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allowable.3 See sec. 6211(b)(4). Accordingly, whether or not
petitioners ever received the disputed refund check, the
deficiency is $2,396; i.e., the excess of $0 over negative
$2,396.
2. No Overpayment Claim
The amount of the disputed refund check is too small to
create an overpayment. The term “overpayment” has been
interpreted to mean “any payment in excess of that which is
properly due.” Jones v. Liberty Glass Co., 332 U.S. 524, 531
(1947); see also United States v. Dalm, 494 U.S. 596, 609 n.6
(1990) (“The commonsense interpretation is that a tax is overpaid
when a taxpayer pays more than is owed, for whatever reason or no
reason at all.”). As relevant here, section 6401(b) provides
that if the amount “allowable” as refundable credits, such as the
wage withholding credit under section 31 and the EIC under
section 32, exceeds the “tax imposed”, the excess “shall be
considered an overpayment.”
It is undisputed that for the year at issue, petitioners
have an allowable section 31 wage withholding credit of $225
3 Pursuant to sec. 6211(b)(4), as relevant herein, any
excess of the amount of earned income credit (EIC) claimed by the
taxpayer over the amount of tax due shown on the return without
regard to the EIC is taken into account as a negative amount of
tax. On their 2000 return, petitioners claimed a $2,396 EIC.
The amount of tax due shown on the return, without regard to the
EIC, was zero. Accordingly, under sec. 6211(b)(4), the $2,396
excess of the former amount over the latter amount is treated as
a negative amount of tax.
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Last modified: May 25, 2011