Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Alex Rubinstein

Third Circuit

Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Alex Rubinstein

264 F.2d 478, 3 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 935, 1959 U.S. App. LEXIS 4220

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit

DecidedMarch 17, 1959

Docket19-3547

StatusPublished

Cited by7 cases

This text of 264 F.2d 478 (Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Alex Rubinstein) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook

Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Alex Rubinstein, 264 F.2d 478, 3 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 935, 1959 U.S. App. LEXIS 4220 (3d Cir. 1959).

Pincite

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

This is an appeal by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue from a decision of the Tax Court in favor of the taxpayer. In order to sustain the claim for unpaid taxes for the years in question (1942 and 1944) fraud had to be shown because the statute of limitations would have precluded opening up the question for those years. Int.Rev.Code of 1939, §§ 275, 276, 26 U.S.C.A. §§ 275, 276.

The original returns had been destroyed in accordance with the provision of the statute. 44 U.S.C.A. §§ 366-374 (Supp.1958); H.R. Rep. No. 649, 81st Cong., 1st sess. (1949). Therefore, the Commissioner had to proceed on secondary evidence to establish their contents and this he tried to do. In addition, fraud had to be proved by clear and convincing evidence. Valetti v. Commissioner, 3 Cir., 1958, 260 F.2d 185, 188. The Tax Court, with three judges dissenting, concluded that the Commissioner had not “carried his burden of proving that a fraudulent return was filed so as *479 co avoid the statute of limitations * * Alex Rubinstein, Feb. 17, 1958, 29 T.C. No. 93. The case, therefore, involves simply the weighing of the evidence used to reach a conclusion. The conclusion that the evidence was not strong enough to establish fraud is perhaps not the only possible conclusion that could have been drawn from what was before the court. But the conclusion is sustained by enough evidence so that we cannot say, which we must to reverse, that the fact finding was clearly erroneous. Int.Rev.Code of 1939, § 1141 (a) as amended ch. 646, § 36, 62 Stat. 991 (1948) 26 U.S.C.A. § 1141(a).

The judgment of the Tax Court will be affirmed.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

PER CURIAM.

This is an appeal by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue from a decision of the Tax Court in favor of the taxpayer. In order to sustain the claim for unpaid taxes for the years in question (1942 and 1944) fraud had to be shown because the statute of limitations would have precluded opening up the question for those years. Int.Rev.Code of 1939, §§ 275, 276, 26 U.S.C.A. §§ 275, 276.

The original returns had been destroyed in accordance with the provision of the statute. 44 U.S.C.A. §§ 366-374 (Supp.1958); H.R. Rep. No. 649, 81st Cong., 1st sess. (1949). Therefore, the Commissioner had to proceed on secondary evidence to establish their contents and this he tried to do. In addition, fraud had to be proved by clear and convincing evidence. Valetti v. Commissioner, 3 Cir., 1958, 260 F.2d 185, 188. The Tax Court, with three judges dissenting, concluded that the Commissioner had not “carried his burden of proving that a fraudulent return was filed so as *479 co avoid the statute of limitations * * Alex Rubinstein, Feb. 17, 1958, 29 T.C. No. 93. The case, therefore, involves simply the weighing of the evidence used to reach a conclusion. The conclusion that the evidence was not strong enough to establish fraud is perhaps not the only possible conclusion that could have been drawn from what was before the court. But the conclusion is sustained by enough evidence so that we cannot say, which we must to reverse, that the fact finding was clearly erroneous. Int.Rev.Code of 1939, § 1141 (a) as amended ch. 646, § 36, 62 Stat. 991 (1948) 26 U.S.C.A. § 1141(a).

The judgment of the Tax Court will be affirmed.

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)

264 F.2d 478, 3 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 935, 1959 U.S. App. LEXIS 4220, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commissioner-of-internal-revenue-v-alex-rubinstein-ca3-1959.

Opinion

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack