Lowenstein v. United States

27 Fed. Cl. 38, 70 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 6029, 1992 U.S. Claims LEXIS 187, 1992 WL 333432
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedOctober 30, 1992
DocketNo. 586-88T
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 27 Fed. Cl. 38 (Lowenstein v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Federal Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lowenstein v. United States, 27 Fed. Cl. 38, 70 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 6029, 1992 U.S. Claims LEXIS 187, 1992 WL 333432 (uscfc 1992).

Opinion

OPINION

HORN, Judge.

This case is before the court on the defendant’s motion for summary judgment, and the plaintiff’s cross-motion for summary judgment. Jurisdiction is uncontested under 28 U.S.C. § 1491 (1982). Plaintiff, Stanley Lowenstein, claims a refund of taxes assessed and collected for the tax year 1980, in the amount of $23,595.00, or such greater amount as may be refundable, together with costs and interest, as provided by law.

After a thorough review of the pleadings filed by the parties and the applicable law, the court, hereby, GRANTS defendant’s motion for summary judgment and DENIES plaintiff’s cross-motion for summary judgment.

FACTS

The “Bedford Associates Limited Partnership Certificate and Agreement,” established a partnership to invest in a federally financed housing project to be constructed and owned by Bedford Towers Apartments, Ltd. (Tower). The agreement was signed on November 5,1980 by three general partners: John Luciani, Bernard M. Rodin and J & B Management,1 a New Jersey corporation, and four limited partners: Steven Klein, Mindy Weisser, Terry Leiweke, and Chris Walkotten, and filed in the Bergen County, New Jersey clerk’s office on November 10, 1980. The primary purpose of the partnership was stated as:

... to invest, directly or indirectly, as a limited partner and to thereby acquire and own a limited partnership interest in a certain Georgia limited partnership styled Bedford Tower Apts., Ltd. [Tower] ... whose sole business and purpose shall be to acquire, own and hold certain real property located in the City of Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia, and to build and develop, or cause to be built and developed thereon and to own and operate an apartment project____

On December 1, 1980, a “First Amendment of Limited Partnership Certificate and Agreement Bedford Associates” was executed and notarized by the individual partners. This amendment called for the replacement of the original four limited partners with seventeen new limited partners, including plaintiff. This amendment was filed in the Bergen County clerk’s office on December 30, 1980. Under the terms of this amendment, plaintiff acquired a 7.5272 percent interest in Bedford Associates’ profits and losses.2

[41]*41Tower timely filed a Form Partnership Return of Income for 1980, claiming a loss of $264,654.00. Thereafter, Bedford Associates filed its partnership return, Form 1065, claiming total losses of $375,747.00 for 1980, and on which Bedford Associates allocated all of its 1980 losses (including 97% of the loss of Towers Apartments, Ltd.) to the individual partners in Bedford Associates. These claimed losses were made up as follows: 1065 U.S.

97% share of Tower’s loss (.97 X 264,654) $256,714.00

Guarantee Payments 110,000.00

Legal Fees 9,000.00

Amortization 33.00

TOTAL $375,747.00

Plaintiff, Lowenstein, timely filed his 1980 Individual Income Tax Form 1040 and, based on Bedford Associates’ claimed losses, reported $29,158.00 as his 7.76 percent share of the 1980 Bedford Associates loss. Plaintiff also reported a tax liability of $57,737.00 on his 1980 Form 1040. Plaintiff included a payment of $2,648.00 with his return in satisfaction of his income tax liability, with the balance of the alleged tax liability made up by tax withholdings.

Tower’s 1980 partnership return, which contained the $264,654.00 claimed loss, was audited by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The “Examination Changes — Partnerships, Fiduciaries, Small Business Corporations, and Domestic International Sales Corporations,” Form 4605-A, completed by the IRS on October 26, 1982, in response to the audit, disallowed all but $69,904.00 of the $264,654.00 deductions originally claimed by Tower. Additionally, by an attached Explanation of Items form (Form 886-A), the IRS questioned a number of the expenses listed as deductions and allowed no part of Tower’s adjusted loss to Bedford Associates because according to the IRS: “the amendment [signed December 1, 1980 and naming plaintiff as a limited partner] stated reason no [sic] as to why profits and losses were to be allocated this way. Bedford Associates contributed only $5000.00 in capital, which was only 4.144% of the total capital contribution.” The IRS disallowed the $256,714.00 portion of the Bedford Associates, 1980 loss which was based on the Tower loss and the $110,-000.00 loss attributed to guarantee payments. Bedford Associates, therefore, was allowed to claim a loss of only $9,033.00, representing its legal fees and amortization. Consequently, plaintiff was allowed a loss of only $700.00 for tax year 1980, representing his 7.76 percent share of Bed-ford Associates’ $9,033.00 allowed loss. As a result of this change, the IRS proposed a tax deficiency of $17,662.00 for tax year 1980 for plaintiff, Lowenstein. Plaintiff contested the proposed disallowance of the partnership losses and resulting deficiency by letter dated July 7, 1986.

Leonard Levine, another limited partner, who also had a 7.76% distributive share in Bedford Associates, likewise received notice of a disallowance and notice of deficiency in a letter from the IRS dated October 4, 1984. Levine timely filed a petition in the United States Tax Court to challenge the proposed disallowance and resulting deficiency.

According to an affidavit completed by Alfred A. Pierri, Esq., a former attorney with the Office of the District Counsel, Internal Revenue Service, in Newark, New Jersey, tax cases involving partnerships for the 1980 tax year were handled by his office using a “key case" method. No other evidence has been proffered by either party to suggest that this was, or was not, the normal, or preferred, method of handling these tax cases. According to this method, the first docketed case involving a single investor of a partnership was designated the “key case.” The result obtained in litigation or settlement would then be used as the basis for the IRS to settle all other cases involving other investors in the [42]*42same partnership. With regards to the Bedford Associates partnership, Pierri recollected that the Levine case was designated as the “key case.” In late 1986, the IRS and Herbert L. Zuckerman (counsel for both Levine and plaintiff) negotiated an agreement in the Levine case under which all the issues relating to the 1980 calculation of the allowed loss for the individual Bedford Associates’ partners were resolved. The Levine agreement was committed to writing in a Counsel Settlement Memorandum, dated March 27, 1987, and a Form 906 Closing Agreement, finalized May 7, 1987.

Plaintiff, in the instant case, was informed of the settlement of the Levine case by a letter dated April 27, 1987 from IRS Appeals Officer James Izbicki, who was assigned to handle plaintiff’s case. Izbicki informed plaintiff that, before the terms of the settlement could be applied to plaintiff’s 1980 return, plaintiff would have to submit copies of his 1981, 1982 and 1983 returns to the IRS for computational purposes and that a closing agreement would be required.

After the requested documents were furnished to the IRS by plaintiff, an “Offer of Waiver of Restrictions on Assessment and Collection of Deficiency in Tax and of Acceptance of Overassessment” (Form 870-AD) and a Closing Agreement (Form 906) were prepared in connection with plaintiff’s case.

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27 Fed. Cl. 38, 70 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 6029, 1992 U.S. Claims LEXIS 187, 1992 WL 333432, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lowenstein-v-united-states-uscfc-1992.