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Shortly after the Revenue Act of 1924 was enacted, Congress
held hearings regarding the Act and devoted 2 days of the
hearings to the Board of Tax Appeals. Revenue Revision, 1925,
Hearings before the Committee on Ways and Means House of
Representatives (1925 Hearings), 69th Cong. iii-iv (1925). Two
points Congress repeatedly heard were that (1) the Board was
overwhelmed and overworked by the amount of business it had to
transact and (2) the Board’s jurisdiction should be limited so
that it could continue to function. Id. at 10 (statement of Hon.
Andrew W. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury), 854 (statement of
Dr. Joseph J. Klein), 870 (statement of J. Gilmer Korner, Jr.,
Chairman Board of Tax Appeals), 884 and 904 (statement of George
M. Morris, Secretary Special Committee on Taxation of the
American Bar Association), 934 (statement of A.W. Gregg,
Solicitor of Internal Revenue, Treasury Department).
Additionally, a former chairman of the Board of Tax Appeals
noted that the issue of the Board’s jurisdiction was of great
importance, that Congress’s grant of jurisdiction to the Board
was “somewhat indefinite and does not clearly define what cases
it may take jurisdiction of”, and that regarding certain
overpayment cases that the Board had heard: “As to those cases
the commissioner, before the board, has questioned the board’s
jurisdiction, and the board has held that it has jurisdiction.”
Id. at 922-923 (statement of Charles D. Hamel).
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