AS Kreider Co. v. United States, 6295.
Decision Date | 27 June 1938 |
Docket Number | No. 6295.,6295. |
Citation | 97 F.2d 387 |
Parties | A. S. KREIDER CO. v. UNITED STATES. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit |
Donald Horne, of New York City, and Douglass D. Storey, of Harrisburg, Pa., for appellant.
James W. Morris, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Sewall Key, Norman D. Keller, Clarence E. Dawson, and Lee A. Jackson, Special Assts. to Atty. Gen.
Before BUFFINGTON, THOMPSON, and BIGGS, Circuit Judges.
This is an appeal from a judgment of the District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. The taxpayer filed its income and profits tax return for 1920 in 1921 and paid the taxes in quarterly instalments in that year. Waivers filed prior to June 15, 1926 extended the time for assessment of taxes to December 31, 1926. In April, 1926 the Commissioner sent a deficiency notice claiming additional income and profits taxes for 1920 in the sum of $1,362.50. In July, 1926 the Commissioner assessed the additional tax which was paid in the same month. In March, 1929 the taxpayer filed a claim for refund. In September, 1929 the Commissioner filed a schedule of overassessment as follows:
Tax assessed Original, Account No. 422,472 ...... $52,481.97 Additional July 1926, Page 1 Line 5 ............................ 1,362.50 __________ Total assessment ................... $53,844.47 Correct tax liability .............. 39,010.79 __________ Overassessment ..................... $14,833.68 Barred by Statute of Limitations ... 13,471.18 __________ Overassessment allowable ........... $ 1,362.50 Certificate of Overassessment Number: 2,092,506 Allowed: $1,362.50 Schedule No. 35778
The schedule was received by the taxpayer not later than October, 1929 and was accompanied by a check for $1,362.50, with interest. In March, 1932 the taxpayer instituted suit to recover $13,471.18, with interest, alleged to have been wrongfully withheld by the United States. At this time the Collectors to whom payments had been made were not in office.
The statute invoked by the taxpayer as authority for this suit, commonly known as the Tucker Act, Paragraph 20, Section 24 of the Judicial Code, 28 U.S.C.A. § 41 (20), reads:
This statute granted a taxpayer the right to bring suit in the District Courts for tax refunds naming the United States as defendant even though the amount involved exceeded $10,000 if the Collector to whom payments were made was dead or out of office at the time of suit. Although it is conceded that each of the prerequisites to jurisdiction exists in the instant case the defense is that the statutory period for suit had expired. The United States relies upon R.S. § 3226 (44 Stat. 116, § 1113(a), 26 U.S.C.A. § 156, now 26 U.S.C.A. §§ 1672-1673) which provides: "No such suit or proceeding shall be begun * * * after the expiration of five years from the date of the payment of such tax, penalty, or sum, unless such suit or proceeding is begun within two years after the disallowance of the part of such claim to which such suit or proceeding relates. * * *"
It is obvious from an examination of the relevant dates that whether we consider November, 1921, when the original tax was paid, or July, 1926, when the deficiency was assessed and paid, as the date of the last payment, more than five years from the last payment elapsed prior to suit. It is equally obvious that more than two years elapsed from the date of disallowance of the claim for refund.
R.S. § 3226, however, has been amended by the Tucker Act, supra, so as to permit six years from the final date of payment as the time within which suit may be commenced, when the suit is against the United States and is brought in the District Court. The suit in the instant case was timely within the six-year statutory period. As was said by Mr. Justice Black in Bates Manufacturing Company v. United States of America, 58 S.Ct. 694, 696, 82 L.Ed. ___, opinion filed March 28, 1938:
Inasmuch as the Court below decided the procedural issue without passing upon the merits, the judgment is reversed and the cause remanded to the District Court with directions to consider and determine the merits of the controversy.
Upon March 15, 1921, the appellant filed its income tax for the calendar year 1920 with the Collector of Internal Revenue for the First District of Pennsylvania. The return so made by the appellant showed income tax due and payable by it in the sum of $52,481.97, which it proceeded to pay in four quarterly instalments.
Before June 15, 1926, the appellant filed an income and profits tax waiver, extending the statutory period of limitations for assessment of taxes for the year 1920, to December 31, 1926.
Upon April 10, 1926, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue informed the appellant in the manner prescribed by law that a deficiency existed in tax paid for the year 1920 in the amount of $1,362.50. Upon July 10, 1926, no appeal having been taken by the appellant to the Board of Tax Appeals, the deficiency was duly assessed by the Commissioner. The amount of the additional tax, viz., $1,362.50, was paid by the appellant upon July 28, 1926; that is to say, the appellant completed the payment of taxes for the year 1920 on July 28, 1926. Upon March 25, 1929, the appellant filed a claim for refund for all of the taxes paid for the year 1920, viz., $53,844.47, composed of two items, the $52,481.97 paid in four quarterly instalments and the additional tax paid July 28, 1926, in the sum of $1,362.50.
Upon September 9, 1929, the Commissioner signed a schedule of overassessment showing a "net amount refundable" to the appellant in the sum of $1,362.50, with interest. The certificate of overassessment was duly mailed to the appellant and is set forth in the majority opinion.
A check in the sum of $1,362.50, with interest, accompanied the certificate of overassessment and was received by the appellant at the same time the certificate of overassessment was received.
A comparison of dates makes it evident that, since the suit at bar to recover the sum of...
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United States v. Kreider Co
...Undoubtedly, respondent has failed to begin its action within either of the periods specified in § 1113(a). See A. S. Kreider Co. v. United States, 3 Cir., 97 F.2d 387, 388. The suit was not instituted until March 7, 1932, although the last tax payment was made on July 26, 1926, and the cla......
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AS Kreider Co. v. United States
...the time within which suit may be commenced, when the suit is against the United States and is brought in the District Court". See 3 Cir., 97 F.2d 387, 388. As the suit had been instituted within the six-year period, the judgment was accordingly reversed and the cause remanded, with directi......
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AS Kreider Co. v. United States, 2927.
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