpayer’s rights. Any IRS collection efforts will be put on hold while a petition is pending.

If you don’t have time to draft a detailed Tax Court petition, simply use Tax Court Form 2 (the Simplified Form), which is designed for use by pro se litigants. All the required forms are included in one fillable Adobe document.1  Simply answer the questions on the form and check the appropriate boxes. This Simplified Petition can be quickly completed by someone with no knowledge of Tax Court procedures or tax law.

Have the client file pro se if you do not have time to investigate the merits of the appeal. An attorney can easily enroll later if needed. Once you are enrolled on a Tax Court case, however, it can be difficult to withdraw. Thus, it is advisable to know the merits of the case and have any needed evidence in hand before enrolling. If helping clients file pro se, make sure that they understand that all notices about the case will go only to them and they will need to contact you about these notices until you are able to enroll. Since 2020, the Tax Court has allowed attorneys to file “Limited Entries of Appearance” in which the attorney’s role in the case is limited to certain issues or tasks.

• 1This form can be found on the Tax Court’s website.