Justia Tax Law Opinion Summaries

A member of the public cannot use a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to obtain unrelated individual's tax records without his consent. The District Court affirmed the dismissal of EPIC's action seeking President Donald J. Trump's income tax records. The court held that the Internal Revenue Code's confidentiality protections extended to the ordinary taxpayer and the President alike. View "Electronic Privacy Information Center v. IRS" on Justia Law

This appeal stemmed from an attempt by Starr, a Swiss-domiciled company, to avail itself of a bilateral tax treaty between the United States and Switzerland to reduce its tax rate on U.S.-source dividend income. The DC Circuit reversed the district court's dismissal of Starr's tax refund claim as raising a nonjusticiable political question and remanded for further proceedings. The court explained that the question as to whether the IRS properly found Starr ineligible for treaty benefits under Article 22(6) of the Treaty did not raise a political question.Because Starr could proceed with its tax refund claim, the court held that Starr did not have a cause of action under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). Rather, the claim was properly brought under 26 U.S.C. 7422. Therefore, the court vacated the district court's decision as to the APA claim and remanded with instructions to dismiss the claim. View "Starr International Co. v. United States" on Justia Law

The DC Circuit affirmed the tax court's denial of a deduction on income earned by three foreign nationals who participated in the State Department's Summer Work Travel Program in 2012. The court held that appellants did not incur the travel and living expenses at issue in the pursuit of a trade or business, and therefore they may not deduct those expenses under 26 U.S.C. 162(a)(2). In this case, appellants' expenses were personal choices where they voluntarily chose to participate in the Summer Work Travel Program. The court noted that, allowing foreign students who travel to the United States on a "J visa" for temporary employment to deduct their travel expenses when students who are U.S. citizens traveling within the United States to seek temporary employment cannot, would be a peculiar and irrational result. View "Liljeberg v. Commissioner" on Justia Law

AICPA challenged the IRS's Annual Filing Season Program as violating the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). On remand, the district court granted the IRS's motion for judgment on the pleadings based on AICPA's lack of standing.The DC Circuit reversed and held that AICPA has constitutional and statutory standing to challenge the validity of the Program because its members employ unenrolled preparers. On the merits, the court held that the Program did not violate the APA in any of the ways AICPA alleged. In this case, 31 U.S.C. 330(a) authorizes the IRS to establish and operate the Program, and 26 U.S.C. 7803(a)(2)(A) authorizes the agency to publish the results of the Program; the IRS did not violate the APA by failing to follow notice-and-comment rulemaking procedures in promulgating it; and the Program was not arbitrary and capricious. View "American Institute of Certified Accountants v. IRS" on Justia Law

Appellants challenged the tax court's decision affirming the Commissioner's determinations to disallow 26 U.S.C. 45K credits to appellants, to disallow the bulk of appellants' claimed business-expense deductions, and that appellants should be assessed a 20% accuracy penalty under 26 U.S.C. 6662 for the 2006 and 2007 tax years.The DC Circuit affirmed the judgment, holding that appellants were not eligible for the Section 45K credits they claimed for venting or flaring landfill gas; appellants had no rights to the Pontiac landfill after RTC's lease terminated; the tax court's decision to disallow the bulk of appellants' business expense deductions were reasonable and supported by the record; and the tax court properly approved the 20% accuracy-related penalty. View "Green Gas Delaware Statutory Trust v. Commissioner" on Justia Law

After the IRS refused to grant the foreign shipping corporation Good Fortune an exemption to some of its U.S.-based income from taxation, the tax court ruled in favor of the IRS. The DC Circuit reversed, holding that the IRS's interpretation of Internal Revenue Code 883 in the 2003 Regulation was unreasonable and could not stand. Even if the IRS reasonably concluded that sometimes—maybe oftentimes—bearer shares were incapable of proving the residence of their owners, the court held that the 2003 Regulation's categorical bar on considering bearer shares did not follow from that premise. The court explained that the IRS has not justified treating all bearer shares as incapable of proving ownership; and if some corporations' bearer shares were not kept in record form, and thus were not capable of proving the location of an owner, then the IRS should have identified those corporations' shares and tailored its rule accordingly. View "Good Fortune Shipping SA v. Commissioner" on Justia Law

The DC Circuit affirmed the Tax Court's holding that Mellow was subject to the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 (TEFRA), 26 U.S.C. 6221–6234 (2012), proceedings. The court held that the record made clear that Mellow's partners were the single-member LLCs, not their individual owners; the court deferred to the IRS's reasonable interpretation of its own regulation that a partnership with pass-thru partners was ineligible for the small-partnership exception and that single-member LLCs constitute pass-thru partners; and the court lacked jurisdiction over Mellow's challenge to the penalties because Mellow failed to raise its claim and waived its claim by consenting to a decision applying penalties. View "Mellow Partners v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue Service" on Justia Law

The DC Circuit affirmed the district court's dismissal of plaintiff's action against the United States under the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, 26 U.S.C. 7433(a). Plaintiff invoked section 7433 to recover damages he claims to have suffered as a result of a mix-up relating to the refund due to him on his 2011 income tax. The court held that section 7433 did not provide a jurisdictional path for plaintiff's action because the statute waives the government's sovereign immunity only for damages suffered in connection with collection of federal taxes, and plaintiff's injury (if any) related to collection of a student loan debt. View "Ivy v. Commissioner" on Justia Law

Taxpayers who failed to report and pay tax on foreign income filed suit after the IRS denied their applications for the expanded Streamlined Procedures program. The Streamlined Procedures' reduced benefits were counterbalanced by fewer compliance requirements; as relevant here, the Streamlined Procedures participant need not pay any accuracy-based penalty. The DC Circuit affirmed the district court's dismissal of the complaint, holding that the district court was without jurisdiction to resolve taxpayers' claims in light of the jurisdiction-stripping provision contained in the Anti-Injunction Act (AIA), 26 U.S.C. 7421 et seq. View "Maze v. IRS" on Justia Law