United States of America, and John C. Cronin, Special Agent, Internal Revenue Service v. J. Louie Carter

Fifth Circuit

United States of America, and John C. Cronin, Special Agent, Internal Revenue Service v. J. Louie Carter

504 F.2d 428, 34 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 6251, 1974 U.S. App. LEXIS 5981

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

DecidedNovember 20, 1974

Docket73-1414

StatusPublished

Cited by1 cases

This text of 504 F.2d 428 (United States of America, and John C. Cronin, Special Agent, Internal Revenue Service v. J. Louie Carter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook

United States of America, and John C. Cronin, Special Agent, Internal Revenue Service v. J. Louie Carter, 504 F.2d 428, 34 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 6251, 1974 U.S. App. LEXIS 5981 (5th Cir. 1974).

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Opinion

ON PETITION FOR REHEARING

Before BROWN, Chief Judge, and RONEY and GEE, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:

In his petition for rehearing appellant claims that this decision, 489 F.2d 413 (5th Cir. 1973), is in direct conflict with United States v. Humble Oil & Refining Co., 488 F.2d 953 (5th Cir. 1974). In this case we enforced an open-ended “John Doe” summons, while in Humble Oil we held that the Internal Revenue Service is not empowered under sections 7601 and 7602 to issue such a summons in aid of its research projects or inquiries, absent an investigation of taxpayers or individuals and corporations from whom information is sought. We do not regard these cases as being in conflict. In each case, the hearing panel was well aware of the other case pending.

In Carter, the Internal Revenue Service sought the names, addresses, and social security numbers of Carter’s clients in order to ascertain the correctness of their tax returns for the purpose of checking the expertise of the taxpayer, Carter. The project was referred to as the Tax Preparers Project and was an attempt to check for fraudulent tax preparers. It was aimed at consumer protection rather than taxpayer fraud. In Humble Oil, however, the Internal Revenue Service was concerned with taxpayer fraud. The investigation in that ease involved an attempt to obtain the names, addresses, social security numbers, and other information about third party taxpayers for the sole purpose of checking their returns for fraud or mistake.

In Humble Oil there was an investigation for purpose of discovering criminal activity. In Carter there was research, not so much to unearth criminal activity on the part of the taxpayer or even the tax preparer, but more to protect the consumer and, incidentally, to ensure that the United States received all of the funds it was entitled to receive.

The language of section 7602 supports the distinction between the two opinions of this Court reaching different results under the different fact situations.

The petition for rehearing is denied.

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ON PETITION FOR REHEARING

Before BROWN, Chief Judge, and RONEY and GEE, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:

In his petition for rehearing appellant claims that this decision, 489 F.2d 413 (5th Cir. 1973), is in direct conflict with United States v. Humble Oil & Refining Co., 488 F.2d 953 (5th Cir. 1974). In this case we enforced an open-ended “John Doe” summons, while in Humble Oil we held that the Internal Revenue Service is not empowered under sections 7601 and 7602 to issue such a summons in aid of its research projects or inquiries, absent an investigation of taxpayers or individuals and corporations from whom information is sought. We do not regard these cases as being in conflict. In each case, the hearing panel was well aware of the other case pending.

In Carter, the Internal Revenue Service sought the names, addresses, and social security numbers of Carter’s clients in order to ascertain the correctness of their tax returns for the purpose of checking the expertise of the taxpayer, Carter. The project was referred to as the Tax Preparers Project and was an attempt to check for fraudulent tax preparers. It was aimed at consumer protection rather than taxpayer fraud. In Humble Oil, however, the Internal Revenue Service was concerned with taxpayer fraud. The investigation in that ease involved an attempt to obtain the names, addresses, social security numbers, and other information about third party taxpayers for the sole purpose of checking their returns for fraud or mistake.

In Humble Oil there was an investigation for purpose of discovering criminal activity. In Carter there was research, not so much to unearth criminal activity on the part of the taxpayer or even the tax preparer, but more to protect the consumer and, incidentally, to ensure that the United States received all of the funds it was entitled to receive.

The language of section 7602 supports the distinction between the two opinions of this Court reaching different results under the different fact situations.

The petition for rehearing is denied.

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504 F.2d 428, 34 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 6251, 1974 U.S. App. LEXIS 5981, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-of-america-and-john-c-cronin-special-agent-internal-ca5-1974.

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