A man with a mind for planning and detail, Alex had prided himself on finding a solution to any problem. Facing the prospect of public humiliation and losing everything he had worked for all his life, he began quietly considering the desperate act that for him had been reduced to a simple business decision.
Kay spent most of the last week in May visiting her ill mother in the hospital. In her absence, Alex began tying together all the loose ends of their life. He sat at a desk in a room of the house set aside as his office and used a tape recorder to compose his thoughts. First, he explained why he felt there was no way out but to end his life. Then he discussed in exacting detail their finances, explaining which accounts needed to be paid when, detailing the disposition of each lot in the residential development, and offering suggestions on how to spend the insurance money. He placed the 45-minute tape in an upstairs closet and, in one of the two notes he wrote Kay, described where she could find it.
On the night of June 8, 1988, while Kay took her recuperating mother to a bingo game, he walked out back and shot himself.
Numb through the funeral, Kay soon found her grief turning to a grim determination. Using a transcript of Alex's tape (she couldn't bear the pain of listening to his voice), she began acting on his advice and instructions. With the $250,000 from his suicide-proof insurance policy, she purchased a small townhouse to live in, paid off all their personal bills, pumped money into the housing development to keep it going, and, most important, paid her attorneys to continue the court fight against the IRS.
She told them bluntly, "l don't want anybody saying Alex let me down. I know how much he loved me. In his mind, he did it for me."
Meanwhile, Kay supervised the eight houses under construction. A petite, energetic woman who had previously only made color and design decisions involving the houses, she forced herself to learn all aspects of the construction business. Somehow, she managed to complete the homes, sell them, and pay off the construction loan.
When the nonjury trial was finally held before Judge Bullock on October 12, 1988, the IRS attorney insinuated that Alex, Kay, and their accountant were all Iying when they claimed never to have received the assessment notices. "The errors that would have had to have occurred in concert for this to have happened the way the Councils claim are mind-boggling," said Justice Department attorney Robert Welsh. Furthermore, the IRS contended that "actual receipt of the notice is not required if the notice was properly mailed."
Kay's attorneys countered that IRS sloppiness prevented delivery of the assessment notices and that agency stalling and disorganization had prevented settlement of the case five years earlier. After the day of testimony, Kay went home exhausted and depressed. Having lost faith in the system, she waited for the worst. It was a long wait.
On December 16, 1988, Kay's attorney Gray Wilson phoned her.
"Kay, I've got good news. You finally won."
After a long pause, Kay regained her voice and composure. "I can't believe it's finally over."
Bullock had ordered the IRS to drop its collection efforts and cancel the tax lien. The Councils and their accountant, Bullock concluded, "had no reasonable motive to fabricate a story" about failing to receive the notices 'for they did not yet know what evidence the IRS might produce to verify mailing." Nor does the law place upon taxpayers "the burden of hounding the IRS for delivery of a possible notice of deficiency."
In February 1989, Kay's attorneys requested that the IRS compensate her for legal fees. The IRS refused. So Kay's attorneys petitioned the court for reimbursement. On August 29,1989, Bullock granted her $27,971 for legal fees and expenses.
Months after the judge's verdict, Kay found that the tax lien continued to haunt her. She was turned down when she tried to purchase a vacuum cleaner on credit. The lien remains on record with credit bureaus for seven years, and it is her responsibility, not that of the IRS, to convince them it has been removed.
In 1988 Congress passed legislation, known as the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, aimed at safeguarding taxpayers from IRS abuses. But the law does little to mitigate circumstances like those that ruined the lives of Alex and Kay Council.
Editor's Note: We invite comments and request that they be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of Reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment for any reason at any time.
nfl jerseys|11.26.10 @ 8:26PM|#
hxryh