Where can I sue over a passport certification?

Under IRC 7345(e), in the U.S. Tax Court against the Commissioner or in a federal district court against the United States. The first court to acquire jurisdiction has sole jurisdiction.

Can the Tax Court decide whether I owe the tax in a passport case?

No. In Ruesch v. Commissioner, 154 T.C. 289 (2020), the Tax Court held it lacks jurisdiction in a section 7345 case to redetermine the underlying liability. Its review is limited to whether the certification or failure to reverse was erroneous.

Is there a deadline to file a passport certification case?

The statute does not specify one. The Tax Court noted that in Ruesch. Practical deadlines still matter, because the State Department generally holds a passport application open for 90 days.

What does it cost to file a passport case in Tax Court?

Tax Court Rule 351(c) sets a $60 filing fee, which can be waived if you establish by affidavit or declaration that you cannot pay.

Suing Over an IRS Passport Certification Under IRC 7345(e)

Most passport certifications get resolved administratively. The account moves into an installment agreement or hardship status, the IRS reverses the certification, and nobody files anything in court. But when the IRS gets the certification wrong and will not fix it, the Code gives you a lawsuit.

This page covers that lawsuit: where it is filed, what a court can do, and, just as important, what it cannot do.

The statute: IRC 7345(e)

After the IRS notifies you of a certification, IRC 7345(e)(1) lets you bring a civil action against the United States in a federal district court, or against the Commissioner in the United States Tax Court, to determine whether the certification was erroneous or whether the Commissioner has failed to reverse it. Whichever court first acquires jurisdiction has sole jurisdiction.

Under IRC 7345(e)(2), if the court determines the certification was erroneous, it may order the Treasury to notify the State Department that the certification was erroneous. That is the remedy. It is narrow by design.

IRM 5.19.25.13 adds two practical points. There is no administrative appeal, claim process or hearing at the IRS for an erroneous certification. And you are not required to file an administrative claim or contact the IRS first before going to court.

What a court can review

The Tax Court addressed the scope of these cases in Ruesch v. Commissioner, 154 T.C. 289 (2020). The court described its jurisdiction under section 7345(e) as quite narrow: it may determine whether the certification, or the failure to reverse it, was erroneous, and the only relief it may grant is an order to notify the State Department.

Within that scope, the opinion gave examples of what the court may consider:

whether the assessed federal tax liability exceeds the inflation-adjusted threshold;
whether the IRS had begun the required collection action, meaning a filed lien with hearing rights finished or a levy;
whether collection was suspended because a CDP hearing was pending;
whether the taxpayer was paying on time under a collection alternative; and
whether the debt had been fully satisfied or had become legally unenforceable, for example because the collection statute expired.

Those are factual and procedural questions about the certification. They line up with the definitions and exclusions in the IRC 7345 exceptions.

What a court cannot review

In Ruesch, the taxpayer also asked the Tax Court to rule that the penalties underlying her debt were illegally assessed. The court held that nothing in section 7345 authorizes it to redetermine the underlying liability. It contrasted section 7345 with the Collection Due Process statute, IRC 6330(c)(2)(B), where Congress did expressly allow certain challenges to the underlying liability.

The practical lesson is to pick the right forum for the right fight. If your real dispute is that you do not owe the tax, a passport case is the wrong vehicle. That fight belongs in a CDP hearing if you are still eligible, an audit reconsideration, an amended return, a claim for refund and refund suit, or another proceeding where the liability itself is at issue. If your dispute is that the certification itself was wrong under the statute, the passport case is the right vehicle.

Mootness: when the IRS fixes it after you sue

Ruesch also shows what happens when the IRS concedes. The IRS discovered the taxpayer had a timely CDP request that it had not properly recorded, reversed the certification as erroneous, and notified the State Department. The court held that because the taxpayer had received all the relief it could grant, the passport claim was moot and dismissed the case.

That is not a loss. It is the outcome the statute provides. Filing sometimes prompts the agency to look closely at an account it had been processing by computer. The opinion also noted that a later certification would be judged on the facts at that later time, and a taxpayer could challenge a new certification in a new case.

Timing: is there a deadline?

The Ruesch court observed that section 7345(e)(1) specifies no time limit for commencing the action and contrasted it with the 90-day deadline for deficiency petitions. In that case the petition was filed 112 days after the CP508C, and the court said the statute supplied no basis for finding it untimely.

No statutory deadline does not mean no urgency. If your passport application is on hold, the State Department generally keeps it open for 90 days, according to IRM 5.19.25.9 and the expedite procedures. A court case can take longer than that. In a time-sensitive situation, the administrative route, including an expedited decertification, is usually faster when it is available.

Filing in the Tax Court

The Tax Court has a specific rule for these cases. Under Tax Court Rule 351, the petition is titled "Petition for Certification or Failure to Reverse Certification Action Under Code Section 7345(e)" and must include:

the petitioner's name, state of legal residence and mailing address as of filing;
the date of the certification notice under IRC 7345(d);
lettered statements explaining why you disagree with the certification or the failure to reverse it;
lettered statements of the facts supporting your position;
a prayer for the relief sought;
signatures and contact information; and
a copy of the certification notice attached.

The filing fee under Rule 351(c) is $60, and it can be waived on a sworn showing of inability to pay. Tax Court cases on these petitions carry a docket number ending in "P," as Ruesch did.

Tax Court or district court?

Both are available. The Tax Court is the specialized forum, its rules for these petitions are written out, and its filing fee is modest. District court is the general federal trial court, and the action there is against the United States. Because the first court to acquire jurisdiction keeps it, you should choose deliberately rather than file in both.

In either court, the case is about records: the transcripts, the dates of lien filings and levies, the dates of agreements and hearing requests, and the transaction codes the IRS did or did not input. Build the timeline before you file. In many erroneous-certification cases, the timeline itself is the argument.

What to put in the record

Passport cases are decided on documents, so assemble them before anything is filed. Start with the CP508C and any later CP508C that added periods. Add IRS account transcripts for every certified period, showing assessment dates, assessed balances, the lien filing or levy, and any certification transaction. Add proof of each event that should have excluded the debt: the installment agreement acceptance letter and payment history, the offer acknowledgment, the dated Form 12153 hearing request and proof of mailing, the innocent spouse filing, a bankruptcy petition, or a hardship determination.

Then line those dates up against the certification date. If the exclusion existed before the certification, the certification was erroneous when made. If it came after, the question is whether the IRS failed to reverse within the statutory deadlines discussed in reversing a passport certification. Those are different claims under IRC 7345(e), and the petition should say which one you are making.

Should you sue at all?

Litigation makes sense when the certification is wrong, the IRS will not correct it, and you have tried the administrative channels or cannot wait for them. It makes less sense when the certification was right when made and the only problem is that you have not yet resolved the debt. In that case the faster path is resolution: an installment agreement, hardship status, or an offer. The firm's main site summarizes the main collection alternatives, and any of the recognized postures will trigger the statutory reversal.

Either way, read the transcripts before deciding. The lawsuit is a scalpel. Use it on a mistake, not on a debt.

Challenging a Passport Certification in Tax Court or District Court