Robert Morris College v. United States

11 Cl. Ct. 546, 8 Employee Benefits Cas. (BNA) 1280, 59 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 491, 1987 U.S. Claims LEXIS 5
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedJanuary 16, 1987
DocketNo. 459-85T
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 11 Cl. Ct. 546 (Robert Morris College v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Robert Morris College v. United States, 11 Cl. Ct. 546, 8 Employee Benefits Cas. (BNA) 1280, 59 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 491, 1987 U.S. Claims LEXIS 5 (cc 1987).

Opinion

OPINION

NETTESHEIM, Judge.

This case is similar to other cases leading to five trial or appellate court decisions1 rejecting claims for refunds of social security taxes paid pursuant to the Federal Insurance Contribution Act (“FICA”) after Congress closed a gap left by legislation responding to the Supreme Court’s decision in Rowan Companies, Inc. v. United States, 452 U.S. 247, 101 S.Ct. 2288, 68 L.Ed.2d 814 (1981) (“Rowan”). The taxpayers in these cases urged that Rowan required uniform treatment of salary reductions used by tax exempt organizations to purchase annuities for purposes of withholding both federal income tax and social security payments. Congress enacted legislation to foreclose this result in 1983 and in 1984 barred refund of payments made before March 4, 1983. The question to be determined on cross-motions for summary judgment is whether the amounts of certain voluntary salary reductions used to purchase retirement annuity contracts are exempt from the Social Security tax imposed under FICA. Defendant also cross-moved for judgment in its favor on a counterclaim for FICA contributions that erroneously were refunded to plaintiff. Plaintiff did not respond to defendant’s cross-motion, however. Argument on these motions is deemed unnecessary.

FACTS

The material facts are not in dispute. Plaintiff Robert Morris College (“plaintiff”), a Pennsylvania nonprofit corporation, is an institution of higher education exempt from Federal income tax under the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, 26 U.S.C. § 501(c)(3) (1982) (the “I.R.C.”). Plaintiff seeks a refund of FICA payments for the years 1979-1983 in the amount of $100,-933.40, representing combined employer/employee contributions net of a refund of payments for 1980.

Plaintiff set up a retirement annuity plan known as the “Robert Morris College Supplemental Retirement Annuity Plan” for its employees under I.R.C. § 403(b). The plan provided for voluntary salary reductions for those employees desiring a retirement annuity contract. The amounts deducted were then applied by plaintiff to the purchase of an annuity contract. The plan provided that each annuity contract to which the salary reduction amounts were applied “is solely the property of the individual participant” and stipulated that a participating employee at any time could surrender his supplemental retirement annuities for full accumulation value. The contributions paid by plaintiff for its employees were excludable pursuant to I.R.C. § 403(b) from participating employees’ gross income for federal income tax purposes. However, under Rev.Rul. 65-208, 1965-2 C.B. 383, plaintiff included in “wages” for FICA tax purposes the amounts contributed to the salary reduction plan. Plaintiff paid both employer and employee FICA taxes for the years 1979-1983.

Plaintiff timely filed claims for refund of FICA taxes for the years at issue, together with statutory interest thereon, on behalf of itself and its employees and its former employees from whom it had withheld FICA taxes under Rev.Rul. 65-208. Plaintiff claimed that the Supreme Court’s decision in Rowan mandated uniform treatment of wages for FICA and federal income tax purposes. The Director of the [548]*548Philadelphia Service Center of the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”), after each of the respective claims were made, notified plaintiff of each disallowance in full. The letter in each case specified the continued validity of Rev.Rul. 65-208 as the sole reason for disallowance.

On January 28,1985, the Chief, Taxpayer Assistance Section of the Philadelphia Service Center, refunded plaintiffs claim of overpayment of FICA taxes for 1980. Defendant disbursed four checks, in the combined amount of $26,450.22, as the sum paid by plaintiff to FICA, including interest. Plaintiff sought notification as to the reason for the FICA refunds, which formerly had been denied. In response the IRS took the position that the refund was in error. Plaintiff has not repaid the amount refunded.2

This lawsuit followed, but proceedings were suspended for three months pending consideration by the Supreme Court of the petition for writ of certiorari in Temple University v. United States, 769 F.2d 126 (3d Cir.1985), cert. denied, — U.S. —, 106 S.Ct. 2914, 91 L.Ed.2d 544 (1985).

DISCUSSION

1. Effect of the Social Security Amendments of 1983 and the Deficit Reduction Act of 198k on plaintiffs claim for refund of FICA tax- ' es

Since the Internal Revenue Code of 1939, 1. R.C. § 3121(a)(2)(A) (I.R.C. § 1426(a)(2) of the 1939 Code) excluded retirement from the definition of “wages” for FICA purposes:

(a) Wages.—For purposes of this chapter, the term “wages” means all remuneration for employment, including the cash value of all remuneration paid in any medium other than cash; except that such term shall not include
(2) the amount of any payment (including any amount paid by an employer for insurance or annuities, or into a fund, to provide for any such payment) made to, or on behalf of, any employee or any of his dependents under a plan or system established by an employer which makes provision for his employees generally (or for his employees generally and their dependents) or for a class or classes of his employees (or for a class or classes of his employees and their dependents) on account of—
(A) retirement, or
(B) sickness or accident disability, or
(C) medical or hospitalization expenses in connection with sickness or accident disability, or
(D) death;
(3) any payment made to an employee (including an amount paid by an employer for insurance or annuities, or into a fund, to provide for any such payment) on account of retirement; ...

At issue in Rowan was whether meals and lodging provided by an employer to his employees for his own convenience constituted “wages” for FICA and the Federal Unemployment Tax Act (“FUTA”). The Supreme Court concluded that a Treasury regulation that excluded meals and lodgings from the definition of “wages” for federal withholding tax purposes could not treat “wages” differently for FICA and FUTA purposes absent express congressional intent to the contrary. Congress responded with the Social Security Amendments of 1983, § 327(b)(1), Pub.L. No. 98-21, 97 Stat. 65, 127 (codified at I.R.C. § 3121(aHa)(19) (Supp. I 1983) (“the 1983 Act”)). As amended, I.R.C. § 3121(a) had the effect of decoupling the treatment of wages for purposes of withholding federal income taxes and FICA. Section 324(a)(3)(A) of the 1983 Act, 97 Stat. 123 (codified at I.R.C. § 3121(a)(5)), amended old I.R.C. § 3121(a) by striking retirement from the section 3121(a)(2) exclusions. The [549]*5491983 Act added a new section 324(a)(2)(C) (codified at § 3121(a)(5)(D)), which had the effect of including in the FICA wage base payments made pursuant to salary reduction agreements:

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11 Cl. Ct. 546, 8 Employee Benefits Cas. (BNA) 1280, 59 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 491, 1987 U.S. Claims LEXIS 5, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/robert-morris-college-v-united-states-cc-1987.