22-800 MOORE V. UNITED STATES
DECISION BELOW: 36 F.4TH 930
CERT. GRANTED 6/26/2023

QUESTION PRESENTED:
The Sixteenth Amendment authorizes Congress to lay “taxes on incomes … without
apportionment among the several States.” Beginning with Eisner v. Macomber, 252 U.S. 189
(1920), this Court’s decisions have uniformly held “income,” for Sixteenth Amendment
purposes, to require realization by the taxpayer. In the decision below, however, the Ninth
Circuit approved taxation of a married couple on earnings that they undisputedly did not
realize but were instead retained and reinvested by a corporation in which they are minority
shareholders. It held that “realization of income is not a constitutional requirement” for
Congress to lay an “income” tax exempt from apportionment. App.12. In so holding, the Ninth
Circuit became “the first court in the country to state that an ‘income tax’ doesn’t require that a
‘taxpayer has realized income.”‘ App.38 (Bumatay, J., dissenting from denial of rehearing en
banc).

The question presented is:
Whether the Sixteenth Amendment authorizes Congress to tax unrealized sums without
apportionment among the states.

For more information, click here to visit Docket No. 22-800
For more information, click here to visit No. 20-36122 D.C. No.2:19-cv-01539-JCC OPINION.