On we posted Circuit Court Dismisses Taxpayer's Challenge To Tax Debt Passport Denial Program, where we discussed that a Colorado federal court properly dismissed Jeffrey T. Maehr's arguments contesting the constitutionality of the program allowing the Internal Revenue Service to certify a person's tax debt as seriously delinquent in order to limit their passport use, a three-judge panel said in a published opinion.
Under Code Sec. 7345, the State Department may deny, revoke, or limit an individual's passport after the IRS certifies that the individual has a "seriously delinquent tax debt." Generally, a seriously delinquent tax debt is an assessed tax debt of $50,000 or more, for which 1) the IRS has filed a tax lien, and 2) the individual's collection due process rights have been exhausted or expired.
The State Department revoked Jeffrey T. Maehr's passport after the IRS certified his seriously delinquent tax debt. Maehr then sued in a federal district court, arguing that the revocation violated various constitutional provisions.
The district court, upholding the State Department's right to revoke Maehr's passport, found that Code Sec. 7345 is constitutional because it bears a rational relation to a legitimate government interest, to wit, the collection of delinquent tax debts.
Maehr appealed to the Tenth Circuit, which upheld the district court's decision. The appeals court found that the State Department could revoke his passport because Code Sec. 7345 doesn't violate the Constitution.
Maehr argued that the government wasn't allowed to collect his tax debt by suspending his constitutional rights to travel internationally. The Supreme Court declined his request for review of the Tenth Circuit's decision.
Now the U.S. Supreme Court on February 22, 2022 denied petitions for review.
Read more at: Tax Times blog
