Anderson, Clayton & Co. v. United States

387 F. Supp. 601, 35 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 678, 1974 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5672
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Texas
DecidedNovember 21, 1974
DocketCiv. A. No. 72-H-188
StatusPublished

This text of 387 F. Supp. 601 (Anderson, Clayton & Co. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Anderson, Clayton & Co. v. United States, 387 F. Supp. 601, 35 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 678, 1974 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5672 (S.D. Tex. 1974).

Opinion

Memorandum Opinion:

SINGLETON, District Judge.

This action is brought for the recovery of internal revenue taxes and other sums assessed and collected by the Government. Jurisdiction of the action is conferred by 28 U.S.C. § 1346.

[603]*603The case has been submitted to the court on stipulations of facts and bi'iefs on the law, and the court has made its determinations upon these.

Anderson, Clayton is a corporation organized and existing under the laws of Delaware, with certificate of authority to transact business in Texas and has its domicile and principal place of business in Houston. It is a large, widely-held, publicly-owned corporation whose business activities and those of its subsidiaries are numerous, international in scope, and include merchandising of cotton, coffee, vegetable oils and other commodities, financing of various crops, manufacturing and sale of consumer and animal food products, warehousing and storage, and insurance among other things.

This case concerns various complications arising from the actions of Anderson, Clayton in seeking to utilize Sub-part F of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 (26 U.S.C. §§ 951-964) and the foreign tax credit provisions of the code (26 U.S.C. § 904 et seq.).

Of the three issues which were presented to the court for determination on stipulation, two remain. The issue of the propriety of plaintiff’s claim for direct foreign tax credit for $159,070.03 paid in Mexican taxes for dividends received from its Mexican subsidiaries has been disposed of. Government in Third Stipulation, 17(c) conceded that plaintiff is entitled to direct foreign tax credit equal to the entire amount of such tax paid with respect to amounts distributed as dividends by the Mexican subsidiaries in fiscal 1964.

Therefore, because it is undisputed that plaintiff was entitled to direct foreign tax credit under section 901 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 with respect to dividends received from its Mexican subsidiaries in its taxable year ended July 31, 1974, the court finds for the plaintiff on this question.

The first of the two remaining questions is whether or not, for purposes of computing the limitations upon the plaintiff’s allowable foreign tax credit for fiscal 1964 under section 904(a)(1) of the code, attributable to the $4,684,233.-96 minimum distribution to plaintiff by Lausanne:1 (1) was at least $13,659.00 of the minimum distribution attributable to foreign base company sales income earned by its Swiss subsidiary, Lausanne, derived from sources within Argentina, (2) was at least $3,223,290.00 of such minimum distribution, attributable to foreign base company sales income earned by Lausanne, derived from sources within Brazil, and (3) was at least $15,517.49 of such minimum distributions attributable to foreign base company sales income earned by Lausanne, derived from sources within Peru.

Subpart F was added to the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 effective October 16, 1962. It was designed to deal with United States taxpayers who owned controlling interests in foreign corporations and utilized those corporations to abuse the foreign tax credit laws. Under Sub-part F the United States shareholder of a controlled foreign corporation is required to report as its own income “Sub-part F Income.” For purposes of this case Subpart F income consisted of “foreign base company income,” i. e., income earned by the controlled foreign corporation outside of the country under whose laws it was organized. The United States taxpayer can reduce or eliminate its Subpart F income under the provisions of section 963 of the code by electing to have the controlled foreign corporation make what is called a “minimum distribution” of its earnings and profits to its United States shareholders. In this case, the United States shareholder would report the minimum distribution as dividend income in place of the Sub-part F income which it would otherwise be required to report.

Plaintiff reported for federal tax purposes for the fiscal year 1964 a minimum distribution of $4,684,233.96 from its Swiss subsidiary, Lausanne. Lau[604]*604sanne had purchased during fiscal 1964 commodities grown or produced within Argentina, Brazil, and Peru from Anderson, Clayton subsidiaries domiciled in those countries. These commodities were resold by Lausanne in those countries to plaintiff at arm’s length transactions and to unaffiliated customers at the market price prevailing at the time. From these sales Lausanne realized income of $4,344,186.31 as a result of purchases and sales of other income in Brazil, $65,213.90 from Argentina, and $19,984.23 from Peru. Lausanne realized during that year $1,614,219.27 in income from other sources.

When it computed the per-country limitation on its foreign tax credits, however, the plaintiff treated $3,233,293.00 of the minimum distribution which it had reported as income from Lausanne, as income sourced in Brazil. In the same way, $13,659.00 of the minimum distribution was treated as sourced in Argentina and $16,842.00 of the minimum distribution as sourced in Peru. The Government concluded that all of the distribution from Lausanne reported on its fiscal 1964 tax return should be considered as income from Switzerland, the country of Lausanne’s incorporation, when applying the per-country limitation on foreign tax credits as provided in Section 904(a)(1) of the Code.2

The plaintiff is seeking to show that the funds have their true source in Peru, Argentina, and Brazil, respectively, since Lausanne bought the commodities in those countries and then resold them there. Each party agrees that of the minimum distribution at least $13,659.00 came from Argentine products; $3,223,290.00 came from Brazilian products; and $15,517.49 came from Peruvian products. What is in dispute is the source of the funds as they came from Lausanne to Anderson, Clayton, for purposes of figuring Anderson, Clayton’s foreign tax credit limitation.

The limitation is figured by a formula which divides the amount of income from sources within the foreign country by the taxpayer’s entire income and then multiplies that figure by the taxpayer’s United States income tax liability.

There is no dispute here over the amount of tax paid by the plaintiff and subsidiaries to Argentina, Brazil, and Peru. The dispute concerns the legal source of the income, whether Argentina, Brazil, Peru, or Switzerland. Lausanne paid taxes to Switzerland. The South American subsidiaries paid taxes to the South American countries. Lausanne did not pay taxes to the South American countries on the income from the sales of the commodities which it bought in those countries and then sold.

Section 904 of the code provides the method in which the amount of foreign tax credit allowable is to be determined. Section 905(b) provides:

The credits provided in this subpart [§§ 901-905 of this title] shall be allowed only if the taxpayer establishes to the satisfaction of the Secretary or his delegate—
(1) the total amount of income derived from sources without the United States, determined as provided in part I [§§ 861-864 of this title],

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
387 F. Supp. 601, 35 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 678, 1974 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5672, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/anderson-clayton-co-v-united-states-txsd-1974.