Gilbert T. Gonsalves v. Internal Revenue Service

The appellant, Gilbert Gonsalves, worked in Panama for the Panama Canal Commission between 1979 and 1985. Like some of his colleagues, he took the position that the Panama Canal Treaty — which in 1979 returned the Canal Zone to Panamanian sovereignty — created an exemption from United States income taxes for American employees of the Commission. In 1986, the United States Supreme Court decided that the treaty did not create such an exemption. O’Connor v. United States, 479 U.S. 27, 107 S.Ct. 347, 93 L.Ed.2d 206 (1986).

The Internal Revenue Service had been collecting income taxes withheld from…