Nalley v. Ross

308 F. Supp. 1388, 25 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 455, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12883
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Georgia
DecidedDecember 16, 1969
DocketCiv. A. No. 12986
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 308 F. Supp. 1388 (Nalley v. Ross) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nalley v. Ross, 308 F. Supp. 1388, 25 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 455, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12883 (N.D. Ga. 1969).

Opinion

ORDER

HENDERSON, District Judge.

The plaintiff sought to enjoin the assessment of a deficiency for the taxable year 1962 resulting from the disallowance of a tentative loss carry-back adjustment. However, the court finds that plaintiff does not fall within any exception to § 7421(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, 26 U.S.C. § 7421(a), and, therefore, is prohibited by that section from seeking an injunction.

Specifically, the issue before the court is whether § 6212(a) required the government to send a notice of deficiency to the taxpayer, thereby allowing him to litigate the assessment in the Tax Court of the United States, under § 6213(a), 26 U.S.C. § 6213(a), or whether the § 6213 (b) (2), 26 U.S.C. § 6213(b) (2), exception to the 90 day notice procedure was applicable, thereby relieving the government from the 90 day restriction on assessment, and forcing the taxpayer to pay the amount assessed and thereafter sue in the district court to get it back. The facts are undisputed, except as indicated below.

Plaintiff taxpayer filed his federal income tax return for the taxable years 1962 and 1965 with the Director of Internal Revenue for the District of Georgia. The 1965 return was a joint return, filed with his wife. It reflected a net operating loss of $124,881.65. On or about December 30, 1966, an Application for Tentative Carryback, form 1045, was filed, requesting that the 1965 operating loss be carried back to the taxable year 1962. It was claimed that this car-ryback would result in an overpayment of $53,028.79 for the taxable year 1962. Therefore, in connection with the application for tentative carryback, plaintiff taxpayer filed a Claim for Refund, form 83, which made a formal claim for the alleged overpayment. On or about February 20, 1967, a refund of taxes for the taxable year 1962, in the amount of $53,-028.79, was paid to the plaintiff taxpayer.

[1390]*1390Without expressing any opinion as to the actual merits of the assessment, the court notes that the government claims, by affidavit of John B. Langer, Acting District Director of Internal Revenue, filed September 18, 1969, that an official audit of the taxpayer’s 1965 individual income tax return resulted in a disallowance of certain business deductions claimed on the return. Because the dis-allowance of said deductions caused the refund of $53,028.79 to be erroneous, the Director of the Southeast Service Center, on August 8, 1969, determined that the refund be assessed as a deficiency. The taxpayer requested that his case be reviewed by the appellate division of the Internal Revenue Service, but the appellate division upheld the determination by the District Director that the 1965 business deductions should be disallowed and that the refund resulting from the net operating loss carryback was erroneous. The appellate division recommended that the erroneous refund, assessed as a deficiency, be treated as if it were due to a mathematical error appearing on the return, under § 6213(b) (2) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954. The assessment was abated on September 5, 1969, by temporary restraining order entered by this court.

On June 4, 1969, the taxpayer had executed a Consent Fixing Period of Limitation upon Assessment of Income and Profits Tax, form 872, extending the period of limitation on assessment for the taxable year 1965 to December 31, 1969. His 1965 individual federal income tax return had been filed on July 18, 1966.

Taxpayer finds irreparable harm in the government’s action, in that it forces him to pay the asssessment and litigate the issue of the deficiency in the district court. If, on the other hand, the government were forced to follow the provisions of § 6212(a), as taxpayer expects it to do, voluntarily, as to the taxable years 1964, 1965 and 1966, the taxpayer could then litigate the issue of the 1962 deficiency in the Tax Court of the United States. This would be advantageous to him because the tax years 1962 and 1965 have in common questions of law and fact. Taxpayer claims that these questions are so closely related that it will do irreparable harm to him if he is forced to litigate them separately, rather than at the same time and in the same court. On the other hand, the government claims that petitioner cannot suffer irreparable damage, because he will have his day in the district court. In essence, the government claims that it can use any procedure available to it, as long as it is in good faith in so doing.

Thus, the issue is simply whether the government can avoid the § 6212(a) and § 6213(a) 90 day notice of deficiency procedure by treating plaintiff’s disallowed 1965 deductions as if they were “mathematical errors”, under the provisions of § 6213(b) (2).

The pertinent statutes are, in pertinent part, as follows:

§ 7421. Prohibition of suits to restrain assessment or collection
(a) Tax. — Except as provided in sections 6212(a) and (c), 6213(a), and 7426(a) and (b) (1), no suit for the purpose of restraining the assessment or collection of any tax shall be maintained in any court * * *.

26 U.S.C. § 7421.

§ 6212. Notice of deficiency
(a) In general. — If the Secretary or his delegate determines that there is a deficiency in respect of any tax imposed * * *, he is authorized to send notice of such deficiency to the taxpayer by certified mail or registered mail.

26 U.S.C. § 6212.

§ 6213. Restrictions applicable to deficiencies; petition to Tax Court
(a) Time for filing petition and restriction on assessment. — Within 90 days, * * * after the notice of deficiency authorized in section 6212 is mailed * * *, the taxpayer may file a petition with the Tax Court for a redetermination of the deficiency. [1391]*1391Except as otherwise provided * * * no assessment of a deficiency in respect of any tax imposed * * * and no levy or proceeding in court for its collection shall be made, begun, or prosecuted until such notice has been mailed to the taxpayer, nor until the expiration of such 90-day * * * period, * * * nor, if a petition has been filed with the Tax Court, until the decision of the Tax Court has become final. Notwithstanding the provisions of section 7421(a), the making of such assessment or the beginning of such proceeding or levy during the time such prohibition is in force may be enjoined by a proceeding in the proper court.
(b) Exceptions to restrictions on assessment.—
(1) Mathematical errors.

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1993 T.C. Memo. 372 (U.S. Tax Court, 1993)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
308 F. Supp. 1388, 25 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 455, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12883, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nalley-v-ross-gand-1969.