Forum
U.S. Supreme Court
Case Status
Decided
Docket Number
Term
Cert. Denied
Lower Court Opinion
Questions Presented
Whether an objectively profitable transaction can be disregarded for tax purposes under the judgemade economic substance doctrine because it was structured to achieve income tax deductions authorized by the plain language of the Code.
Case Updates
Cert. petition denied
March 31, 2014
U.S. Chamber urges Supreme Court to review economic substance doctrine
March 31, 2014
In the coalition brief, the U.S. Chamber asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a district court decision affirmed by the Eighth Circuit which disallowed tax benefits finding that the petitioner could have chosen a different transaction that had higher tax liability. The primary issue presented by the Eight Circuit’s decision is whether a court applying the economic-substance doctrine may disaggregate a transaction to determine whether each individual step is necessary to achieve economic benefit (beyond a tax benefit). The Eighth Circuit’s holding requires that every step of a transaction that is objectively profitable as a whole must be independently profitable. The Chamber argued that the Supreme Court should grant review of this case in order to resolve the lower-court’s confusion regarding the economic substance doctrine.
The Chamber filed the brief jointly with the CATO Institute and the Financial Services Roundtable.
Matthew S. McKenzie and R. Trent McCotter of Jenner & Block LLP represented the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as Co-Counsel to the National Chamber Litigation Center in this case.