Update on Wartime Suspension of Limitations Act ("WSLA"), 18 USC 3287, and Tax Crimes (4/1/23; 4/2/23)

Caveat: Although authored and published on 4/1/23, this blog is not an April Fool's Joke.

I have written before about the Wartime Suspension of Limitations Act ("WSLA"), 18 USC  § 3287, here, that suspends certain criminal statutes of limitations while "the United States is at war or Congress has enacted a specific authorization for the use of the Armed Forces, as described in section 5(b) of the War Powers Resolution (50 U.S.C. 1544(b))." The statutes of limitations are suspended in relevant part for crimes "(1) involving fraud or attempted fraud against the United States or any agency thereof in any manner, whether by conspiracy or not." My blogs on this subject discussing the potential application of this WSLA suspension for tax crimes are collected by relevance here and reverse chronological order here. In those blogs, I have noted that the WSLA's literal application to certain tax crimes involving "fraud" would mean that the WSLA could have a pervasive effect permitting the charging of tax crimes far before the normal suspensions often encountered for tax crimes. See also, Michael Saltzman & Leslie Book, IRS Practice and Procedure, ¶ 12.05[9][a][iii] Suspension and tolling (discussing normal suspensions and discussing § 3287 at n. 933); and John A. Townsend, Federal Tax Procedure (2022 Practitioner Ed.) 317-387 (August 3, 2022). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4180710.

1. The blog supplements those discussions until the next revisions of those respective books (note that I am the principal author of the Saltzman and Book chapter). Since I have already brought the discussion up to date in the 2023 working draft for the Federal Tax Procedure Book (2023 Practitioner Ed.), I will just offer the following from the 2023 draft (which should be finalized by early August 2023). The last sentence in the carryover paragraph will be changed to and a footnote added as follows (note that I link the blog entries and key case entries in this blog but will not link them in the book):

This provision [WSLA] might apply to the Iraq and Afghanistan engagements, but its application to tax crimes with elements of fraud or attempted fraud is notable only because of the many cases in which it could have been applied but is rarely, very rarely, asserted where statute of limitations defenses are asserted. fn

Update on Zwerner Case - Subsequent Filings (4/16/14)

I previously posted a blog on the US Motion for Summary Judgment in Zwerner.  See U.S. Motion for Summary Judgment in Zwerner (Federal Tax Crimes Blog 3/5/14), here.  I post now the subsequent documents, including Zwerner's response on the motion and the US reply to Zwerner's response.  I also post (i) Pretrial Stipulation with related proposed jury instructions and jury verdict forms and (ii) Motions in Limine that are pending.  I have bookmarked these documents in Adobe format.  I think readers will have to download the file to take advantage of the bookmarks.

• 20140307 Zwerner - D Response on US MSJ (TJ001).pdf, here.
• 20140317 Zwerner - US Reply on US MSJ (TJ001).pdf, here.
• 20140407 Zwerner - Pretrial Stipulation (TJ001).pdf, here.
• 20140407 Zwerner - Proposed Jury Instructions (TJ001).pdf, here.
• 20140407 Zwerner - US Proposed Jury Verdict Form (TJ001).pdf, here.
• 20140407 Zwerner - D Proposed Jury Verdict Form (TJ001).pdf, here.
• 20140407 Zwerner - US Motion in Limine (TJ001).pdf, here.
• 20140407 Zwerner - D Motion in Limine (TJ001).pdf, here.

I may post more on these documents when and if I have time.