Geoffrey A. Williams v. United States

N OTE: This disposition is nonprecedential.
United States Court of Appeals
for the Federal Circuit
______________________
GEOFFREY A. WILLIAMS,
Plaintiff-Appellant
v.
UNITED STATES,
Defendant-Appellee
______________________
2025-1955
______________________
Appeal from the United States Court of Federal Claims
in No. 1:24-cv-00413-LAS, Senior Judge Loren A. Smith.
______________________
Decided: March 10, 2026
______________________
G EOFFREY ALAN WILLIAMS , Waco, TX, pro se.
SAMUEL P ATRICK J ONES , Appellate Section, Tax Litiga-
tion Branch, Civil Division, United States Department of
Justice, Washington, DC, for defendant-appellee. Also rep-
resented by MICHAEL J. HAUNGS .
______________________
Before T ARANTO, CLEVENGER , and STOLL , Circuit Judges.
P ER CURIAM .
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WILLIAMS v. US 2
The Internal Revenue Service determined that Geof-
frey Williams owed income taxes for tax years 2006 and
2010, plus interest and penalties, and it levied on his bank
account to satisfy the obligations in part. Mr. Williams,
after unsuccessfully challenging the levy in an IRS admin-
istrative hearing, paid the unpaid assessed amount, and
he then sent the IRS letters asserting that he owed no tax
for the relevant years and demanding a full refund. The
IRS requested that he submit the demands in the proper
format. Mr. Williams thereupon brought suit in the United
States Court of Federal Claims (Claims Court), alleging en-
titlement to a refund pursuant to 26 U.S.C. [I.R.C.] § 7422
and to damages for violations of I.R.C. § 7433. The govern-
ment moved to dismiss the complaint for lack of subject-
matter jurisdiction, and the Claims Court granted the mo-
tion. Mr. Williams appeals. We affirm for the reasons dis-
cussed below.
I
We take the facts of this case from the allegations in
Mr. Williams’s operative complaint in the Claims Court,
supplemented by certain details added by Mr. Williams
and the government that do not contradict the operative
complaint. Mr. Williams did not file federal income tax re-
turns for tax years 2006 and 2010. Amended Complaint,
Williams v. United States, No. 1:24-cv-00413 (Fed. Cl.
Sept. 30, 2024), ECF No. 14 at 2 (Complaint); S. Appx. 13.1
As a result, in 2012, the IRS prepared substitute tax re-
turns for him, which indicated that Mr. Williams owed
$2,982 in tax for 2006 and $22,789 for 2010. S. Appx. 21–
22, 34, 37; see Complaint at 2–3; see also I.R.C. § 6020(b)(1)
(authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury, when “any per-
son fails to make any return required by any internal
1 S. Appx. refers to the appendix submitted with the
government’s brief. A copy of the amended complaint with
the attached exhibits is at S. Appx. 12–20.
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WILLIAMS v. US 3
revenue law or regulation,” to “make such return from his
own knowledge”). Over the next several years, Mr. Wil-
liams did not pay the IRS-specified amounts due, and in-
terest and penalties accrued. S. Appx. 33–38.
In June 2020, the IRS mailed to Mr. Williams, at a
Waco, Texas address, a notice stating that it had not re-
ceived his tax returns for 2006 and 2010, asking that he file
returns and pay any tax due, and warning that interest and
penalties might also apply. Williams Informal Br. at 8;2
Complaint at 2. Mr. Williams mailed a return-addressed
response the next month, but his mailing did not include
the requested tax returns or payments, and it was not re-
ceived by the appropriate IRS officials. Williams Informal
Br. at 9; see Complaint at 2. In August 2020, the IRS issued
a notice to Mr. Williams of its intent to levy on his assets
for unpaid tax, interest, and penalties, which now totaled
more than $50,000. See Complaint at 2–3; S. Appx. 21–22,
33–38. But the IRS sent the notice, not to Mr. Williams’s
Waco address, but to a Dallas post office box it had reason
to associate with Mr. Williams. See Complaint at 2–3; S.
Appx. 43. It turned out, however, that Mr. Williams no
longer had access to the post office box, and the notice was
returned as undeliverable. Williams Informal Br. at 10; see
Complaint at 2; S. Appx. 43.
The following January, the IRS sent to Mr. Williams’s
Waco address a notice of levy, which Mr. Williams did re-
ceive. Complaint at 2. The IRS levied on his bank account
the next month, seizing $11,836.86. Id.; see S. Appx. 35,
37. After contacting an IRS official to determine why he
never received a notice of intent to levy, Mr. Williams re-
quested a hearing to dispute the levy pursuant to I.R.C.
§ 6330. Complaint at 2; S. Appx. 42. Although Mr.
2 Mr. Williams’s opening informal brief contains rec-
ord materials numbered consecutively with his argument
starting at page 8.
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WILLIAMS v. US 4
Williams’s request fell well outside the 30-day statutory pe-
riod following the notice of intent to levy for requesting a
hearing, see I.R.C. § 6330(a)(1), (a)(3)(B), the IRS offered
an “administratively equivalent hearing.” S. Appx. 42; see
Complaint at 2–3. In late 2021, Mr. Williams participated
in that hearing, at which he argued, in the main, that he
did not owe the assessed tax because he never received the
notice of intent to levy. Complaint at 2–3; S. Appx. 42–43,
45. The IRS nevertheless sustained the levy. Complaint
at 3; S. Appx. 42.
Several months later, in May 2022, Mr. Williams paid
the balance of the 2006 and 2010 taxes, penalties, and in-
terest. Complaint at 3. Then, the same month, he sent the
IRS two one-page letters (the May 2022 letters), each under
the header “Demand Claim for Refund,” requesting the re-
turn of “taxes, interest and penalties erroneously paid un-
der duress.” Id. at Exs. 1–2 (capitalization altered). The
May 2022 letters identified Mr. Williams by name, social
security number, and his Waco street address, and they
were identical except that one concerned tax year 2006
while the other concerned tax year 2010. See id. In each
letter, Mr. Williams asserted that he “did not provide a tax
return for the tax year,” that “the IRS has no [a]uthority to
create a substitute tax form[ ],” and that the IRS failed to
follow its own procedures in giving notice of intent to levy.
Id. (emphasis removed). He asserted that the substitute
tax returns and assessed amounts were “fraudulent” and
“[i]llegal,” that the “[c]orrect tax” was “$0.00,” and that the
entire assessed amount of tax, interest, and penalties
should be refunded. Id. (emphasis removed).
The IRS responded to Mr. Williams’s refund demands
in August 2022 with two near-identical letters of its own.
Id. at Exs. 3–4. In the letters, the IRS characterized Mr.
Williams’s May 2022 letters as “disagreeing with” the sub-
stitute tax returns for 2006 and 2010, informed him that
he would have to “request reconsideration of [the substi-
tute tax returns] by filing [ ] original return[s] for [those]
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WILLIAMS v. US 5
tax period[s],” and instructed him to send a signed Form
1040 Income Tax Return for each period so that the IRS
could consider his claims. Id.
Mr. Williams did not file the requested returns, id. at
2; instead, in March 2024, he sued the United States in the
Claims Court for a tax refund, S. Appx. 9, soon afterwards
filing the operative (amended) complaint.3 The complaint
lays out the history recounted above. See Complaint at 1–
3. It asserts that the IRS’s preparation of substitute tax
returns was unauthorized and that the collection of tax
based on the substitute tax returns was “fraudulent” and
violated numerous provisions of the Internal Revenue
Code. Id. at 3–5 (citing I.R.C. chs. 1, 5, 24; id. §§ 6020,
6203, 6330). The complaint further alleges that the IRS
intentionally concealed the asserted violations “for finan-
cial gain,” which was “criminal.” Id. at 4. It demands the
following relief: the return of $52,660.92; civil damages for
unauthorized collections under the Internal Revenue Ser-
vice Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 § 3102(a), Pub
L. No. 105-206, 112 Stat. 685, 730 (IRS Reform Act), codi-
fied in relevant part at I.R.C. § 7433; payment for time
spent preparing the lawsuit; punitive damages; and inter-
est. Id. at 5.
In October 2024, the government filed a motion, under
Rule 12(b)(1) of the Rules of the Court of Federal Claims,
to dismiss the complaint for lack of subject-matter jurisdic-
tion. S. Appx. 21–32. It argued that the Claims Court had
no jurisdiction over Mr. Williams’s refund claim under the
Tucker Act and I.R.C. § 7422 because the latter provision
requires that a refund claim be “duly filed with the
3 The amended complaint and original complaint are
substantially the same. Compare Complaint with Williams
v. United States, No. 1:24-cv-00413 (Fed. Cl. Mar. 15,
2024), ECF No. 1; see also Government Informal Br. at 4
n.2.
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WILLIAMS v. US 6
Secretary” before it can be the subject of a suit. S. Appx.
25–28. According to the government, Mr. Williams’s May
2022 letters were not “duly filed” because they did not com-
ply with the IRS’s requirements for refund claims, includ-
ing that such claims be “presented . . . on [a] version of [ ]
Form 1040.” Id. The government also argued that, not-
withstanding the “duly filed” requirement, all of Mr. Wil-
liams’s claims were founded on allegations of tortious or
criminal activity over which the Claims Court had no juris-
diction. S. Appx. 29–30.
The Claims Court granted the motion to dismiss on
May 28, 2025. Williams v. United States, No. 1:24-cv-
00413 (Fed. Cl. May 28, 2025), ECF No. 20 (Dismissal).
The court determined that Mr. Williams “did not file valid
administrative claims for refunds” at least because, as the
complaint itself alleged, Mr. Williams “did not file Form
1040 . . . for 2006 or 2010.” Id. at 2 (citing Complaint at 2).
The court also observed that it “lacks jurisdiction over
claims alleging criminal conduct” but that Mr. Williams’s
complaint “asserts several counts of fraud and other
crimes.” Id. at 1–2. Accordingly, it dismissed the com-
plaint. Id. at 2.
Mr. Williams timely appealed. We have jurisdiction
under 28 U.S.C. § 1295(a)(3).
II
We review without deference a dismissal for lack of
subject-matter jurisdiction by the Claims Court where, as
here, its decision did not turn on the resolution of any fac-
tual dispute. Dixon v. United States, 67 F.4th 1156, 1165
(Fed. Cir. 2023). We may affirm the judgment of the
Claims Court on any ground supported by the record. Wy-
andot Nation of Kansas v. United States, 858 F.3d 1392,
1397 (Fed. Cir. 2017).
We address separately Mr. Williams’s claim that he is
entitled to a refund of the payments he made for tax years
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WILLIAMS v. US 7
2006 and 2010 and his various claims that the IRS engaged
in fraudulent or criminal behavior in violation of the Inter-
nal Revenue Code, entitling him to damages under the IRS
Reform Act. With respect to the refund claim, we affirm
the Claims Court’s dismissal because the complaint fails to
state a claim upon which relief can be granted. With re-
spect to the claims of tortious and criminal conduct, we af-
firm the dismissal for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction.
A
Mr. Williams, in his opening brief to us, focuses on ar-
guments that the IRS lacks legal authority to prepare a
substitute Form 1040 for a person who has not filed a tax
return and that the collection of tax was improper due to
procedural defects, including the IRS’s failure to update
Mr. Williams’s address of record to match his mailing ad-
dress and its failure to send a notice of intent to levy to the
correct address. Willams Informal Br. at 4–6; see Com-
plaint at 2–4. He did not dispute (and does not dispute)
that he had to satisfy the requirement of I.R.C. § 7422 (as
a precondition to suing) that a refund claim be “duly filed”
with the Secretary, evidently viewing his May 2022 letters
as doing so. Williams Informal Br. at 6–7; see also Com-
plaint at 3. But the government, in this court, argues that
the complaint failed to satisfy the § 7422 requirement for
reasons independent of Mr. Williams’s substitute-return
and address-related contentions, Government Informal Br.
at 11, and we agree with the government that the case had
to be dismissed for that reason.4
4 In the Claims Court, the government argued for
dismissal only based on lack of jurisdiction, see S. Appx. 2–
3, 21, 24, but we have discretion to consider the argument,
see Dixon, 67 F.4th at 1168, and we will do so because it
presents a purely legal issue we may readily decide and Mr.
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WILLIAMS v. US 8
The Little Tucker Act grants the Claims Court jurisdic-
tion, concurrent with the district courts, over “[a]ny civil
action against the United States for the recovery of any in-
ternal-revenue tax alleged to have been erroneously or ille-
gally assessed or collected,” as well as penalties and other
sums wrongfully collected. 28 U.S.C. § 1346(a)(1). Section
7422 of the Internal Revenue Code limits such suits, how-
ever, by preventing them from being “maintained in any
court . . . until a claim for refund or credit has been duly
filed with the Secretary.” I.R.C. § 7422(a). Timeliness is a
requirement of being “duly” filed, see I.R.C. § 6511, and we
have held that, under § 7422, the “fact of filing” a timely
refund claim is jurisdictional, while the “adequacy of the
filing” is not. See Brown v. United States, 22 F.4th 1008,
1011–12 (Fed. Cir. 2022); Dixon, 67 F.4th at 1161 & n.3.
An adequate filing, though not a matter of jurisdiction, is
necessary, and failure to meet the requirement is a ground
for dismissal under Rule 12(b)(6). See United States
v. Dalm, 494 U.S. 596, 601–02 (1960) (“[U]nless a claim for
refund of a tax has been [timely] filed . . . a suit for refund
. . . may not be maintained in any court.”); Computervision
Corp. v. United States, 445 F.3d 1355, 1363–64 (Fed. Cir.
2006); Brown, 22 F.4th at 1010, 1013 (affirming dismissal
of refund claim because of failure to plead compliance with
§ 7422).
In applying § 7422, we have recognized a “substantial
variance doctrine,” Computervision, 445 F.3d at 1363–64,
which “permits consideration of a claim for refund despite
failure to timely file detailed formal claims with the IRS
when a substantial variance from the requirements of
[§ 7422 and its implementing] regulation is not involved[,
but] this doctrine applies only in four limited situations,”
id. at 1364 (footnote omitted). In two of those situations,
Williams does not object to our consideration of the argu-
ment, see Williams Informal Reply Br. at 1–3.
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WILLIAMS v. US 9
there must be a technically compliant claim timely filed
with the IRS—something that Mr. Williams’s complaint it-
self establishes he did not do, because he never filed the
required Form 1040 return for the years in question, Com-
plaint at 2. See 26 C.F.R. §§ 301.6402-2(c) (requiring filing
of claim on “form [ ] prescribed”), 301.6402-3(a)(1) (pre-
scribing filing on “appropriate income tax return”). And,
as explained next, Mr. Williams’s case also does not involve
either of the remaining two substantial-variance-doctrine
situations.
One such situation involves the “waiver doctrine,”
which applies where a claimant has filed a noncompliant
refund claim but the IRS has “seen fit to dispense with [the]
formal requirements and to examine the merits of the
claim.” Computervision, 445 F.3d at 1366 (quoting Angelus
Milling Co. v. Commissioner, 325 U.S. 293, 297 (1945) (al-
teration in original)). Here, it is clear from the exhibits at-
tached to Mr. Williams’s operative complaint that the IRS
did not examine the merits of his homemade “Demand
Claim[s] for Refund[s],” but instead sought “more infor-
mation” from Mr. Williams and insisted that he pursue his
claims by “filing an original return” for each tax period.
Complaint at Exs. 1–4. Although Mr. Williams’s complaint
characterizes the IRS’s action as “disagreeing with the
claims for refund” and “a final administrative determina-
tion adverse to [Mr. Williams],” id. at 3, those conclusory
allegations, in light of the documents themselves, are im-
plausible and insufficient to support the claim, see id. at
Exs. 3–4; Secured Mail Solutions LLC v. Universal Wilde,
Inc., 873 F.3d 905, 913 (Fed. Cir. 2017) (“[A] court need not
accept as true allegations that contradict . . . [an] exhibit.”
(internal quotation marks and citation omitted)). Mr. Wil-
liams therefore finds no help in the waiver doctrine.
The final substantial-variance-doctrine situation in-
volves the “informal claim doctrine,” which applies when a
“timely claim with purely formal defects . . . fairly apprises
the IRS of the basis for the claim,” Computervision, 445
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WILLIAMS v. US 10
F.3d at 1364, and is later “perfected” by an untimely but
otherwise technically compliant filing, Dixon, 67 F.4th at
1168–70 (citing United States v. Memphis Cotton Oil Co.,
288 U.S. 62, 67–72 (1933), and United States v. Kales, 314
U.S. 186, 190–97 (1941)). Because “[t]he informal claim
doctrine is predicated on the expectation that any formal
deficiency will at some point be corrected,” thereby
“giv[ing] the [g]overnment a full opportunity to address the
problem [of alleged tax overpayment] administratively,”
Greene-Thapedi v. United States, 549 F.3d 530, 533 (7th
Cir. 2008), an informal claim has to be perfected “while the
original claim is still being considered by the IRS,” Com-
putervision, 445 F.3d at 1371. But filing suit for a refund
on an unperfected informal claim removes the claim from
the authority of the IRS, thereby thwarting the possibility
of perfection. Dixon, 67 F.4th at 1169–70; see Computervi-
sion, 445 F.3d at 1364–65, 1371–72. And that is what oc-
curred here: Mr. Williams never filed compliant claims
while the IRS was still considering the May 2022 letters,
and once he filed suit it was too late. Complaint at 2; see
Dixon, 67 F.4th at 1169–70.
Mr. Williams identifies no other basis—and we are
aware of none—for disregarding his noncompliance with
§ 7422 in assessing whether his complaint stated a refund
claim. His allegations of legal errors and procedural de-
fects in the IRS’s assessment and collection of tax, what-
ever their merits, are not relevant to the threshold question
whether he has made out a claim under § 7422. Based on
the materials proper for consideration on a Rule 12(b)(6)
motion to dismiss, we hold that he has not done so. We
therefore affirm the dismissal of the complaint to the ex-
tent it seeks a tax refund.
B
As to Mr. Williams’s claims for damages under the IRS
Reform Act due to alleged fraud, deceit, criminality, and
the like, we note, as did the Claims Court, that Tucker Act
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WILLIAMS v. US 11
jurisdiction is limited to “cases not sounding in tort.” 28
U.S.C. § 1491(a)(1); see Dismissal at 1; see also Joshua
v. United States, 17 F.3d 378, 379 (Fed. Cir. 1994) (“The
[Claims C]ourt has no jurisdiction to adjudicate any claims
whatsoever under the federal criminal code[.]”). Moreover,
jurisdiction to hear a taxpayer’s claims for money damages
owing to IRS violations of the Internal Revenue Code is “ex-
clusive[ly]” in “district court,” subject to exceptions not rel-
evant here. I.R.C. §7433(a); see id. § 7432. Mr. Williams
makes no argument on appeal that identifies a basis on
which the Claims Court would have jurisdiction, whether
through the Tucker Act or some other provision, to adjudi-
cate his allegations of tortious or criminal behavior, and in-
deed he appears to agree that “those issues” should have
been “dismissed.” Williams Informal Reply Br. at 3. We
thus affirm the Claims Court’s dismissal of Mr. Williams’s
remaining claims for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction.5
III
We have considered Mr. Williams’s other arguments
and find them unpersuasive. Accordingly, we affirm the
Claims Court’s judgment of dismissal.
The parties shall bear their own costs.
AFFIRMED
5 Mr. Williams’s briefing suggested an interest in
transfer to the United States Tax Court, e.g., Williams In-
formal Reply Br. at 3, but after we sought clarification,
ECF No. 18, Mr. Williams stated that he “do[es] not seek a
transfer,” ECF No. 19 at 2. We therefore do not consider
whether transfer is available or appropriate.
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