Alpha I, L.P. ex rel. Sands v. United States

86 Fed. Cl. 568, 2009 U.S. Claims LEXIS 66, 103 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 1321, 2009 WL 712324
United States Court of Federal Claims·Decided March 16, 2009·No. Nos. 06-407T·Published·Cited by 13 cases

Opinion

OPINION

HEWITT, Chief Judge.

Before the court are the United States’ Motion to Reconsider Opinion Regarding Plaintiffs’ Motion for Partial Summary Judgment (defendant’s Motion for Reconsideration or Def.’s Mot. for Recons.), filed December 24, 2008, and Plaintiffs’ Response in Opposition to Defendant’s Motion to Reconsider Order Regarding Plaintiffs’ Motion for Partial Summary Judgment (plaintiffs’ Response to defendant’s Motion for Reconsideration or Pis.’ Resp. to Def.’s Mot. for Recons.), filed January 23, 2009. Defendant moves the court for reconsideration, Def.’s Mot. for Recons. 1, of the court’s Opinion of November 25, 2008, granting Plaintiffs’ Motion for Partial Summary Judgment (Pls.’ Mot. for Partial Summ. J.), Alpha I, L.P., v. United States (Alpha I), 84 Fed.Cl. 622, 634 (2008). For the following reasons, defendant’s Motion for Reconsideration is DENIED.

I. Background

The relevant facts of the case, as pertain to plaintiffs’ Motion for Partial Summary Judgment, are set forth in detail in the court’s Opinion of November 25, 2008. See Alpha I, 84 Fed.Cl. at 623-26. For convenient reference, the facts are discussed briefly here. In their complaint plaintiffs challenge “the readjustment of partnership items that were adjusted by the Internal Revenue Service [ (IRS) ] in a Notice of Final Partnership Administrative Adjustment [ (FPAA) ] issued to [plaintiffs] with respect to [plaintiffs’] Forms 1065 U.S. Return of Partnership Income for the tax years ended December 31, 2001 [ (tax year 2001) ] and December 31, 2002 [ (tax year 2002) ].” First Amended Complaint [of Alpha I, L.P.] for Readjustment of Partnership Items Under Code Section 6226 (Alpha Amended Complaint or Alpha Amended Compl.) 1. The IRS issued FPAAs to plaintiffs in December of 2005. Id. at 6. The FPAAs increased plaintiffs’ tax liabilities for tax years 2001 and 2002. Id. at 6-7. Pursuant to § 6662 of the Internal Revenue Code (I.R.C.), the FPAAs also asserted a forty percent accuracy-related penalty against plaintiffs or, alternatively, a twenty percent accuracy-related penalty. Id.; see 26 U.S.C. § 6662 (2006). On April 11, 2008 plaintiffs sought to amend their complaints “by conceding certain issues.” Plaintiffs’ Motion for Leave to Amend Their Complaints (Pis.’ Mot. to Amend) 1. Plaintiffs filed their amended complaints, containing concessions under § 465(b)(1) of the I.R.C., on May 16, 2008. Dkt. Nos. 97-103. Plaintiffs’ amended complaints conceded that taxes are owed, but contested whether penalties are owed. See, e.g., Alpha Amended Compl. 7-8. Defendant characterized plaintiffs’ concession as “largely a self-serving maneuver to attempt to avoid the 40% penalty imposed in connection with their use of abusive tax shelters designed to avoid tax on $120,000,000 in gain.” United States’ Response to Plaintiffs’ Motion for Leave to Amend Their Complaints (Def.’s Resp. to Pls.’ Mot. to Amend) 4.

Plaintiffs filed a Motion for Partial Summary Judgment on July 2, 2008, requesting summary judgment that “[t]he 40 percent gross valuation misstatement penalty (as well as the 20 percent substantial valuation misstatement penalty) asserted by the defendant is inapplicable to plaintiffs as a matter of law because any underpayment of tax would not be ‘attributable to’ a valuation misstatement, but instead would be attributable to plaintiffs’ concession that defendant’s capital gains adjustments were correct under Section 465(b)(1) [of the I.R.C.].” Pls.’ Mot. for Partial Summ. J. 4 (“Here, plaintiffs’ concession eliminated the need for the [c]ourt to consider difficult valuation issues relating to basis and economic substance, and defendant cannot require the [c]ourt to make such determinations solely for the purpose of imposing the valuation misstatement penalty.”). In the United States’ Response to Plaintiffs’ Motion for Partial Summary Judgment (Def.’s Resp. to Pls.’ Mot. for Partial Summ. [571]*571J.), defendant argued that plaintiffs’ § 465 concession is meaningless. Def.’s Resp. to Pls.’ Mot. for Partial Summ. J. 5-6. Plaintiffs also argued, contrary to defendant’s contentions, see id. at 3, that a partnership information return is not a return of tax imposed by Chapter 1 of the I.R.C, Pls.’ Mot. for Partial Summ. J. 4; see 26 U.S.C. § 6662(e)(1)(A) (stating that valuation misstatement penalties relate to “return[s] of tax imposed by chapter 1”). Because the court reached its decision based on plaintiffs’ first argument, the court did not address the portion of the parties’ briefing discussing whether a partnership information return is a return of tax imposed by Chapter 1 of the I.R.C. See Alpha I, 84 Fed.Cl. at 634.

The court granted plaintiffs’ Motion for Partial Summary Judgment, finding “that the underpayment of plaintiffs’ taxes are not ‘attributable to’ an overvaluation misstatement.” Id. The court found the issues surrounding plaintiffs’ Motion for Partial Summary Judgment

more closely analogous to ... [cases] where adjustments were made on grounds unrelated to valuation and the courts declined to impose penalties, [Gainer v. Comm’r (Gainer), 893 F.2d 225, 226-28 (9th Cir.1990); Todd v. Comm’r (Todd), 862 F.2d 540, 541-44 (5th Cir.1988) ], than to [Santa Monica Pictures, LLC v. Comm’r (Santa Monica Pictures) ], where the Tax Court determined that the transaction lacked economic substance, Santa Monica Pictures, [89 T.C.M. (CCH) 1157, 1224 (2005)], and found that the tax returns contained ‘gross valuation misstatements for purposes of section 6662(e) and (h),’ id. at 1227.

Id. at 630. The court found two of the cases cited by defendant, Jade Trading, LLC v. United States (Jade Trading), 80 Fed.Cl. 11 (2007), and Petaluma FX Partners, LLC v. Comm’r (Petaluma), No. 24717-05, 131 T.C. No. 9, 2008 WL 4682543 (Tax Ct. Oct. 23, 2008), irrelevant and unpersuasive here because, in contrast to the circumstances in Jade Trading and Petaluma, the court has not reached the merits of whether a particular transaction lacked economic substance. Alpha I, 84 Fed.Cl. at 630-31. The court found as follows:

Cases in which courts decline to make valuation determinations for the sole purpose of imposing penalties, support this court’s determination that plaintiffs’ concession should be accepted. Plaintiffs’ concession obviates the need to conduct a trial on valuation issues and therefore achieves the very efficiencies and economies that the elimination of penalties sought to encourage.

Id. at 631 (internal citations omitted). According to the court, “The important fact here is that plaintiffs conceded the corrects ness of the adjustments made in the FPAAs.” Id. at 632. “To go behind the concession and attempt to assign to it a specific ground would be to engage in an activity that the elimination of penalties is intended to prevent.” Id.

II. Standard of Review

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Alpha I, L.P. ex rel. Sands v. United States, 86 Fed. Cl. 568, 2009 U.S. Claims LEXIS 66, 103 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 1321, 2009 WL 712324 (uscfc 2009).

86 Fed. Cl. 568 (Alpha I, L.P. ex rel. Sands v. United States) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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