Ian Michael Stead Belinda A. Stead v. United States

GOULD, Circuit Judge:

We must decide whether the taxpayer or the government bears the risk of loss when funds on deposit at a bank for practical purposes disappear after being levied upon by the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) and removed from a taxpayer’s bank account. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1291 and 1346(a)(1), and we hold that, in light of the burden of proof on the taxpayer in a tax refund case, the risk of loss necessarily falls upon the taxpayer.

I

In tax year 1994, Plaintiff-Appellant Ian Michael Stead and his former wife, Lynan K. Stead, filed a federal income tax…