George Olshausen v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

For failure to file declarations of estimated tax for the years 1952 and 1953, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue pursuant to § 294 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1939, 26 U.S.C.A. § 294 , assessed additions to petitioner’s tax as penalties for said failure ******and also for substantial underestimate of estimated tax. The Tax Court sustained the findings of the Commissioner and taxpayer petitions for review.

At the time of argument and submission of the case, there was pending for hearing before the Supreme Court of the United States the case of Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Acker, 1959, 80 S.Ct. 144 , in which the question of whether sections 294(d)(1)(A) and 294(d)(2) provided cumulative penalties for failing to file was under consideration. The Tax Court had held in the instant case that the Commissioner was correct in assessing two penalties for the reason that petitioner’s failure to file a declaration amounted to an estimation of zero tax and, therefore, was a substantial underestimate. Petitioner challenges this holding. We have withheld our opin-. ion pending a determination of the question by the Supreme Court. A decision in the Acker case was recently rendered…