Bankers' Reserve Life Co. v. United States
United States Court of Claims · 1930-12-01 · cited 25×
The case involved a life insurance company seeking a refund of federal income taxes paid for 1923, claiming the taxes were improperly assessed because the Commissioner of Internal Revenue had reduced the company's allowable reserve deduction by the amount of interest earned on tax-exempt securities, contrary to the Revenue Act of 1921. After the Supreme Court ruled in National Life Insurance Co. v. United States that such reductions were invalid, the plaintiff sought recovery, but it had previously appealed a separate deficiency assessment on rental income to the Board of Tax Appeals, resulting in a final stipulated determination for the tax year. The court held that section 284(d) of the Revenue Act of 1926 barred any subsequent refund suit for taxes paid in a year where the taxpayer had elected to proceed before the Board, regardless of the underlying assessment's validity. It sustained the government's demurrer and dismissed the petition for lack of jurisdiction.
