Refund

“ The problems do not end here. Consumers during what period are entitled to refund? Certainly the rate reduction which caused this fund to accumulate could not in normal course have reached local retail consumers until sometime after reduction in wholesale rates, and the period would differ according to local conditions. The individuals who are entitled to refund, for whatever period may be adopted, must be identified and questions settled as who is entitled to the refund of a deceased consumer, what becomes of the share of one who has removed or is unknown. ”

“ The words of section 607, if a claim for refund 'is filed within the period of limitation for filing such claim', established the appropriate condition that a claim for refund should be duly filed, but do not require the construction that the scheme of the statute, which embraced the important prohibition of section 611, should be limited to those cases where claims for refund should be filed after the statute was enacted. ”

“ The taxpayer cannot obtain a refund under the other sections quoted except for taxes paid. By reason of his payment earlier than required, he has been permitted to reduce the amount which he actually paid. ”

“ I beg leave to mention that I am ready to refund the money to the Treasury or to the proper owner or his order, and if it can be of any service to the Treasury Department or to the United States, in giving up the lists of the names of the persons to whom pay is due, and to disclose the name of the person in the utmost confidence from whom the list was obtained, earnestly hoping that may be some inducement to withdraw the action against me, which if prosecuted can only end in injuring my character without any further advantage to the United States. ”

“ This Court, upon an examination of the established practice in the Bureau of Internal Revenue, concluded that the time of allowance of a refund and the time of credit of an overpayment against a tax due, is the date of approval by the Commissioner of the schedule of refunds and credits prepared by the collector, showing the amount due the taxpayer, rather than the earlier date of the certification by the Commissioner to the collector, of the schedule of overassessments. ”

“ In case of overstatement and overpayment, the taxpayer may obtain refund calculated according to the method on which the return was made. Change from one method to the other, as petitioner seeks, would require recomputation and readjustment of tax liability for subsequent years and impose burdensome uncertainties upon the administration of the revenue laws. ”

“ We cannot assent to the view that a court may give a judgment awarding the taxpayer a refund without inquiring whether he has borne the burden of the tax or has reimbursed himself by collecting it from the purchaser. ”

“ Art. 503. Refund and credit of taxes erroneously collected.— (a) A tax (including interest, penalties, and additions to tax) erroneously, illegally, or otherwise wrongfully collected, may be credited or refunded to the person who paid the tax. A claim for such credit or refund shall be made on Form 843 in accordance with the instructions printed on such form and in accordance with these regulations. Copies of the prescribed form may be obtained from any collector. A separate claim on such form shall be made for each taxable year or period. ”

“ The surety's obligation must be and is definite; he is liable at once, or never; the articles are delivered, or they are not; if delivered, he is clear; if not delivered, he is at once liable to refund the money advanced, but nothing else.
5. The essential idea of having the money refunded in gross, apparent on the face of the paper, shows that it was a total non-performance alone which should charge the surety, and the mention of that sum necessarily excludes all other liability. ”

“ However, we think that in light of Callery and the other precedents the Commission was not obliged in this instance to give explicit consideration to the establishment of a distinct refund floor. The same factors are present here as in Callery. The need to speed refunds to consumers and to assure producers of a firm price are identical. We cannot say, therefore, that the Commission breached any duty in failing expressly to consider whether the prices it fixed were suitable when regarded as refund floors. ”

“ As used in the Act, therefore, adjustment can be read to mean decreasing future payments, and recovery to mean obtaining a refund from the beneficiary. Under this interpretation, when the agency nets Mr. A's underpayment against his overpayment, it is not engaged in "adjustment or recovery," but only in the calculation of whether "more or less than the correct amount of payment has been made." ”

“ Where one of the parties concerned appeals against the joint decision of the two Clearing Offices he shall make a deposit against the costs, which deposit shall only be refunded when the first judgment is modified in favour of the appellant and in proportion to the success he may attain, his opponent in case of such a refund being required to pay an equivalent proportion of the costs and expenses. ”

“ The one is a decision by the competent authority that the payment should be made. The other is the actual payment. The Commissioner of Internal Revenue is the final judge in the administrative branch of the government to decide that an overassessment has been made and that a refund or credit should be granted, and when he has made that decision finally, he has allowed the claim for the refund or credit of the taxes paid within the meaning of the section. ”

“ Plainly, in such circumstances the certificate of overassessment without more does not import a promise by the Commissioner to refund the amount there certified instead of applying it as a credit upon the tax of an earlier year. At most the promise to be implied is one to refund the excess after there has been a computation of the taxes unpaid for other years and an ascertainment of the balance. ”

“ Where e-commerce operators collect deposits from consumers as agreed, they shall expressly define the ways and procedures for refunding with no unreasonable conditions attached. Where consumers request for a refund of deposits and meet the conditions therefor, e-commerce operators shall make a refund in a timely manner. ”

“ Where the short levy or erroneous refund does not exceed $200 or such other lower amount as may be prescribed in any one case, the Commissioner may waive the recovery of the short levy or erroneous refund. ”

“ The petitioner owed the Reconstruction Finance Corporation $5963.51, balance on a note for borrowed money. The General Accounting Office directed the Treasury not to pay the tax refund to the petitioner, but to issue a check for the refund payable to the R.F.C. 'to partially liquidate' petitioner's indebtedness to that governmental agency. As authorized by 28 U.S.C. § 250 (1) , 28 U.S.C.A. § 250 (1) , the petitioner then brought suit against the Government for the tax refund in the Court of Claims. ”

“ After full briefing of the refund issue, the Commission ordered the Amerada producers to refund all sums collected under the temporary certificates in excess of the in-line rate, with the exception of amounts expended for royalties and production taxes prior to the date of the decision on appeal in Skelly and in reasonable reliance upon the Commission's orders. ”

“ There is need once again to decide whether a claim for the refund of a tax has been presented by the taxpayer in such a form as to be subject to amendment after a claim wholly new would be barred by limitation. ”

“ There is a parenthetical phrase in this sentence which specifically excludes income, war-profits, excess-profits, estate and gift taxes. If the first sentence of § 3313, establishing the four-year limitation period, applied to income tax refund claims arising out of illegal assessments, there would be no limit on the amount of refund by reason of this second sentence. ”

“ Such an agreement to refund may be express or implied; and, if it is express, it may be to refund with or without interest, according to the terms of the agreement. Where the agreement is to pay interest, the agreement is obligatory; but the fact that the depositary agreed to pay interest affords very strong evidence that the title to the money deposited passed out of the depositor by the act of making the deposit.
Money deposited with a banker, says Hill, creates a legal debt between the parties, which, under proper circumstances, may be recovered in an action at law. ”

“ PROHIBITION ON USE OF `RULE OF 78's' IN CONNECTION WITH MORTGAGE REFINANCINGS AND OTHER CONSUMER LOANS. (a) PROMPT REFUND OF UNEARNED INTEREST REQUIRED— (1) IN GENERAL— If a consumer prepays in full the financed amount under any consumer credit transaction, the creditor shall promptly refund any unearned portion of the interest charge to the consumer. (2) EXCEPTION FOR REFUND OF DE MINIMUS AMOUNT— No refund shall be required under paragraph (1) with respect to the prepayment of any consumer credit transaction if the total amount of the refund would be less than $1. ”

“ We adhere to the dicta in Callery and Sunray Mid-Continent. That outcome comports better with the language of § 4 (e) than does the alternative. It is true that § 4 (e) in terms gives the Commission power to refund 'the portion of such increased rates or charges' found to be excessive, and does not expressly limit the refund to the rate increase or increment. ”

“ Damages were asked for a back period of many years; consumers had long since paid their rates on the basis of the unreasonable prices charged the wholesalers; and there was no reason to believe that any consumers who benefited from whatever lower prices the refund might allow would be the same ones who had paid the excessive rates. The Federal Power Commission, in an amicus brief, stressed these facts and argued that any refund would likely be a windfall providing an unjust enrichment to the wholesaler. ”

“ Petitioner claimed that a written power of attorney, allegedly signed by both Bartfields in his office, authorized him to endorse tax-refund checks, and that 'Trustee' after his name served to designate the particular bank account where he deposited and held all client-refunds until December of each year, against the possibility of there being a refund adjustment and until his contingent fee was settled. ”

“ Its ancestry can be traced back to 1872, when § 3228 of the Revised Statutes was enacted. [2] Section 3228 established a procedure for filing claims for refund of any internal revenue tax alleged to have been 'erroneously or illegally assessed or collected' and created a limitation period of two years from the time the cause of action accrued, later extended in 1921 to four years from the date of payment of the tax. ”

“ Under sect. 3220 he is to 'refund' and 'pay back.' His payments of money in both cases must be made through the accounting officers of the Treasury Department, as he is not himself a disbursing officer. Whether his allowance is conclusive on the other officers, through whose hands it must necessarily pass before it can be paid by the treasurer, we did not then, and need not now decide. ”

“ It is indeed an appropriate, if not the necessary phraseology for the present assertion of an alternative claim with respect to which a taxpayer in his presentation of an informal tax refund claim, should be in no less favorable position than the plaintiff in a suit at law who is permitted to plead his cause of action in the alternative. ”

“ Nor shall any thing contained in the second section of the act aforesaid be construed to authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to refund any duties paid under protest; nor shall any action be maintained against any collector, to recover the amount of duties so paid under protest, unless the said protest was made in writing, and signed by the claimant, at or before the payment of said duties, setting forth distinctly and specifically the grounds of objection to the payment thereof. ”

“ It was not, however, ruled that in the latter situation a recovery could be had if the original payment had been voluntary and without objection.
It is one thing for the government to correct mistakes, return overcharges, or refund amounts exacted without authority, when satisfied such action is due to justice, and quite another thing for the government to be compelled to repay amounts which, in its view, have been lawfully collected. ”

“ When the debts shall not have been contracted by judgment, deed, or note, the signature whereof shall be known, payment shall not be ordered but on the creditor's giving sufficient surety, resident in the country, to refund the sums he shall have unduly received, principal, interest, and costs ”

“ Since there is no provision 'otherwise' for income tax refund claims involving the latter type of errors, the conclusion is reached that the four-year limitation period of § 3313 remains applicable. We cannot agree. ”

“ An overpayment must appear before refund is authorized. Although the statute of limitations may have barred the assessment and collection of any additional sum, it does not obliterate the right of the United States to retain payments already received when they do not exceed the amount which might have been properly assessed and demanded. ”

“ Moreover, a taxpayer who has signed a waiver and has had the validity of the alleged deficiency determined in the courts, on appeal from the Board's determination, has no good ground for complaint that he cannot thereafter raise the same question on a claim for refund. ”