Slobodian v. United States, 533 B.R. 126

Net Pay Solutions operated as a third-party payroll servicer that withdrew funds from clients’ accounts, withheld employee taxes, and remitted payments to employees and the IRS.
Net Pay filed Chapter 7 on August 2, 2011; the trustee sued to avoid five transfers to the IRS made May 5, 2011 as preferential under 11 U.S.C. § 547.
The five transfers were for $32,297, $5,338, $1,143, $353, and $281; the $32,297 payment was on behalf of client Altus.
The IRS produced evidence (account transcript and advisor declaration) showing Altus had satisfied its non-trust (non-withheld) tax obligations so the $32,297 was applied to trust‑fund (withheld) taxes.
Trustee conceded insolvency and that recipients benefited more than they would in bankruptcy; the disputed legal questions were (1) whether transfers may be aggregated to overcome the $5,850 de minimis threshold in §547(c)(9), and (2) whether Net Pay had a debtor’s property interest in the $32,297 payment.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether multiple transfers to the IRS may be aggregated under §547(c)(9) de minimis exception	Aggregate all challenged transfers to exceed $5,850 because they were to the same creditor	Only transactionally related transfers that satisfy the same debt may be aggregated; these were separate client debts and contracts	Transfers of $5,338, $1,143, $353, and $281 are separate and not aggregable; de minimis defense applies to those four (United States wins)
Whether the $32,297 payment is a "transfer of an interest of the debtor in property" under §547(b)	Funds were transferred from Net Pay’s operating account, so Net Pay had an interest and the transfer is avoidable	Withheld trust‑fund taxes are held in a §7501 statutory trust for the U.S.; a voluntary prepetition payment of trust funds is not property of the estate (Begier)	The $32,297 was trust‑fund tax paid on Altus’s behalf and not property of the debtor; transfer is not avoidable (United States wins)

Begier v. Internal Revenue Serv., 496 U.S. 53 (1990) (prepetition voluntary payments of §7501 trust‑fund taxes are not property of the debtor and are not avoidable as preferences)
In re Kiwi Int’l Air Lines, Inc., 344 F.3d 311 (3d Cir. 2003) (§547’s purpose is equality of distribution among creditors)
Mellon Bank, N.A. v. Metro Commc’ns, Inc., 945 F.2d 635 (3d Cir. 1991) (preference law prevents creditors from receiving unfair advantage)
In re Hailes, 77 F.3d 873 (5th Cir. 1996) (aggregation of multiple transfers to single creditor on a single debt may be appropriate for small‑transfer rules)
Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317 (1986) (summary judgment standards)