## Facts

- Astrid E.A. Omohundro sought a federal income tax credit (or refund) for an alleged overpayment for tax year 1993.
- Her administrative claim was presented in connection with, and effectively as part of, her 1993 return, which was filed late (reported in summaries as October 14, 1997).
- She filed suit in the Central District of California after the IRS did not allow the claimed credit.
- The district court dismissed for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction, concluding the claim was untimely under 26 U.S.C. § 6511(a) as interpreted by Ninth Circuit precedent requiring a return to be filed within two years of payment.
- Omohundro appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether, under 26 U.S.C. § 6511(a), a refund/credit claim filed within three years of the date a taxpayer actually files a return is timely even when the return was filed late.
2. Whether the district court had jurisdiction over a refund/credit suit when the taxpayer’s administrative claim complied with § 6511(a)’s three-years-from-filing period, despite lateness of the return.

## Decision

- The Ninth Circuit reversed the dismissal and remanded.
- The court held that § 6511(a) allows a claim filed within three years of the return’s actual filing date, regardless of whether the return was timely.
- The court declined to follow its earlier, more restrictive interpretation that effectively required filing the return within two years of tax payment to use the three-year period.
- Applying the correct reading of § 6511(a), Omohundro’s administrative claim was timely, so the district court had jurisdiction.

## Legal Principles

- A tax refund/credit suit requires a timely administrative claim with the IRS. 26 U.S.C. § 7422(a).
- Under 26 U.S.C. § 6511(a), the limitations period is the later of (i) three years from the time the return was filed or (ii) two years from the time the tax was paid; the “if no return was filed” clause applies only when no return was filed.
- The three-year period in § 6511(a) runs from the taxpayer’s actual filing of the return, even if the return was filed late, where the claim is filed with or embodied in that return.
- An agency’s reasonable interpretation of an ambiguous statute it administers may warrant deference; the IRS’s published administrative position supporting the three-year-from-actual-filing reading supported the court’s interpretation.

## Conclusion

The Ninth Circuit held that a taxpayer who files a late return may still satisfy § 6511(a) by filing the refund/credit claim within three years of the return’s actual filing date, and it therefore reversed the jurisdictional dismissal and remanded for further proceedings.


Omohundro v. United States, 300 F.3d 1065 (9th Cir. 2002)