United States v. McHenry’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 district ·

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 4 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The three-year statute of limitations contained in 26 U.S.C. § 6501 (a) plainly applies only to assessment, not to summons or any other investigatory procedure. This finds explicit confirmation in Powell , where the Supreme Court stated that “The present three-year limitation on assessment of ordinary deficiencies relieves the taxpayer of concern for further assessments of that type, but it by no means follows that it limits the right of the Government to investigate with respect to deficiencies for which no statute of limitations is imposed.” Powell, 379 U.S. at 56 n. 15, 85 S.Ct. 248 .... Of course, if following enforcement of the summons here the IRS attempts to assess taxes as to which the statute of limitations applies, McHenry will be free to assert the running of the statute as a defense to payment.... Worth noting ... is that enforcement of the summons may reveal that McHenry has a tax liability for the tax years in question as to which the statute of limitations does not apply — as might be the case if the IRS discovers that McHenry was not in fact a bona fide resident of the Virgin Islands during the tax years in question (and so failed to file a U.S. return), or that he filed a false or fraudulent return. The purpose of the summons is to allow the IRS to determine whether such liability exists, and Powell clearly recognizes that such investigations are a legitimate purpose underlying enforcement of a summons. In short, McHenry’s statute of limitations challenge to ”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 676 F. Supp. 2d 1350 - Twin Palms Resort, LLC Ex Rel. Harbour v. United States