Source: http://openjurist.org/314/us/186
Timestamp: 2017-01-17 13:49:41
Document Index: 574514042

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 3226', '§ 1672', '§ 3772', '§ 3210', '§ 1761', '§ 3971', '§ 12', '§ 989', '§ 842', '§ 842', '§ 1014', '§ 3226', '§ 41', '§ 41']

314 U.S. 186 - United States v. Kales Homethe United States Reports314 U.S.
First: Concededly recovery of the 1919 tax, paid in 1920, is not barred by limitation if respondent's letter of March 23, 1925, be treated as a claim for refund. The Collector of Internal Revenue extended the respondent's time to make return of her 1919 income taxes for thirty days from March 15, 1920, and her letter was placed with the Commissioner within five years of the expiration of the extended time. Section 284(h) of the 1926 Revenue Act, 44 Stat. 9, 26 U.S.C.A. Int.Rev.Acts, page 223, provides that a claim for refund of 1919 taxes shall not be barred by a lapse of time if filed within five years from the date when the return was due. Revised Statutes, § 3226, 26 U.S.C. § 1672, 26 U.S.C.A. Int.Rev.Code, § 3772, makes the filing of a claim for refund in accordance with the law and Treasury regulations a condition precedent to suit to recover it. Article 1306 of Treasury Regulation 65, promulgated under the 1924 Revenue Act and applicable here, provides that claims for refund shall be made upon Form 843, setting forth all the facts relied on under oath. But Treasury Decision 4266, promulgated March 27, 1929, authorizes the Commissioner to make a refund after the expiration of the statutory period of limitation, even though no formal claim has been filed before that time, in any case in which an informal or defective claim, duly filed prior to the expiration of the period of limitation and stating specifically the grounds for the refund, is perfected by the filing of a claim prior to May 1, 1929.
But we think these contentions disregard the statutory scheme which has been set up for the recovery from an internal revenue collector, of taxes which he had unlawfully collected. See Sage v. United States, 250 U.S. 33, 39 S.Ct. 415, 63 L.Ed. 828. Originally payment under protest to an internal revenue collector of illegally exacted taxes gave rise to a common law cause of action against the collector for restitution of the overpayment. Elliott v. Swarthwout, 10 Pet. 137, 153, 156, 9 L.Ed. 373; Moore Ice Cream Co. v. Rose, supra, 289 U.S. at page 375, 53 S.Ct. 373, 77 L.Ed. 1265, and cases cited. By the protest the collector was informed of the contention of the taxpayer and was thus precluded from relieving himself, by payment into the Treasury of the moneys collected, from liability to make restitution. Elliott v. Swarthwout, supra; Smietanka v. Indiana Steel Co., 257 U.S. 1, 4, 42 S.Ct. 1, 66 L.Ed. 99. By a series of Congressional acts it was made the duty of the collector to pay to the Government the moneys collected, regardless of a protest. 12 Stat. 442; 13 Stat. 483; R.S. § 3210; 26 U.S.C. § 1761, 26 U.S.C.A. Int.Rev.Code, § 3971. But with imposition of this duty on the collector to pay over, the Government undertook to indemnify him upon certification by the court either that there was probable cause for the act done by the collector or that he acted under directions of the Secretary of the Treasury or other proper officers of the Government. 12 Stat. 741, § 12. In that event no execution was to issue against him but the amount of recovery was to be paid out of the Treasury. These provisions, carried into Revised Statutes § 989, are continued as 28 U.S.C. § 842, 28 U.S.C.A. § 842. By § 1014 of the Revenue Act of 1924, 43 Stat. 253, 343, amending Revised Statutes § 3226, 26 U.S.C.A. Int.Rev.Acts, page 128, the requirement for protest of the payment was abolished.
While the statutes have for most practical purposes reduced the personal liability of the collector to a fiction, the course of the legislation indicates clearly enough that it is a fiction intended to be acted upon to the extent that the right to maintain the suit and its incidents, until judgment rendered, are to be left undisturbed. Among its incidents are the right to a jury trial, which is not available in suits against the United States. 28 U.S.C. § 41(20), 28 U.S.C.A. § 41(20).