Rose v. Commissioner

41 B.T.A. 1073, 1940 BTA LEXIS 1106
CourtUnited States Board of Tax Appeals
DecidedMay 7, 1940
DocketDocket No. 86028.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 41 B.T.A. 1073 (Rose v. Commissioner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Board of Tax Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rose v. Commissioner, 41 B.T.A. 1073, 1940 BTA LEXIS 1106 (bta 1940).

Opinion

[1076]*1076OPINION.

HaRROn:

The main question is whether an overpayment of $2,-011.91 in income tax which petitioners made on December 9, 1933, was made within two years before the filing of a valid claim for [1077]*1077refund, under section 322- (d) of the Revenue Act of 1932 as amended by section 809 (c) of the Revenue Act of 1938, the pertinent provisions of which are set forth in the margin.1

The original claim for refund was filed on December 9, 1935. Thus, it is evident that the payment of $2,011.91 on December 9, 1933, was made within two years before the filing of the original claim for refund. In the computation of the period of time between the making of the payment and the filing of the original claim for refund, the day on which the payment was made, December 9, 1933, is to be excluded, and the day on which the original claim for refund was filed, December 9, 1935, is to be included. Burnet v. Willingham Loan & Trust Co., 282 U. S. 437; Chambers v. Lucas, 41 Fed. (2d) 299; United Telephone Co., 1 B. T. A. 450; Harriet M. Hooper, 26 B. T. A. 758; and see Sheets v. Selden’s Lessee, 2 Wall. 177, 190, in which the Supreme Court, through Mr. Justice Field, stated in part as follows:

* * * The general current of the modern authorities on the interpretation * * * of statutes, where time is to be computed from a particular day or a particular event, as when an act is to be performed within a specified period from or after a day named, is to exclude the day thus designated, and to include the last day of the specified period.

Although the original claim for refund specified two grounds for refund, it did not specify the grounds from which the overpayment in tax resulted. Thus, the original claim for refund failed to comply with the requirements of a valid claim for refund as provided in article 1254 of Regulations 77, relating to the Revenue Act of 1932, the pertinent provisions of which are set forth in the margin.2 Georgie W. Rathborne, 39 B. T. A. 56.

Petitioners do not contend that, within the statutory period of limitation, respondent waived compliance with the requirements of a valid claim for refund as provided in article 1254 of Regulations [1078]*107877. Cf. Tucker v. Alexander, 275 U. S. 228; United States v. Garbutt Oil Co., 302 U. S. 528. Nor do the facts establish such a waiver by respondent. It is to be noted that respondent could not waive the bar of the statutory period of limitation. See United States v. Garbutt Oil Co., supra.

Petitioners do contend that the so-called amended claim for refund, which specified one of the grounds from which the overpayment resulted, was a permissible amendment to the original claim for refund and related back to correct the insufficiency of the original claim for refund. Respondent contends that the so-called amended claim for refund was not a permissible amendment to the original claim for refund.

The original claim for refund was subject to permissible amendment prior to its final rejection by respondent. See United States v. Memphis Cotton Oil Co., 288 U. S. 62. Although respondent notified petitioners in the deficiency notice that the original claim for refund would be disallowed and that official notice of the disallowance of the claim would be issued by registered mail, there is no evidence to show a final rejection of the original claim for refund by respondent. Cf. United States v. Memphis Cotton Oil Co., supra.

The general rule as to the permissibility of an amendment to a claim for refund after the expiration of the statutory period of limitation is stated by the Supreme Court, through Mr. Justice Roberts, in United States v. Andrews, 302 U. S. 517, 524, as follows:

* * * Where a claim which the Commissioner could have rejected as too general, and as omitting to specify the matters needing investigation, has not misled him but has been the basis of an investigation which disclosed facts necessary to his action in making a refund, an amendment which merely makes more definite the matters already within his knowledge, or which, in the course of his investigation, he would naturally have ascertained, is permissible. On the other hand, a claim which demands relief upon one asserted fact situation, and asks an investigation of the elements appropriate to the requested relief, cannot be amended to discard that basis and invoke action requiring examination of other matters not germane to the first claim.

The general rule as to the permissibility of an amendment to a claim for refund after the expiration of the statutory period of limitation has also been stated by the Circuit Court, Second Circuit, through Swan, Circuit Judge, in Pink v. United States, 105 Fed. (2d) 183, 187, as follows:

* * * Whether a new ground of recovery may be introduced after the statute has run by amending a pending claim filed in time depends upon the facts which an investigation of the original claim would disclose. Where the facts upon which the amendment is based would necessarily have been ascertained by the Oommissioner in determining the merits of the original claim, the amendment is proper. Bemis Bros. Bag Co. v. United States, 289 U. S. 28, 63 S. Ct. 454, 77 L. Ed. 1011; United States v. Memphis Cotton Oil Co., 288 U. S. [1079]*107962, 53 S. Ct. 278, 77 L. Ed. 619; United States v. Factors & Finance Co., 288 U. S. 89, 53 S. Ct. 287, 77 L. Ed. 633. The rule is otherwise when the amendment requires the examination of new matters which would not have been disclosed by an investigation of the original claim. United States v. Andrews, 302 U. S. 517, 58 S. Ct. 315, 82 L. Ed. 398; United States v. Garbutt Oil Co., 302 U. S. 528, 58 S. Ct. 320, 82 L. Ed. 405; Marks v. United States, 2 Cir., 98 F. 2d 564.

An analysis of the facts shows that the so-called, amended claim for refund, which was filed after the expiration of the statutory period of limitation, was not a permissible amendment to the original claim for refund under the rules which are set forth above.

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Related

Rose v. Commissioner
41 B.T.A. 1073 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1940)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
41 B.T.A. 1073, 1940 BTA LEXIS 1106, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rose-v-commissioner-bta-1940.