Norman E. Anderson the Zeitgeist Co. v. United States

KLEINFELD, Circuit Judge:

The Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), in an internal manual, has created a means of delaying the sale of seized property beyond what the statute, 26 U.S.C. § 6335, and associated regulations allow. The additional delay is impermissible.

I. FACTS

The IRS assessed Mr. Anderson in 1984 for unpaid income taxes for tax years 1978 and 1979. It did not proceed with the collection efforts at issue in this case until the statute of limitations was about to run, in 1990. On October 24, 1990, five days before the limitations period would have expired on the assessments, the IRS…