Supreme Court Denies Review in Historic Boardwalk and Entergy

The Court this week denied the government’s petition for certiorari in the Entergy case.  As explained in our prior post on the PPL decision, this ruling was inevitable in the wake of the Court’s decision for the taxpayer in PPL.  The denial of certiorari now cements Entergy’s victory in the Fifth Circuit.

The Court also denied certiorari in Historic Boardwalk, the historic rehabilitation tax credit case decided in the government’s favor by the Third Circuit.  See our previous reports here.

Government Response Filed in Historic Boardwalk

The government has filed its brief opposing certiorari in Historic Boardwalk.  The government characterizes the decision as resting “on a fact-bound examination of the agreements between the parties” that presents no legal issue of broad applicability warranting Supreme Court review.  The brief responds at length to the taxpayer’s argument that the court of appeals misapplied Commissioner v. Culbertson, 337 U.S. 733 (1949), maintaining instead that “the court of appeals properly applied the framework set forth in Culbertson.”

As we previously noted, the taxpayer faces an uphill battle because the Court rarely hears technical tax cases over the government’s opposition in the absence of a circuit conflict.  The Court is expected to act on the petition on May 28.

Taxpayer Seeks Supreme Court Review in Historic Boardwalk

[Note:  Miller & Chevalier filed an amicus brief in the Third Circuit in this case on behalf of National Trust for Historic Preservation]

We have previously reported extensively (see previous reports here) on the Third Circuit’s decision in Historic Boardwalk denying a claim for historic rehabilitation tax credits by the private partner in a public/private partnership that rehabilitated a historic property on the Atlantic City boardwalk.  Although the Third Circuit declined to rehear the case, the taxpayer has now filed a petition for certiorari seeking Supreme Court review (docketed as No. 12-901).

With no conflict in the circuits on the issue presented, the petition argues that Supreme Court review is needed because of the issue is new and has potentially broad ramifications, stating:  “This is the first litigated case in the country where the Internal Revenue Service has made a broad based challenge to the allocation of Congressionally-sanctioned federal historic rehabilitation tax credits by a partnership to a partner.”

The petition elaborates by proffering three reasons why the case should be viewed as presenting tax law issues of exceptional national importance.  First, the Third Circuit’s ruling that the taxpayer was not a bona fide partner is asserted to squarely conflict with Commissioner v. Culbertson, 337 U.S. 733 (1949).  Second, the petition criticizes the court of appeals’ holding that the allocation of tax credits “should be considered a ‘sale’ or ‘repayment’ of ‘property’” as “utterly baseless” and at odds with Supreme Court precedent.  Third, the petition criticizes the Third Circuit for considering the credits themselves as a component of the substance over form analysis.

The petition urges the Court to hear the case because of its importance, stating that it undermines Congress’s intent “to encourage private investment in the restoration of historic properties” and that the issues “bear broadly on . . . thousands of [historic rehabilitation tax credit] partnership investment transactions across the nation involving billions of dollars.”  The breadth of the impact of a decision is an important factor in the Court’s consideration of whether to grant review, but the petition still faces an uphill battle, as the Court rarely grants certiorari in technical tax cases in the absence of a circuit conflict – unless the government urges it to do so.  Here, there is every reason to expect that the government will oppose the petition.

The government’s brief in response is currently due, after one 30-day extension, on March 25.

Historic Boardwalk – Petition for Writ of Certiorari

 

Rehearing Denied in Historic Boardwalk

The Third Circuit yesterday denied the taxpayer’s petition for rehearing en banc in Historic Boardwalk in what seems like record time (the petition was filed on October 10).  The taxpayer’s last hope is to seek Supreme Court review, though the case does not look like one that could pique the Court’s interest.  A petition for certiorari would be due on January 22.

Taxpayer Seeks Rehearing En Banc in Historic Boardwalk

The taxpayer has filed a petition for rehearing and rehearing en banc in Historic Boardwalk, asking the Third Circuit to reconsider its decision denying the taxpayer’s claim for historic rehabilitation credits.  Among other points, the petition criticizes the panel’s decision for analogizing this case to the Second Circuit’s Castle Harbour decision, TIFD III-E, Inc. v. United States, 459 F.3d 220 (2d Cir. 2006), which found that the partner there had no downside risk that it would not recover its capital contribution.  The taxpayer argues that there was a risk here that the partner would not recover its capital contribution from the partnership, and the court erred in finding that there was no risk by taking the tax credits into account.  Specifically, the petition argues, “the Opinion wrongfully treats the allocation of the historic rehabilitation tax credits to [the investor] by operation of law (i.e., under the Code) as a repayment of capital to” the investor by the partnership.

There is no due date for a response by the government.  Under Rules 35 and 40 of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, a party is prohibited from responding to a petition for rehearing unless it is directed to do so by the court.

Historic Boardwalk – rehearing petition