On February 12, 2020, the Tax Court issued a Memorandum Opinion in the case of Essner v. Commissioner (T.C. Memo. 2020-23). The issues presented in Essner v. Commissioner were whether the petitioner failed to report distributions from an inherited IRA and whether the IRS subjected the petitioner to a duplicative inspection of his books and records relating to his 2014 tax year in violation of IRC § 7605(b). Background to Essner v. Commissioner In 2013 the petitioner’s mother died, and he inherited an IRA that she had, in turn, inherited from her late husband, petitioner’s father. After the petitioner inherited the IRA, he took distributions from it in both 2014 and 2015. Specifically, the petitioner received distributions of $360,800 and $148,084 in 2014 and 2015, respectively. Believing that the distributions were tax-free (thanks, Google), the petitioner engaged a return preparer for his 2014 and 2015 returns, but he did not…