Justia U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

The Ninth Circuit affirmed the tax court's decision to sustain a deficiency against an estate for overstating the amount of a charitable deduction and to sustain an accuracy-related penalty. In Ahmanson Foundation v. United States, 674 F.2d 761, 772 (9th Cir. 1981), the panel underscored the principle that the testator may only be allowed a deduction for estate tax purposes for what was actually received by the charity. Applying Ahmanson, the panel held that the tax court correctly considered the difference between the deduction and the property actually received by the charity due to the executor's manipulation of the redemption appraisal value. The panel also found nothing in the record that suggested that the tax court's findings were clearly erroneous. Finally, there was no error in the tax court's holding that the commissioner properly imposed the accuracy-related penalty under I.R.C. 6662(a). View "Dieringer v. Commissioner" on Justia Law

The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's order quashing the IRS's subpoena to the California Supreme Court that sought documents in connection with a tax audit. The panel held that "reasonable notice in advance" means notice reasonably calculated, under all the relevant circumstances, to apprise interested parties of the possibility that the IRS may contact third parties, and that affords interested parties a meaningful opportunity to resolve issues and volunteer information before third-party contacts are made. Reviewing the totality of the circumstances in this case, the panel held that Publication 1 did not provide taxpayers with the requisite reasonable advance notice. The panel explained that a reasonable notice must provide the taxpayer with a meaningful opportunity to volunteer records on his own, so that third-party contacts may be avoided if the taxpayer complies with the IRS's demand. View "J.B. v. United States" on Justia Law

The Ninth Circuit affirmed the tax court's conclusion that taxpayer was liable for the pre-notice interest component of West Side's tax liability. The panel held that because taxpayer received transferred assets worth more than West Side's total federal tax liability, the federal Internal Revenue Code determined pre-notice interest, and the availability of interest under state law was irrelevant. In this case, after West Side received a $65 million litigation settlement that exposed it to significant tax liabilities, taxpayer sold his stock in West Side. When the IRS was unable to collect corporate taxes from West Side, the IRS issued a notice of transferee liability to taxpayer for the unpaid taxes. View "Tricarichi v. Commissioner" on Justia Law

Plaintiff appealed the district court's judgment in favor of the Government in his tax refund action. Plaintiff argued that the net income for the subchapter S corporation, of which he was the sole shareholder, was substantially overstated on the corporation's tax return by the bankruptcy trustee who filed the return, resulting in personal income tax payments by plaintiff that were substantially more than he actually owed.The Ninth Circuit reversed the district court's judgment and held that the filings by plaintiff satisfied the requirement for a "statement identifying the inconsistency" pursuant to 26 U.S.C. 6037(c)(2)(A)(ii). In this case, the filings sufficiently identified the inconsistencies between plaintiff's tax returns and those of the S corporation. The panel affirmed as to plaintiff's abandoned appeal of his refund claim for tax year 2001 and remanded for further proceedings. View "Rubin v. United States" on Justia Law

California Attorney General's Form 990 Schedule B requirement, which obligates charities to submit the very information they already file each year with the IRS, survived exacting scrutiny as applied to plaintiffs because it was substantially related to an important state interest in policing charitable fraud. The Ninth Circuit held that, even assuming arguendo that plaintiffs' contributors would face substantial harassment if Schedule B information became public, the strength of the state's interest in collecting Schedule B information reflected the actual burden on First Amendment rights because the information was collected solely for nonpublic use, and the risk of inadvertent public disclosure was slight. Accordingly, the panel vacated the district court's permanent injunctions, reversed the bench trial judgments, and remanded for entry of judgment in favor of the California Attorney General. View "Americans for Prosperity v. Becerra" on Justia Law

The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's judgment for the United States in an action seeking to collect delinquent federal excise taxes and penalties for the manufacture of tobacco products under 26 U.S.C. 5701. Determining that it had jurisdiction over the appeal, the panel held that the amended judgment sufficiently specified both the amount of money due to the plaintiff and a formula for computing that amount of money.The panel also held that a tobacco manufacturer located on trust land was subject to a federal excise tax applicable to all tobacco products manufactured in the United States under 26 U.S.C. 5702. In this case, King Mountain manufactures and grows tobacco products on lands held in trust by the United States, within the boundaries of the Yakama Nation. Finally, the panel rejected King Mountain's claim of exemption based on either the General Allotment Act of 1887 or the Treaty with the Yakamas of 1855. View "United States v. King Mountain Tobacco Co." on Justia Law

These consolidated appeals stemmed from the Commissioner's efforts to hold the former shareholders of a close corporation, Slone Broadcasting, responsible for taxes owed on the proceeds of its sale of assets to another broadcasting company, Citadel. The shareholders followed up the asset sale to Citadel by selling Slone Broadcasting's stock to another company, Berlinetta, an affiliate of Fortrend. Berlinetta and Slone Broadcasting then merged into a new company called Arizona Media.The Ninth Circuit reversed the tax court's judgment on the petition for redetermination of federal income tax deficiency challenging the shareholders' liability for taxes in connection with an asset and stock sale. The panel applied Arizona's Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act and held that the transaction was constructively fraudulent as to the creditor (the IRS) because the debtor (Slone Broadcasting) did not receive a reasonably equivalent value in exchange for the transfer to the shareholders and was left unable to satisfy its tax obligation. In this case, the purpose of the shareholders' transaction with Berlinetta was tax avoidance and thus reasonable actors in the shareholders' position would have been on notice that Berlinetta never intended to pay Slone Broadcasting's tax obligation. The panel held that the shareholders' sale to Berlinetta was a cash-for-cash exchange lacking independent economic substance beyond tax avoidance. The panel also held that the shareholders were liable to the government for Slone Broadcasting's federal tax obligation as "transferees" under 26 U.S.C. 6901, because Slone Broadcasting's liquidating distribution to the shareholders was a constructively fraudulent transfer under Arizona law. View "Slone v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue" on Justia Law

26 C.F.R. 1.482-7A(d)(2), under which related entities must share the cost of employee stock compensation in order for their cost-sharing arrangements to be classified as qualified cost-sharing arrangements and thus avoid an IRS adjustment, was not invalid under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). The Ninth Circuit reversed the tax court's decision declaring 26 C.F.R. 1.482-7A(d)(2) invalid and held that the challenged regulation was not arbitrary and capricious, but rather a reasonable execution of the authority delegated by Congress to Treasury. Therefore, the regulation was entitled to Chevron deference. View "Altera Corporation & Subsidiaries v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue" on Justia Law

The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's judgment in an action under 42 U.S.C. 1983, challenging the constitutionality of California Revenue and Tax Code 19195, which establishes a public list of the top 500 delinquent state taxpayers, and California Business and Professions Code 494.5, which provides for suspension of the driver's license of anyone on the top 500 list. The panel held that taxpayer was not deprived of procedural due process and rejected taxpayer's claim that he had an inadequate opportunity to be heard prior to license revocation; taxpayer was not deprived of substantive due process and the panel rejected his claims that the statutory scheme impermissibly burdened his right to choose a profession and that the scheme was retroactive; taxpayer's equal protection claim failed because there was a rational basis for state action against a citizen for failing to pay two years' worth of past-due taxes; and the panel rejected taxpayer's claim that the combined effect of the challenged statutes was to single out the largest 500 tax debtors for legislative punishment, amounting to a bill of attainder View "Franceschi v. Yee" on Justia Law

Because the text of I.R.C. 6630(d)(1) conditions the tax court’s jurisdiction on the timely filing of a petition for review, the thirty-day deadline in I.R.C. 6330(d)(1) is jurisdictional. The Ninth Circuit affirmed the tax court's dismissal of a petition for review of two Internal Revenue Service Notices of Determination based on lack of jurisdiction. In this case, petitioner mistakenly counted the first day after the date of the IRS's notices as day "zero" for purposes of calculating the 30-day period for filing a petition for review. The panel held that petitioner's failure to meet his deadline divested the tax court of the power to hear his case and foreclosed any argument for equitable tolling. View "Duggan v. CIR" on Justia Law