Springer v. Internal Revenue Service Ex Rel. United States

231 F. App'x 793
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedMay 1, 2007
Docket05-6387, 06-5123, 06-6268
StatusUnpublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 231 F. App'x 793 (Springer v. Internal Revenue Service Ex Rel. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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Springer v. Internal Revenue Service Ex Rel. United States, 231 F. App'x 793 (10th Cir. 2007).

Opinion

ORDER AND JUDGMENT *

STEPHEN H. ANDERSON, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff Lindsey Springer, a tax protester, describes himself as the founder of “Bondage Breakers Ministries,” organized in 1992, whose sole purpose is “to expose the violations of the written law committed by the Internal Revenue Service [ (IRS) ].” R., Doc. 1 at 5, ¶ 9. 1 He appeals from three separate judgments, two of which concern his liability for federal income taxes, penalties, and interest for 1990-1995 and the IRS’s attempt to collect. His third appeal is a broader challenge to the IRS’s general power to collect failure-to-file penalties for 1982-2006. We have combined the appeals for disposition. Because Springer appears pro se, we review his pleadings and other papers liberally and hold them to a less stringent standard than those drafted by attorneys, but we do not act as his advocate. See Hall v. Bellman, 935 F.2d 1106, 1110 & n. 3 (10th Cir.1991). Exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we affirm the district courts’ judgments. Because the appeals are frivolous and brought for purposes of delay, we impose monetary sanctions on Springer. We also propose filing restrictions.

I. Background

The heart of these appeals represents Springer’s latest push in a long campaign *796 to challenge his liability for federal income taxes, penalties, and interest, and to delay collection. In 1996, the IRS sent Springer two notices of deficiency concerning unpaid income taxes for 1990 through 1995, years in which Springer filed no federal income tax returns. He challenged the notices in the United States Tax Court, arguing, among other things, that a tax on income amounts to involuntary servitude in violation of the Thirteenth Amendment and that the Sixteenth Amendment does not authorize the Commissioner of the IRS to collect taxes. In upholding the notices of deficiency, the Tax Court characterized Springer’s arguments as “nothing but tax protester rhetoric and legalistic gibberish” and imposed a $4,000 sanction because the challenge was frivolous and made only for the purpose of delaying collection. See R., Doc. 16, Ex. 5 at 2 (copy of Springer v. Comm’r, No. 26045-96 (T.C. Feb. 10, 1997) (unpublished)). We dismissed Springer’s appeal of that decision because he had failed to pay a prior $2,000 sanction this court imposed in a separate frivolous appeal. See R., Doc. 16, Ex. 6 (copy of Springer v. Comm’r, No. 97-9008 (10th Cir. Oct. 15, 1997) (unpublished order of dismissal)). The Supreme Court denied his petition for a writ of certiorari. Springer v. Comm’r, 524 U.S. 920, 118 S.Ct. 2305, 141 L.Ed.2d 164 (1998).

On March 2, 2005, the IRS sent Springer a notice of intent to levy his assets in order to collect the tax liability adjudicated in the earlier proceeding. See R., Doc. 1, Ex. 9. The notice indicated that the amount owed, including penalties and interest, was $300,071.56. Id. at 2. Springer requested a pre-levy collection due process (CDP) hearing pursuant to 26 U.S.C. § 6330, arguing, among other things, that he earned no taxable income for 1990-1995, but was living off of gifts and donations; that the IRS improperly had determined the amount of his tax liability; and that a provision of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995(PRA) protected him from any penalties arising from his failure to file tax returns for 1990-1995 because, he claimed, IRS Form 1040 and its variants lacked a valid control number from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for those years. The hearing officer assigned to the matter, defendant Scott Penney, informed Springer that he was entitled only to an unrecorded telephonic hearing because the claims he raised were frivolous, and that he would not be permitted to challenge his tax liability because he already had an opportunity to appeal that determination from the notices of deficiency-

On April 25, 2005, one day before the CDP hearing, Springer filed the action underlying appeal No. 05-6387. He asserted that the claimed tax deficiencies were erroneous and requested a variety of injunctive relief, including that defendants provide an impartial hearing officer, record the hearing, and obtain verification that the underlying tax liability was computed in accordance with all applicable laws and administrative procedures as required by 26 U.S.C. § 6330(c)(1). He also sought an injunction directing the defendants to consider his PRA defense and evidence of errors concerning the underlying tax liabilities, in particular that some of the liabilities were improperly derived from Bureau of Labor statistics and that some were based on a bogus Form 1099.

Defendants filed a motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. They argued that sovereign immunity applied; that the Anti-Injunction Act, 26 U.S.C. § 7421(a)(AIA), barred the relief Springer sought; that the Tax Court, not the district court, had exclusive jurisdiction over the CDP matter; that Springer could not use the CDP hearing to *797 challenge the tax liabilities that the Tax Court had upheld; and that he had not exhausted his administrative remedies. Concluding that the AIA barred Springer’s action, the district court dismissed the case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. See Springer v. United States, No. 05-466, 2005 WL 2467775, at *2-4 (W.D.Okla. Oct.6, 2005) (unpublished) (Springer I).

Meanwhile, Penney held the telephonic CDP hearing on April 26, 2005. On August 16, the Office of Appeals issued notices of determination approving the proposed levy. Springer appealed those determinations in a separate suit filed in federal district court on September 15, 2005, from which appeal No. 06-6268 arises. Defendants moved to dismiss for substantially the same reasons they advanced in their motion to dismiss in Springer I. The district court took judicial notice of its dismissal order in Springer I, which it characterized as a dismissal based on the Tax Court’s exclusive jurisdiction over Springer’s underlying income tax dispute, noted that the substance of Springer I and the second lawsuit concerned the same general claims, and dismissed the action on the ground that Springer I barred it under principles of res judicata. See Springer v. United States, No. 05-1075, 2006 WL 2265521, at *1 (W.D.Okla. Aug.7, 2006) (unpublished) (Springer II). The court also concluded “that dismissal of this action is appropriate ... for lack of subject matter jurisdiction for the reasons stated in Defendant’s motion.” Id. at *1 n. 1.

The third appeal, No.

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231 F. App'x 793, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/springer-v-internal-revenue-service-ex-rel-united-states-ca10-2007.