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4. Identity of Interest
In Stone v. White, 301 U.S. 532 (1937), the Supreme Court
permitted the Government to recoup its time-barred deficiency
claim against the sole beneficiary of a trust to reduce a timely
refund claim brought by the trustees of the same trust. Thus,
the Government’s claim against one taxpayer could be raised as a
defense to a claim brought by another taxpayer, so long as the
two taxpayers had an “identity in interest”. Id. at 537.
Later cases have followed Stone v. White, supra, in finding
identity of interest between legally different parties because
their interests did in fact coincide. Estate of Vitt v. United
States, 706 F.2d 871 (8th Cir. 1983) (husband’s estate and wife’s
estate); Boyle v. United States, 355 F.2d 233 (3d Cir. 1965)
(estate and all the beneficiaries of the estate); United States
v. Bowcut, 287 F.2d 654 (9th Cir. 1961) (decedent and his
estate); United States v. Herring, 240 F.2d 225 (4th Cir. 1957)
(same); Hufbauer v. United States, 297 F. Supp. 247 (S.D. Cal.
1968) (taxpayer and wholly owned corporation); see also O'Brien
v. United States, 766 F.2d 1038, 1050-1051 (7th Cir. 1985)
(dicta; one of three principal heirs). But see Kramer v. United
States, 186 Ct. Cl. 684, 406 F.2d 1363 (1969) (life tenant
annuitant and decedent's estate); Lockheed Sanders, Inc. v.
United States, 862 F. Supp. 677, 681-682 (D.N.H. 1994) (parent
corporation and subsidiary not qualified as member of affiliated
group).
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