Pacific Gas and Electric Co. v. United States
United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
417 F.3d 1375 (2005)
- Written by Steven Pacht, JD
Facts
In August 1988, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) determined that the Pacific Gas and Electric Company and PG&E Corporation (collectively, PGE) (plaintiffs) overpaid their taxes for 1982 and were entitled to a refund. However, the IRS miscalculated the statutory interest to which PGE was due pursuant to 26 U.S.C. § 6611, resulting in PGE receiving more than $3.3 million in excess statutory interest. PGE subsequently requested additional refunds for 1982. In evaluating PGE’s new refund requests, the IRS discovered its prior statutory-interest overpayment, which the IRS applied to partially offset PGE’s new refund. The IRS paid PGE the revised new refund in 1992. PGE sued the United States (defendant) in the Court of Federal Claims, arguing that the IRS’s use of the statutory-interest overpayment as an offset was improper because the statute of limitations for the recovery of an erroneous refund had expired. The court issued summary judgment to the IRS. PGE appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Archer, J.)
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