The Internal Revenue Code does not contain a time period in which taxpayers must claim innocent spouse relief. However, Treasury Regulations require that taxpayers claiming innocent spouse relief make their claims within 2 years of the IRS’s commencement of collection action.
From Paul Caron:
The Seventh Circuit today, in a unanimous opinion written by Judge Posner, reversed a divided (11-5) Tax Court (132 T.C. No. 8 (Apr. 7, 2009)) and upheld the requirement in Reg § 1.6015-5(b)(1) that claims for innocent spouse relief (Form 8857) be made with two years of the IRS’s commencement of collection action, even though the innocent spouse statute (§ 6015(f)) does not impose such a requirement. Lantz v. Commissioner, No. 09-3345 (7th Cir. June 8, 2010):
[T]he Tax Court’s basic thought seems to have been that since some statutes (in this case, some provisions of a statute) prescribe deadlines, whenever a statute (or provision) fails to prescribe a deadline, there is none. That is not how statutes that omit a statute of limitations are usually interpreted. Courts “borrow” a statute of limitations from some other statute in order to avoid the absurdity of allowing suits to be filed centuries after the claim on which the suit was based arose.
This case is further evidence that Treasury Regulations are to be given deference by the Courts even when they add substantive requirements to provisions of the Code.
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