Merlin v. Sanders, 16351.
| Decision Date | 03 May 1957 |
| Docket Number | No. 16351.,16351. |
| Citation | 243 F.2d 821 |
| Parties | Libbie MERLIN, Appellant, v. P. K. SANDERS, Acting District Director of Internal Revenue and United States of America, Intervener, Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
L. Eugene McNatt, Atlanta, Ga., Cuba, Cuba & McNatt, Atlanta, Ga., of counsel, for appellant.
S. Dee Hanson, Lee A. Jackson, Attys., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., Charles K. Rice, Asst. Atty. Gen., A. F. Prescott, Atty., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., James W. Dorsey, U. S. Atty., Slaton Clemmons, Asst. U. S. Atty., Atlanta, Ga., for appellees.
Before HUTCHESON, Chief Judge, and BORAH and TUTTLE, Circuit Judges.
Other questions were involved and decided in the trial court, but the only issues presented by this appeal are restricted to that part of the trial court's judgment which allowed the United States as intervener to recover from plaintiff taxpayer the sum of $487.08 (plus statutory interest) which it had erroneously refunded to taxpayer on April 18, 1950.
The case was tried on stipulated facts, which for present purposes may be summarized as follows: On March 15, 1948, the taxpayer filed a Declaration of Estimated Tax for the year 1948 showing a total estimated tax of $2,730.88. In her declaration taxpayer claimed credit for $491.10, representing an overpayment of 1947 income taxes in that amount, and the balance of $2,239.78 which was due was thereafter timely paid in four installments.
On March 14, 1949, taxpayer filed her federal income tax return for 1948 in which she claimed an overpayment in the amount of $487.08, without, however, indicating on the face of the return whether that amount should be refunded to her or applied as a credit on her 1949 Declaration of Estimated Tax. In arriving at the amount of the 1948 overpayment, taxpayer showed on her income tax return for that year that taxes in the amount of $1,978.10 were due; that $225.40 had been withheld from wages; and that $2,239.78 had been paid on her 1948 Declaration of Estimated Tax, instead of the correct amount of $2,730.88 aforementioned, which latter figure, as previously stated, included the claimed credit of $491.10. On the same day that taxpayer filed her 1948 income tax return, she also filed a Declaration of Estimated Tax for the year 1949, showing an estimated tax of $1,752.70. No remittance was made with this declaration for the reason that on this form she claimed a credit of $487.08 representing the overpayment of her 1948 taxes as she had calculated it on her 1948 income tax return; and the balance due, which was to be paid in installments, was in the amount of $1,265.62. Thereafter, and notwithstanding the fact that taxpayer had in her 1949 declaration claimed the 1948 overpayment as a credit on her estimated tax for 1949, the full amount of the 1948 overpayment was refunded to taxpayer by Treasury check which she endorsed and cashed. Following the receipt of this refund, taxpayer paid the $1,265.62 which she had shown as the balance due on her estimated tax for 1949, but made no further payment despite the fact that the 1948 overpayment which was to have been credited to the 1949 estimated tax had been refunded to her.
On March 15, 1950, taxpayer filed her federal income tax return for the year 1949 showing that taxes in the amount of $715.37 were due and that $364.00 had been withheld from wages; and without offsetting the amount of the refunded overpayment for the previous year, taxpayer showed that $1,752.70 had been paid on her 1949 Declaration of Estimated Tax. On the basis of these figures which showed that she had paid $2,116.70 whereas she owed only $715.37, taxpayer claimed an overpayment of $1,401.33, and indicated on her return that this overpayment should be refunded to her.
Later during the same month, taxpayer also filed an amended income tax return for the year 1948, showing a tax due of only $1,819.09 instead of the figure $1,978.10 as originally reported, and she filed a claim for refund of $159.01 which represented the difference between these two amounts.
Pursuant to these requests for refund, taxpayer thereafter received two Treasury checks which she endorsed and cashed. One of these checks, dated April 18, 1950, was in the amount of $1,401.33 and represented the overpayment claimed on taxpayer's 1949 income tax return. The other check, dated July 5, 1950, in the amount of $701.00, represented the principal and interest on the $159.01 claimed on taxpayer's amended return for 1948, and the additional sum of $491.10 (plus...
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...(N.D.Fla.1992) (finding that taxpayer continued to use previously extinguished tax deduction to secure tax refunds); Merlin v. Sanders, 243 F.2d 821, 824 (5th Cir.1957) (finding that taxpayer was "guilty" of making a "patent Of course, a taxpayer may not avoid the longer period if it has in......
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...v. Rogan, 9 Cir., 86 F.2d 149; Steiner v. Reisimer, D.C. Wis., 148 F.Supp. 192; Merlin v. Sanders, D.C.Ga., 144 F.Supp. 541, affirmed 5 Cir., 243 F.2d 821; Hastings & Co. v. Smith, D.C.Pa., 122 F.Supp. 3 It is true that the assessment and lien were proper at the time they were made. 26 U.S.......
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...not been so construed. Section 6532(b) does not require willfulness. Merlin v. Sanders, 144 F.Supp. 541, 543 (D.Ga. 1956), aff'd 243 F.2d 821 (5th Cir.1957). Thus, it is conceivable that an action by the IRS to recover an erroneous refund induced by a grossly negligent misrepresentation of ......
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