It isn’t much. The Tax Court decision itself is scarcely 4 pages long.
Still, it made me laugh.
It also made me think that - if he could pull it off - this might have been best tax planning idea I ever came across.
His name is Kelby Daniel Reyes Barrios (Barrios). He lives in California and he appears to be a gig worker.
He filed a 2022 tax return showing $8,964 of total income.
The IRS was chasing him for $3,842 of additional tax on unreported income of $15,206.
COMMENT: I still don’t see how that is enough money to live on, not to mention … California.
Barrios filed a timely petition with the Tax Court.
Then he disappeared.
The IRS motioned for summary judgement. The Court, to its credit, provided Barrios a final opportunity to respond.
He ghosted.
The only thing the Court had to review in his favor was his declaration on the Court filing:
On his petition he asserted that he did not report the income because the tax ‘forms were mailed to a [previous] address’ and he received them only after filing his return.”
We have probably all heard a version of this logic: no form, no tax.
The IRS held for the IRS, of course. The tax Code asserts that all income is reportable, whether it draws a 1099 or not (granted, the “not” is an increasingly endangered species).
Still, think about it: one could beat the tax man by getting a return in before 1099s are distributed.
If only.
Our case this time was Kelby Daniel Reyes Barrios, T.C. Memo 2026-32.
