Unionbancal Corporation & Subsidiaries v. United States

OPINION

ALLEGRA, Judge:

‘When does a taxpayer cross the fault line between the cheering fields of tax planning and the forbidding elevations of form over substance, far enough, at least, to require a transaction to be recharacterized for tax purposes? No map — statutory, regulatory or otherwise — precisely reveals this point of no return. Rather, ... the judicial traveler [is] guided only by multifactored analyses, balancing tests and other forms of ad hocery, which, if properly employed, serve hope that the terrain’s true character mil be revealed.” 2

This case is about LILOs and, relatedly,…