Commissioner v. Wilson’s Empirical Analysis
60 F.2d 501 · 1932
Citation profile
8 federal appellate · 1 district · 1 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 15 later decisions — most recently January 1997
8 federal appellate · 1 district · 1 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Applies 26 U.S.C. § 1057 · 26 U.S.C. § 1248
Relies on Old Colony Co v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue · United States v. Missouri Pacific Railroad · Fleischmann Const Co v. United States · United States v. Katz · Bowers v. New York & Albany Lighterage Co.
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 15 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The purpose of the limitations statute was to fix a time beyond which steps to enforce collection of a tax might not be initiated. Congress intended that when the period of limitation had run, the taxpayer should no longer be subject to uncertainty as to his liability to the government. It is a statute of repose, and subject to the rule ‘which requires taxing acts, including provisions of limitation embodied therein, to be construed liberally in favor of the taxpayer.’ United States v. Updike, 281 U.S. 489, 496 , 50 S.Ct. 367, 369 , 74 L.Ed. 984 ; Bowers v. N. Y. & Albany Lighterage Co., 273 U.S. 346 , 349, 47 S.Ct. 389 , 71 L.Ed. 676 ; Old Colony R. Co. v. Commissioner, 284 U.S. 552 , 52 S.Ct. 211 , 76 L.Ed. 484 Section 277(a) fixed this time at four years.” (Emphasis supplied.)”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““The government had four full years in which to make the assessment, and it is not anomalous that Congress considered it fair, after the 4 years expired, to give the taxpayer the privilege of settling forever his tax liability for the year involved in return for prompt payment of the only deficiency asserted during the 4-year period. A more serious anomaly results from the construction urged by the Commissioner for if the mere assertion of a part of the deficiency extends the statute 120 days for all purposes, the statute could be tolled indefinitely by the simple expedient of successive notices of other parts of the deficiency.” Internal Revenue v. Wilson, 60 F.2d at 504 .”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“[The Commissioner] has the power, within the period of limitations, to make such reexaminations, redeterminations, and reassessments as may be necessary to collect the entire deficiency.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Gray v. Commissioner
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.