No Unsettling the Settlement

Yesterday, the Tax Court decided Slojewski v. Commissioner. In this case, the respondent (Slojewski) and the IRS settled before a scheduled trial in Tax Court. A hearing to finalize the matter was scheduled a month later. All seems well.

Then Slojewski’s counsel decides that the deal is no longer good, and petitions the court to have it overturned. Once you enter into a settlement, it takes extraordinary events to have it overturned. As the court stated, “[P]etitioner has not shown that there was a lack of formal consent, mistake, fraud, or some similar ground for vacating the stipulation of settlement, nor has he cited any ground or precedent that would support his motion to vacate our order and decision.”

Moral: Once you settle, it’s hard to get out.

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