The reviewed article is titled “Supreme Court Justices Question IRS Shield in Tax-Shelter Case,” and it was posted in The Wall Street Journal on December 1, 2020, by Richard Rubin. The article speaks about a challenge to the IRS from a company called CIC Services LLC, which questions the authority of the IRS to enforce certain tax regulations unchallenged in court beforehand (Rubin 2020). The matter lies with the Anti-Injunction Act, which allows the IRS to avoid lawsuits prior to tax collection. The hearing is presided by Justices Samuel Alito, Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, and Neil Gorsuch (Rubin 2020).
The argument for the case states that the existing practices do not allow companies and entities to challenge any decisions by the IRS without violating the law. They could either refuse to pay taxes and face potential jail time or pay up and then challenge the legality of it in litigations. Such is being perceived as unlawful abuse of IRS powers and privileges under the Anti-Injunction Act. The government, on the other hand, claims that such instances as the one presented by CIC are exactly why the Anti-Junction Act was done, as delays and resulting challenges would make it easier for tax shelters to avoid IRS attention and scrutiny (Rubin 2020). The decision on the matter will arrive in June next year (Rubin 2020).
In my opinion, the issue is a pressing yet unavoidable one. On the one hand, the IRS may demand taxes to be paid based on wrong assessments or unlawful claims. On the other hand, companies and corporations may use the precedent set by this hearing as means of stalling the IRS and using said time to cover up unlawful practices or using the delays to their advantage otherwise, somehow. I think it is a conflict where there is no clear-and-cut solution, as the interests of either private enterprises or the government are going to suffer.
Reference
Rubin, R. (2020). Supreme court justices question IRS shield in Tax
Shelter case. The Wall Street Journal. Web.