Tax Court streamlines document filing

The U.S. Tax Court has upgraded its case management system to make it more convenient for tax attorneys to electronically file documents simultaneously in consolidated groups of cases.

The Tax Court posted a notice on its home page about the change Wednesday but noted that entries of appearance for petitioner representatives and decisions still need to be filed  separately in each case. 

The change promises to make the system more flexible for both practitioners and taxpayers who are involved in a tax case, as the parties to at least one case in a consolidated group of cases will now have the ability to view documents on the docket record in all of the consolidated cases in the group.

For further information, the Tax Court referred users to the user guides for its DAWSON (short for Docket Access Within a Secure Online Network) system.

The U.S. Tax Court, like other courts, typically consolidates cases to speed up the process and avoid duplicative trials that involve similar parties, evidence and issues.

"When cases involving a common question of law or fact are pending before the court, it may order a joint hearing or trial of any or all the matters in issue, it may order all the cases consolidated, and it may make such orders concerning proceedings therein as may tend to avoid unnecessary costs, delay or duplication," according to the U.S Code. "Similar action may be taken where cases involve different tax liabilities of the same parties, notwithstanding the absence of a common issue."