Estate of Benjamin Shapiro, Deceased, Saul A. Shapiro, and Stephen Shapiro v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

CALABRESI, Circuit Judge:

In Estate of Bell v. Commissioner, 928 F.2d 901, 903-04 (9th Cir.1991), the Ninth Circuit held that if a taxpayer, who has elected to defer estate tax liability pursuant to I.R.C. § 6166, overpays an installment of that tax, the amount of the overpayment will be credited against future installments rather than refunded to the taxpayer. Relying on Estate of Bell, the Tax Court in the case before us refused the taxpayer’s request for a refund of its alleged overpayments. It is possible that the Tax Court placed more weight on Estate of Bell than that decision can safely…