Haas v. United States

107 Fed. Cl. 1, 110 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5997, 2012 U.S. Claims LEXIS 1145, 2012 WL 4320652
United States Court of Federal Claims·Decided September 20, 2012·No. No. 12-51 T·Published·Cited by 8 cases

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

SWEENEY, Judge.

Before the court is defendant’s partial motion to dismiss plaintiffs refund claims for tax years 2001-2004 because they are barred by the relevant statute of limitations. Although the delay was not plaintiffs fault, and the fact that he cannot amend his 2001-2004 tax returns is unfortunate, the court’s hands are tied, and it cannot extend the statute of limitations. Therefore, the court finds that plaintiffs claims for tax years 2001-2004 are barred by the relevant statute of limitations, and as a result, the court grants defendant’s partial motion to dismiss.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Plaintiff, a seventy-five-year-old veteran, has been diagnosed with a variety of medical conditions that were ultimately determined to be attributable to his exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. In 2001, plaintiff sought a ruling from the Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”) that these conditions resulted from his military service such that he was entitled to disability compensation from the government. When his claim was denied in 2002, plaintiff appealed to a Decision Review Officer and then to the Board of Veterans Appeals (“Board”), each of which denied his claim. When plaintiff appealed the Board’s decision in 2006, the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims granted his petition, finding that he was entitled to a presumption of exposure to Agent Orange based on his service on a military vessel off the coast of Vietnam. The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“Federal Circuit”) overturned this decision, depriving plaintiff of the presumption of exposure, and remanded the case for a determination of whether he had been actually exposed during his service. See Haas v. Peake, 525 F.3d 1168 (Fed.Cir.2008). Ultimately, plaintiff successfully established that he had been exposed to Agent Orange, and as a result, he was granted service connection for his disability on September 8, 2009. This ruling occurred eight years after his initial claim was filed and over five years after the Board’s original denial of his claim. Based on that ruling, the VA issued its Rating Decision on December 1, 2009, in which it found that plaintiff was 100% disabled from July 30, 2001, onward.1

Thus, once the VA made its determination, the military retirement pay plaintiff had been receiving from 2001 onward was retroactively converted to veterans’ disability compensation. While military retirement pay is taxable income, compensation for disabilities attributable to service in the armed forces is nontaxable under § 104(a)(4).2 As a result, [4] plaintiffs income for years 2001-2009 was retroactively exempted from taxation. Because the income was retroactively deemed exempt, plaintiff filed amended federal income tax returns (Forms 1040X) in 2010, seeking a refund of all taxes he had paid for his 2001-2009 tax years. The Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) Certificates of Assessment for the relevant years reflect that plaintiff filed Forms 1040X for his 2001-2006 tax years on July 28, 2010.3 Plaintiff also filed refund claims for his 2007-2009 tax years on August 2, 2010. While the IRS granted refunds for 2007-2009, it denied as untimely plaintiffs refund claims for his 2001-2006 tax years. After an unsuccessful administrative appeal, plaintiff filed suit in this court, seeking a refund for the denied tax years 2001-2006.

Plaintiff filed his complaint in this court on January 25, 2012, and an amended complaint on February 28, 2012. Plaintiff asks that the court allow him to amend his federal income tax returns for tax years 2001-2006 in order to receive a refund for overpayment. Plaintiff states that the Board delayed in rendering a decision on his claim for veterans benefits, and because of the delay, he was not able to file amended tax returns for years 2001-2006 sooner than mid-2010. Plaintiff seeks a refund of $7,102 for years 2001-2006, reimbursement of the court’s filing fee, and interest on overpayment of taxes.

On April 25, 2012, defendant filed a partial motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(1) of the Rules of the United States Court of Federal Claims (“RCFC”), seeking to dismiss plaintiffs refund claims for tax years 2001-2004 because they were filed outside of the relevant statute of limitations, § 6511(a). Defendant concedes in its motion that, under § 6511(d)(8), plaintiffs refund claims for 2005 and 2006 are timely, and states that a concession by defendant of the 2005 and 2006 claims has been authorized on behalf of the Attorney General. Defendant proposes that, once that concession has been processed and plaintiff has been granted a refund for over-payments for those two tax years, the parties file a stipulation for dismissal of the claims for those two years. Therefore, defendant asserts that the concession and this motion, if granted, would resolve the entirety of the claims before the court. Plaintiff filed his response to the motion on June 13, 2012, and in this response, plaintiff acknowledges defendant’s concession regarding his claims for refund as to tax years 2005 and 2006, and requests that he be awarded costs pursuant to § 7430(a). Defendant filed its reply on June 27,2012.

II. LEGAL STANDARD FOR RCFC 12(b)(1) MOTION TO DISMISS

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Haas v. United States, 107 Fed. Cl. 1, 110 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5997, 2012 U.S. Claims LEXIS 1145, 2012 WL 4320652 (uscfc 2012).

107 Fed. Cl. 1 (Haas v. United States) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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