On March 18, 2020, the Tax Court issued a Memorandum Opinion in the case of McNamee v. Commissioner (T.C. Memo. 2020-37). The issue presented in McNamee v. Commissioner was whether the petitioner was liable for 17 preparer penalties or whether the penalties had been assessed improperly for want of a final administrative determination. Background to McNamee v. Commissioner Petitioner is a CPA, who prepared income tax returns for individual taxpayers. The IRS opened an examination to investigate the propriety of the returns he had prepared for (among other years) the taxable year 2009. IRS sent petitioner numerous (valid) Letters 1125 (30-day letters), with enclosed examination reports, explaining that it proposed to assess penalties with respect to the returns he had prepared for 18 taxpayers for 2009. For each return the IRS proposed to assess a $1,000 penalty under IRC § 6694(a) (unreasonable positions) and an additional $4,000 penalty under IRC…