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with respect to a tax year or estate concerning which there has
already been a final court decision, all issues having to do with
the same tax, the same taxpayer, and the same tax year (or same
estate) are part of one undivided claim. However, the fact that
two issues are part of the same claim or cause of action for one
purpose doesn't mean they must be deemed to be such for any and
all other purposes. Olympia Hotels Corp. v. Johnson Wax Dev.
Corp., 908 F.2d 1363 (7th Cir. 1990).
The language in Commissioner v. Sunnen, 333 U.S. 591, 598
(1948),31 appears to imply more than the other cases cited in
footnote 13. However, this language is pure dictum: the Supreme
Court in Sunnen was denying that res judicata blocked Government
litigation of the same tax issue that had been previously decided
for earlier tax years, not asserting a res judicata effect with
respect to the same year. The holding of Sunnen was
significantly limited in Montana v. United States, 440 U.S. 147,
161 (1979).32 Sunnen now only stands for the proposition that
31"Income taxes are levied on an annual basis. Each year is
the origin of a new liability and of a separate cause of action.
Thus, if a claim of liability or non-liability relating to a
particular tax year is litigated, a judgment on the merits is res
judicata as to any subsequent proceeding involving the same claim
and the same tax year." [Commissioner v. Sunnen, 333 U.S. 591,
598 (1948).]
32The issue in Montana v. United States, 440 U.S. 147, 161
(1979), was whether a Government contractor, which had filed
suit at the direction of the United States in Montana courts
against the constitutionality of a Montana tax, had lost his case
in the Montana Supreme Court, and then abandoned its appeal to
(continued...)
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