Matthew and Katherine Christensen v. U.S. (US Ct. of Claims, No. 20-935T (Sep. 13, 2023)
This post is part of our series on recent important tax cases that may be of interest to accounting, tax, and finance professionals. For more like this, see our Federal Tax Update and California Federal Tax Update, which offer a comprehensive analysis of the year’s most pivotal tax developments.
Taxpayers Can Reduce NIIT by Foreign Tax Credit under US-France Tax Treaty (Matthew and Katherine Christensen v. U.S. (US Ct. of Claims, No. 20-935T (Sep. 13, 2023))
Matthew and Katherine Christensen sought a refund of $3,851 for net investment income tax (NIIT) paid for the tax year 2015. The Christensen’s claimed that, because they are US citizens residing in France, “a foreign tax credit should have been allowed for French taxes that the plaintiffs paid with respect to the income giving rise to the net investment income tax, as provided by the income tax treaty that exists between the United States and France.” The court agreed that under the treaty’s “three-bite rule,” the taxpayers could reduce their NIIT by the foreign tax credit.