Court Opinion

ID: 9447476
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 22:36:06.168781+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:03.793200
License: Public Domain

On Petition for Rehearing
BLACKMUN, Circuit Judge.
The defense, by its helpful petition for rehearing, calls our attention to § 6013 of the 1954 Code concerning joint income tax returns by husband and wife and subparagraph (b) (5) (B) thereof reading as follows:
*174“For purposes of section 7206(1) and (2) and section 7207 (relating to criminal penalties in the case of fraudulent returns) the term ‘return’ includes a separate return filed by a spouse with respect to a taxable year for which a joint return is made under this subsection after the filing of such separate return.”
It then argues that it is evident, from this reference to § 7207, that the Code contemplates the application of that section to income tax returns.
This point is raised for the first time on this petition; § 6013 was not mentioned in the initial briefs, in oral argument nor, indeed, in the dissent. The point is consistent with the government’s prosecution of a number of minor tax offenses under § 3616(a) in the 5 years preceding the 1957 decision in Aehilli. But the government’s original position, taken as far back as 1926 (see page 375 of 353 U.S., page 996 of 77 S.Ct.), that § 3616(a) was not applicable to income tax evasion was then reassumed and upheld by Aehilli. If Aehilli is right — and this court is bound by it — it seems to us to follow that § 6013’s reference to § 7207 does not, singly or in conjunction with those other points which Judge Matthes in his dissent found significant and persuasive, impress an alternative misdemeanor status upon acts originally defined to constitute a felony. The fundamental question is really whether Congress, by inadvertence, effected, with the enactment of § 7207, this duplex result and the consequent placement of a new crime on the statute books. We think it did not.
Neither do we place any particular significance in the introductory comments of the House and Senate Committee Reports on the 1954 Code. We accept the expressed intent to simplify and consolidate the administrative provisions, but we feel that they do not provide an answer to the specific question here.
The petition for rehearing is denied. I am authorized to state that Judge MAT-THES also dissents as to this action.