In Estate of Beckenfeld v. Commissioner, the Tax Court held that a taxpayer can force the IRS to apply voluntary payments according to the taxpayers instructions. In this case, the IRS credited a husband’s estate with a payment clearly intended to apply to the wife’s estate. Part of the issue was that the check provided to the IRS was for the husband’s liabilities and included his social security information. The executor’s representative tried to argue that the husband’s estate was offering payment to satisfy the obligations of the wife’s estate. The instructions indicated that a check from the husband’s estate could only satisfy obligations arising from that estate.
See Kevin A. Diehl, Who Controls How Voluntary Payments to IRS Are Applied?, Wealth Management.com, June 1, 2017.
Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.
