People imagine Tax Court as a trial date and a gavel. The lived experience is different: a structured negotiation that occasionally ends in a courtroom, with most cases settling along the way. Here is the rhythm, from the day the petition is filed.
Filing and the First Months
The petition - filed within the unforgiving 90 days of a Notice of Deficiency - stops assessment of the disputed tax and transfers the case to IRS Chief Counsel. The government answers, and then in most cases the file routes to Appeals for settlement consideration if it has not already been there. These first months are quiet on the surface and decisive underneath: this is where documents get exchanged, positions get re-evaluated under litigation risk, and the majority of cases find their settlement.
The Stipulation Engine
Tax Court procedure is built to shrink disputes. The rules require the parties to stipulate in writing to every fact and document not genuinely contested, and the court enforces this seriously. The practical effect: weak positions get abandoned on both sides, the genuinely disputed issues get isolated, and what remains is usually small enough to settle once each side prices its risk honestly. Trial happens when someone misprices, or when a legal question genuinely needs a ruling.
If Trial Comes
Cases are set on trial calendars in cities around the country - Tampa for my Florida clients - with a calendar call where the judge sorts the session: settlements announced, trials scheduled, often within days. Trials themselves are bench trials, no jury, relaxed evidence rules, frequently completed in hours for ordinary cases, with briefs and a written opinion afterward. For disputes of $50,000 or less per year, the small-case election simplifies everything further at the price of no appeal for either side - a deliberate choice, not a default.
I am admitted to the Tax Court, and the honest preview for most clients is this: you will probably never testify, the petition mostly buys you a better negotiation, and the deadline to buy it is absolute. If a 90-day letter is on your desk, count the days today and call me this week.