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An "Outside Limit" For Refund Suits: The Case Against The Tax Exception To The Six-Year Bar On Claims Against The Government, Adam Gustafson
An "Outside Limit" For Refund Suits: The Case Against The Tax Exception To The Six-Year Bar On Claims Against The Government, Adam Gustafson
Adam R.F. Gustafson
Longstanding judicial precedent and the official position of the IRS agree that federal tax refund suits are limited only by the two-year statute of limitations of § 6532(a)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code, which is triggered only when the IRS mails the claimant a notice of disallowance. This Article contends that tax refund litigation is also governed by the six-year limitation of 28 U.S.C. § 2401(a) on “every civil action commenced against the United States,” which is triggered upon the accrual of a claim. The Supreme Court alluded to this dual-limitation scheme in 2008 in United States v. Clintwood Elkhorn …