Imperial Plan, Inc., a Corporation v. United States
Opinion
Opinion
Leavy, J.
Imperial Plan, Inc. appeals the district court’s dismissal of its action seeking a refund of excise taxes paid under 26 U.S.C. § 4975 . The district court held that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction because Imperial Plan had not timely filed a claim for refund with the Internal Revenue Service. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm the district court.
FACTS AND PRIOR PROCEEDINGS
Imperial Plan (IP) and Imperial Trust Company (ITC) are wholly-owned subsidiaries of Imperial Bank. From 1981 through 1984, ITC served as a fiduciary for. a number of pension trust and Keogh plans that invested in loan participations packaged and sold by IP. ITC filed an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form 5500, Annual Retum/Report of Employee Benefit Plan, on behalf of each of the pension trusts and Keogh plans for the years 1981-1984.
On January 10,1985, in the mistaken belief that the loan participation transactions between ITC and IP constituted “prohibited transactions” under 26 U.S.C. § 4975 , IP filed 68 separate Form 5330s, Return of Excise Taxes Related to Employee Benefit Plans, and paid the $237,863 in excise taxes imposed by § 4975.