Arch Engineering Company, Inc. v. The United States

DAVIS, Circuit Judge.

The Internal Revenue Code makes the proper filing of a refund claim with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) a mandatory prerequisite to any tax refund suit in court (26 U.S.C. § 7422(a)) and provides that such a refund claim must be filed within three years from the time the return was filed or two years from the payment of the tax, whichever is later (26 U.S.C. § 6511(a)). In this instance, the formal refund claims for the involved tax years 1975-1977 were filed after these dates. The problem is whether the limitation period declared by § 6511(a), supra, was nevertheless…