Roberts v. United States

734 F. Supp. 314, 66 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5109, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3927, 1990 WL 41155
District Court, N.D. Illinois·Decided April 6, 1990·No. 86 C 9934 to 86 C 9936·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

LINDBERG, District Judge.

The above-captioned tax refund law suits were consolidated on June 10, 1988 before Judge liana Diamond Rovner. They involved the plaintiffs’ respective federal personal income tax returns for the tax years 1984 and 1985.

On April 29, 1988, after discovery was completed, plaintiff W. Stewart Roberts filed a motion for summary judgment on various issues with supporting affidavits and a memorandum. Plaintiffs Robert G. Peters and Reuben D. Peters filed similar motions, supporting affidavits and memoranda.

At the same time, defendant United States of America filed a motion for summary judgement, together with its local Rule 12(e) statement of undisputed facts and a memorandum in support of its motion for summary judgment.

In addition to the foregoing documents, the Chicago Board Options Exchange, Inc., filed an amicus curiae memorandum in support of plaintiff W. Stewart Roberts’ motion for summary judgment on or about May 23, 1989.

On May 26, 1988, Judge Rovner transferred the cases to the Executive Committee for a referral to a magistrate, and the cases were transferred to Magistrate James T. Balog for preparation of report and recommendation on the parties’ motions for summary judgment.

On September 19, 1988, Magistrate Ba-log issued his report and recommendation. Essentially his report recommended that defendant’s motion for summary judgment on all issues be denied and that plaintiffs’ motions for summary judgment on all issues be granted. Thereupon the cases were returned to the calendar of the court.

On September 28, 1988, the plaintiffs filed an objection to the report and recommendation of Magistrate Balog.

Defendant, on October 25, 1988, filed an objection to the report and recommendation of Magistrate Balog, plaintiffs filed their response to the objections of defendant to the report and recommendation. Since the issues of law and fact have been extensively examined in the report, they will not be set forth in detail here.

At the time the complaints were filed in these matters, there had been no refunds paid for the years in question. Therefore the complaints requested payment of the *316 full amount of the refunds set forth in the amended federal income tax returns for the years in question. After the completion of the Internal Revenue Service’s audits of the amended returns, which occurred during discovery, the IRS issued audit reports indicating that certain portions of requested refunds were not objected to by the IRS. Further, plaintiffs agreed to various adjustments in the audit reports. Therefore, the plaintiffs’ summary judgment motions specified the items which were referred to as the “agreed issues”, and requested immediate summary judgment as to the “non-objected to” amounts. On March 1, 1989, defendant indicated that partial remittances would be made as to certain portions of the requested refunds. The parties shortly thereafter filed a draft joint stipulation and consent order indicating that these concessions had been made in each of the cases and the parties agreed to entry of partial summary judgments which were entered by the court on April 24, 1989 against defendant as follows:

R.G. Peters - $1,091,372.00
Reuben D. Peters - $1,185,058.00
W. Stewart Roberts - $ 39,457.00

The refund balance sought by the plaintiffs, after payment of the aforesaid amounts, presently comprise the remaining amounts in controversy which are subject to the court’s decision on the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment.

The amounts are:

R.G. Peters - $146,081.00
Reuben D. Peters - $462,628.00
W. Stewart Roberts - $236,193.00

The primary issue presented in all three refund suits is an issue of first impression, namely whether the taxpayers are allowed under Internal Revenue Code section 1212(c) to carry back their section 1256 contract losses incurred in 1986 in commodity futures and mixed straddles (i.e., Chicago Board Options Exchange options and the stocks underlying such options) to offset section 1256 contract gains in 1984 regardless of whether or not such losses were part of their mixed straddle account elections made pursuant to Temp.Treas. Reg. section 1.109(b)-4T.

In 1985, each of the taxpayers incurred significant section 1256 contract losses. In the cases of Reuben Peters and Stewart Roberts, a portion of the section 1256 contract losses were part of their mixed straddle account elections made pursuant to Temp.Treas.Reg. section 1.092(b)-4T, and a portion of the section 1256 contract losses were not part of such elections. In the case of Robert Peters, all section 1256 contract losses reported for 1985 were losses incurred independent of any mixed straddle account election.

In conjunction with the filing of their 1985 tax returns, the three taxpayers simultaneously filed amended 1984 tax returns which carried back the excess 1985 section 1256 contract losses against their 1984 section 1256 contract gains, and according to their calculations, entitled them to significant refunds of their 1984 taxes.

Upon the filing of the amended 1984 returns, the Internal Revenue Service conducted audits of each taxpayer and determined that they were entitled to carry back any portion of their total 1985 section 1256 contract losses which were not part of their mixed straddle account election on the theory that such losses are governed by section 1.1092(b)-4T rather than section 1256 and therefore, can be carried back under section 1212(c).

There are several other issues presented in these cases, all of which are the subject of one or more summary judgment motions, to wit:

1. Reuben D. Peters and Robert G. Peters — Free credit entry issue:
Plaintiffs state that their CBOE market maker accounts were inadvertently credited by their clearing member with entries for interest. Defendant insists that these credits represent income in 1984, the year in which they were credited to plaintiffs’ accounts. According to plaintiffs, no additional taxes are owed for 1984 because the credit entries were made in error and this error was discovered in 1985 and thereafter reversed.
*317 2. Robert G. Peters — Jurisdictional challenge over section 1212(c) carry-back issue:
Defendant argues that because the carryback of mixed straddle account losses has no effect on Peters’ taxes for 1984 or 1985, the two years at issue in this refund suit, and he is only seeking a refund for 1984 based on other issues, the court lacks jurisdiction over this issue under 28 U.S.C. section 1346(a)(1) and 26 U.S.C. section 7422. Plaintiffs believe that since Robert G.

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Roberts v. United States, 734 F. Supp. 314, 66 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5109, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3927, 1990 WL 41155 (N.D. Ill. 1990).

734 F. Supp. 314 (Roberts v. United States) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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