The outcome of a case now before the U.S. Supreme Court may lessen the uncertainty caused by past court decisions over the scope of legal protections for tax regulatory actions.
The case concerns the Anti-Injunction Act, a Civil War-era statute that generally bars lawsuits trying to restrain tax assessment or collection. Courts have often interpreted the act to block challenges to tax regulatory actions that haven’t yet been enforced against a taxpayer. That interpretation distinguishes court treatment of Treasury Department regulatory actions from those of other federal agencies, which typically face such lawsuits.
The issue matters to both ...