Wertz v. United States

OPINION

ALLEGRA, Judge.

In the run-of-the-mill tax refund suit, the income tax is paid, a formal claim for refund is filed, the claim is denied by the IRS, and a *445property-pedigreed refund suit is born. But the simplicity of this normal progression masks the complexity of the underlying provisions of the Internal Revenue Code that govern this process — provisions whose language and interplay the Supreme Court has aptly observed are “not simple.” United States v. Brockamp, 519 U.S. 347, 350, 117 S.Ct. 849, 136 L.Ed.2d 818 (1997). This complexity — lurking in most refund suits — is fully on…