26 U.S.C. § 581
Section 581 · Definition of bank
Amended 3 times on record
Applied in 14 court decisions — leading case Limited, Inc. v. Commissioner (2002)
Most recently applied in MoneyGram International, Inc. v. Commissioner (November 2016)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
For purposes of sections 582 and 584, the term “bank” means a bank or trust company incorporated and doing business under the laws of the United States (including laws relating to the District of Columbia) or of any State, a substantial part of the business of which consists of receiving deposits and making loans and discounts, or of exercising fiduciary powers similar to those permitted to national banks under authority of the Comptroller of the Currency, and which is subject by law to supervision and examination by State, Territorial, or Federal authority having supervision over banking institutions. Such term also means a domestic building and loan association.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
1976—Pub. L. 94–455 substituted “or of any State” for “of any State, or of any Territory” after “District of Columbia)” and struck out “Territorial” after “examination by State”.
1962—Pub. L. 87–722 substituted “authority of the Comptroller of the Currency” for “section 11(k) of the Federal Reserve Act (38 Stat. 262; 12 U.S.C. 248(k))”.
Cross References
Debts owed by political parties, etc., deduction of, see section 271 of this title.
Personal holding company as excluding bank as defined in this section, see section 542 of this title.
Returns of banks with respect to common trust funds, see section 6032 of this title.