Opinion ID: 3052380
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: if such individual is eligible to elect the

Text: application of subsection (c), such individ- ual may, in addition to any election under paragraph (1), elect to limit such individu- al’s liability for any deficiency with respect to such joint return in the manner pre- scribed under subsection (c). Any determination under this section shall be made without regard to community property laws. ORDLOCK v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE 9221 (Emphasis added.) Mrs. Ordlock argues that the final sentence of § 6015(a) is comprehensive and applies to all sections of § 6015, including § 6015(g). She contends that this broad statement demonstrates Congress’s clear intent to preempt community property law for the purpose of calculating refunds. The Commissioner argues that the final sentence of § 6015(a) does not demonstrate Congress’s intent to preempt community property law with respect to all subsections of § 6015. Rather, Congress intended that the final sentence of § 6015(a) apply only to determinations made under § 6015. According to the Commissioner, the plain language of § 6015(a) indicates that the only “determination” within the meaning of § 6015 is the initial decision that a taxpayer is an innocent spouse. Whether that innocent spouse is then eligible for a refund, however, is a separate question governed by the applicable law of the state in which that spouse resides. In other words, the allowance of a refund is not a determination, and thus is not affected by the directive found in § 6015(a) to disregard community property laws. We agree with the Commissioner. [6] First, the root word “determine” (or some conjugation of it) appears five times in § 6015.7 In each instance, it is used 7 It appears four times in § 6015(e) and once in § 6015(g)(2). In § 6015(e), which governs petitions for review by the Tax Court of determinations of relief from joint and several liability, the word “determination” is used three times to refer to the IRS’s determination (or final determination) of relief. See §§ 6015(e)(1)(A)(i)(I); 6015(e)(5) (twice). The word “determine” is also used in § 6015(e) in granting the Tax Court jurisdiction to review the IRS’s determination of relief. See § 6015(e)(1)(A). “Determine” is used one last time, in § 6015(g)(2). That provision, however, merely addresses the res judicata effect of prior proceedings for innocent spouse relief from joint and several liability — which turns in part on whether the Tax Court “determines” that the individual participated meaningfully in the prior proceeding. See § 6015(g)(2). 9222 ORDLOCK v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE to refer to the Commissioner’s decision that the petitioning spouse is an innocent spouse who is eligible for some degree of relief from joint and several tax liability. Thus, it appears that this decision is the “determination” that the final sentence of § 6015(a) contemplates should be made “without regard to community property laws.” By contrast, the word “determine” is absent from § 6015(g)(1), the refund provision of the statute. Instead, § 6015(g)(1) states that any “credit or refund shall be allowed or made to the extent attributable to the application of this section.” (emphasis added). This is a significant distinction. See Huffman v. Comm’r, 978 F.2d 1139, 1145 (9th Cir. 1992) (“Words with a fixed legal or judicially settled meaning, where the context so requires, must be presumed to have been used in that sense.”). Presumably, if Congress had intended the final sentence of § 6015(a) to preempt community property laws with respect to the issuance of a refund, it would have clarified that the decision to make such an issuance was a “determination” within the meaning of the statute.8 We find that the text of the statute provides, at the very least, some indication that Congress used the word “determination” in the final sentence of § 6015(a) to refer only to the Commissioner’s decision regarding relief from joint and several liability. We also find that the legislative history of the statute supports this interpretation. 8