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1. Refund Time-Barred
March filed her 1992 Federal income tax return on or about
April 15, 1993, and payment was made on the same date that the
return was filed. March has never filed a claim for refund;
therefore, a claim for refund is barred by section 6511(a).
2. Single Transaction, Item, or Taxable Event
Since Bull v. United States, supra, the Supreme Court has
emphasized that a claim of equitable recoupment will lie only
where the Government has taxed a single transaction, item, or
taxable event under two inconsistent theories. See United States
v. Dalm, 494 U.S. at 608 n.5 (construing Rothensies v. Electric
Storage Battery Co., 329 U.S. 296, 299-300 (1946), Bull v. United
States, supra, and Stone v. White, supra). The terms "single
transaction", "item", or "event" are not synonymous, and the
inclusion of "item" in this phrase is significant in our case.
In Bull v. United States, supra, Archibald Bull (Bull) died
owning a partnership interest, including the right to receive
future profits. The partnership interest was transferred to his
estate, and, later his estate received the sum of approximately
$212,000, constituting its share of partnership profits earned
subsequent to Bull's death. In 1921, the executor, at the
Commissioner's insistence, erroneously included this sum in the
gross estate under the theory that it was estate corpus, and
thus, it was subjected to estate taxes. In 1925, the Government
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