John Bullis: Civil fraud penalty assessed against IRS employee

The Internal Revenue Service has many employees. That one of them did not comply with the income tax laws is easy to imagine. However, in the case of Jacynthia Quinn, Tax Court Memo 2012-178, the IRS employee was a tax compliance officer. She claimed dependency exemptions, medical expenses and charitable contributions that the Court found she was not entitled to claim. Apparently the court testimony by others contradicted the taxpayer’s claim she was not aware of the documentation and other tax law requirements.