Tax Court in Southern California: Choosing Los Angeles or San Diego as Your Place of Trial

When you file a petition in the U.S. Tax Court, you must also file a separate request naming the city where you want your trial. In Southern California, the Court’s permanent courtrooms are in Los Angeles and San Diego. The choice is yours at filing, it is hard to change after a trial notice issues, and it does not change which appeals court can review the decision.

Two trial cities in Southern California

The Tax Court is a national court based in Washington, D.C., but it holds trials around the country. Its list of places of trial shows these California cities:

• Los Angeles: Edward R. Roybal Center and Federal Building, 255 E. Temple Street (90012), Rooms 1167 and 1174.
• San Diego: Edward J. Schwartz Federal Building, 880 Front Street, San Diego, CA 92101, Room 4228.
• San Francisco (Phillip Burton Federal Building), and Fresno and Sacramento, which have no permanent courtroom (the trial notice gives the address).

There is no Tax Court trial city in Orange, Riverside or San Bernardino County. You can request a listed trial city that is convenient, and for most taxpayers there the nearest are Los Angeles and San Diego. The addresses are trial locations only; mail to the Court goes to 400 Second Street NW, Washington, DC 20217-0002.

The request comes with the petition

Under Tax Court Rule 140(a), a petitioner filing a petition “must also file a separate paper requesting the place of trial.” The Court’s form for this is Form 5, Request for Place of Trial, available on its forms page. If the petitioner files no request, the IRS must file one showing its preferred place of trial, no later than the date for filing its answer. Without a request from you, the IRS’s request is the only one before the Court.

The Court then makes reasonable efforts to hold the trial at the location most convenient to the one requested, if suitable facilities are available, and notifies the parties where the trial will be held. The request does not affect the deadline for the petition itself, which runs from the date the notice that gives the right to petition is mailed: generally 90 days for a notice of deficiency.

How to choose

The request concerns where a trial would be held. Pick the city where you, your witnesses and your records can most easily appear. Distance on a map matters less than who must be in the courtroom. Think about who will testify. A bookkeeper in Escondido and a business partner in Temecula point toward San Diego; a payroll company in downtown Los Angeles points the other way.

Changing the place of trial

A party who wants a different city must file a motion “stating fully the reasons therefor,” under Rule 140(b). Timing matters. A motion made after the notice setting the case for trial is served may be treated as dilatory and denied, unless the reason arose during that period or there was good reason for not moving sooner. A move, a new job or a witness’s health that changes after filing should be raised as soon as it happens, not when the trial calendar arrives.

What the choice does not change

The trial city does not decide which court of appeals can review the Tax Court’s decision. Under 26 U.S.C. § 7482(b)(1), review of an individual’s redetermination case generally lies in the circuit where the petitioner legally resides, and for a corporation, the circuit of its principal place of business or principal office. An individual who lived in Southern California when the petition was filed is in the Ninth Circuit whether the trial is in Los Angeles or San Diego, unless the parties agree in writing on another circuit.