United States v. Lewis
| United States v. Lewis | |
|---|---|
| Argued March 2, 1951 Decided March 26, 1951 | |
| Full case name | United States v. Lewis |
| Docket no. | 347 |
| Citations | 340 U.S. 590 (more) |
| Case history | |
| Prior | verdict for plaintiff, 91 F.Supp. 1017 (1950) |
| Holding | |
| The claim of right doctrine requires taxpayers to pay taxes on income they claim as a matter of right and treat as their own, even if they later are found liable to pay it back. | |
| Court membership | |
| |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Black, joined by Vinson, Reed, Frankfurter, Jackson, Burton, Clark, Minton |
| Dissent | Douglas |
| Laws applied | |
| Internal Revenue Code, North American Oil Consolidated v. Burnet | |
United States v. Lewis, 340 U.S. 590 (1951), was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States affirming the claim of right doctrine in income tax law. A lower court had ordered the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to issue a refund to man who, after other litigation found his bonus to have been miscalculated, was forced to return some of his income from a previous year to his former employer. The Supreme Court ruled that because the man had complete control of the money, his tax payment was correct and he could not get a refund—though he could still claim it as a loss on a subsequent tax return.
English Wikisource has original text related to this article: