The Commissioner of the IRS, Congress, the President and the US courts are to thank for the “Last in Time Rule”, which essentially enables the United States to dishonour every tax treaty that it has ever made. Senior Circuit Judge WILLIAMS wrote this summary of the case (William David JAMIESON and Judith A. Jamieson, Appellants v. COMMISSIONER of INTERNAL REVENUE Service, Appellee):
William David and Judith A. Jamieson are United States citizens who lived in Canada in 2003, earned Canadian income and paid Canadian taxes on that income. On their U.S. income tax return for that year, they claimed foreign tax credits of $95,132 against their reported U.S. tax liability of $96,429, resulting in a net U.S. liability of $1297. They did not compute any alternative minimum tax (“AMT”) liability under 26 U.S.C. § 55, noting on their return their position that a tax treaty between the United States and Canada precluded any such liability. The Commissioner of Internal Revenue rejected this position and, applying 26 U.S.C. § 59(a)(2)’s limit on foreign tax credits for AMT purposes, calculated that the Jamiesons owed $6078 in alternative minimum tax.
