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The Supreme Court’S Misleading Footnote In General Dynamics, Erik M. Jensen

Faculty Publications

This article examines footnote 3 in the Supreme Court's 1987 opinion in United States v. General Dynamics. In that case, governed by the law in place before the Tax Reform Act of 1984, the Court held that General Dynamics had to defer deductions attributable to claims for employee medical expenses until the claims were approved. In the footnote, the Court suggested that the 1984 amendment to section 461(h) of the Internal Revenue Code postponing the time for deducting accrued expenses until economic performance would, in a similar case governed by the statutory change, have further deferred General Dynamics' deduction until …