Owner Wins Tax Dispute With IRS

FORT SMITH, Ark. (AP) - The owner of a trucking company may have won her lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service, but she lost her attempt to have the IRS pick up her legal fees.

The IRS was "substantially justified" in seeking additional taxes from Sharon Parker's trucking company, so it shouldn't have to pay Parker's lawyer's bills, a federal magistrate ruled Wednesday.

Parker, now known as Sharon Comer, sued the IRS last year after an audit called for her to pay more than $144,000 in extra taxes. She claimed that her drivers were independent contractors, not employees.

A jury ruled in August that Parker did not prove her claim, but did rule that she used a "long-standing industry" practice to determine that her drivers were contractors and that she relied on her attorney's advice.

Federal lawyers said drivers at Comer's company should be classified as employees because drivers were told where and when to work.

U.S. Magistrate Beverly Stites Jones said the woman was not entitled to have her legal fees paid because the government pursued the case in good faith.