Filed: Sep. 25, 2012
Latest Update: Feb. 12, 2020
Summary: Case: 12-11586 Date Filed: 09/25/2012 Page: 1 of 3 [DO NOT PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT _ No. 12-11586 Non-Argument Calendar _ Agency No. 14506-10 DAVID ROY CALLIHAN, Petitioner-Appellant, versus COMMISSIONER OF IRS, Respondent-Appellee. _ Petition for Review of a Decision of the U.S. Tax Court _ (September 25, 2012) Before MARCUS, MARTIN and KRAVITCH, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: David Roy Callihan, proceeding pro se, appeals the Tax Court’s decision to
Summary: Case: 12-11586 Date Filed: 09/25/2012 Page: 1 of 3 [DO NOT PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT _ No. 12-11586 Non-Argument Calendar _ Agency No. 14506-10 DAVID ROY CALLIHAN, Petitioner-Appellant, versus COMMISSIONER OF IRS, Respondent-Appellee. _ Petition for Review of a Decision of the U.S. Tax Court _ (September 25, 2012) Before MARCUS, MARTIN and KRAVITCH, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: David Roy Callihan, proceeding pro se, appeals the Tax Court’s decision to ..
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Case: 12-11586 Date Filed: 09/25/2012 Page: 1 of 3
[DO NOT PUBLISH]
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
________________________
No. 12-11586
Non-Argument Calendar
________________________
Agency No. 14506-10
DAVID ROY CALLIHAN,
Petitioner-Appellant,
versus
COMMISSIONER OF IRS,
Respondent-Appellee.
________________________
Petition for Review of a Decision of the
U.S. Tax Court
________________________
(September 25, 2012)
Before MARCUS, MARTIN and KRAVITCH, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
David Roy Callihan, proceeding pro se, appeals the Tax Court’s decision to
Case: 12-11586 Date Filed: 09/25/2012 Page: 2 of 3
sustain the Internal Revenue Service’s (“IRS”) determination of his income tax
deficiency. Callihan concedes that in tax year 2007, he resided in Florida and that
he worked for the School District of DeSoto County in exchange for $37,640, as
well as the Sarasota Family YMCA, Inc. in exchange for $616. He insists,
however, that none of his work constituted “employment” within the meaning of
section 3121(b) of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC), 26 U.S.C. § 3121(b), and
thus, the money he received in compensation for the services he rendered is not
taxable.
Callihan acknowledges that section 3121(b) defines “employment” as “any
service . . . performed . . . by an employee . . . within the United States.”
Id. But
he notes that the section defines the term “State[s]” as “includ[ing] the District of
Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, and
American Samoa,”
id. § 3121(e)(1), and that the term “United States” is similarly
defined as “includ[ing]” some of these territories,
id. § 3121(e)(2). According to
Callihan, because these definitions do not specifically mention the fifty states, the
work that he did in Florida did not constitute “employment” under section
3121(b).
The Tax Court rejected this argument as “thoroughly discredited and
frivolous,” and we are compelled to agree. Our precedent makes it abundantly
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Case: 12-11586 Date Filed: 09/25/2012 Page: 3 of 3
clear that the term “United States” in the IRC is not limited to the District of
Columbia and the territories and possessions of the United States. See United
States v. Ward,
833 F.2d 1538, 1539 (11th Cir. 1987) (rejecting the argument as
“utterly without merit”); see also United States v. Bennett, 448 F. App’x 991, 992
(11th Cir. 2011); United States v. Morgan, 419 F. App’x 958, 959 (11th Cir.
2011). The Tax Court thus correctly dismissed Callihan’s assertion that Florida is
not part of the “United States,” and its judgment must therefore be affirmed.1
AFFIRMED.
1
The IRS’s tax deficiency determination also rested in part on Callihan’s receipt of a
$475 grant from the State of Florida in 2007. Although Callihan appears to challenge the Tax
Court’s conclusion that this was taxable, the only argument he makes here concerns the scope of
the term “United States” in the definition of “employment.” We therefore understand Callihan’s
argument to be that the grant was not taxable because he received it in Florida. This suggestion
also fails for the reason stated above.
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