Howard and Everlina Washington v. Commissioner

I write separately to address concerns expressed by Judge Vasquez and other concerns, and to attempt to provide explanations of matters left to implication by the majority opinion.

On the initial question of the Court’s jurisdiction to address the bankruptcy discharge issue, I would flesh out the majority opinion’s conclusion that the Tax Court has jurisdiction to address the issue under its statutory mandate, to observe that the Bankruptcy Act, 28 U.S.C. section 1334(a) and (b) (2000), does not deprive the Tax Court of jurisdiction.1 Although subsection (a) provides that “the district courts…