Ec Term of Years Trust v. United States (550 U.S. 429)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided April 30, 2007 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 550 U.S. 429 · 127 S. Ct. 1763
- Decided
- April 30, 2007
- Term
- October Term 2006
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Souter
- Issue area
- Federal Taxation
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Souter delivered the opinion of the Court. This is a challenge to the Internal Revenue Service’s levy upon the property of a trust, to collect taxes owed by another, an action specifically authorized by 26 U. S. C. § 7426(a)(1), but subject to a statutory filing deadline the trust missed. The question is whether the trust may still challenge the levy through an action for tax refund under 28 U. S. C. § 1346(a)(1). We hold that it may not I The Internal Revenue Code provides that “[i]f any person liable to pay any tax neglects or refuses to pay the same after demand, the amount . . . shall be a lien in favor of the United States upon all property and rights to property, whether real or personal, belonging to such person.” 26 U. S. C. §6321. “A federal tax lien, however, is not self-executing,” and the IRS must take “[ajffirmative action . . . to enforce collection of the unpaid taxes.” United States v. National Bank of Commerce, 472 U. S. 713, 720 (1985). One of its “principal tools,” ibid., is a levy, which is a “legally sanctioned seizure and sale of property,” Black’s Law Dictionary 926 (8th ed. 2004); see also § 6331(b) (“The term ‘levy’ as used in this title includes the power of distraint and seizure by any means”). To protect against a “ ‘[wrongful’ ” imposition upon “property which is not the taxpayer’s,” S. Rep. No. 1708, 89th Cong., 2d Sess., 30 (1966), the…
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