Averill v. Commissioner

37 B.T.A. 485, 1938 BTA LEXIS 1027
CourtUnited States Board of Tax Appeals
DecidedMarch 17, 1938
DocketDocket Nos. 80076, 82913, 82914, 82915.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 37 B.T.A. 485 (Averill v. Commissioner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Board of Tax Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Averill v. Commissioner, 37 B.T.A. 485, 1938 BTA LEXIS 1027 (bta 1938).

Opinion

OPINION.

.Arnold :

These proceedings, consolidated for hearing, involve deficiencies, individual and joint, for the years and in the amounts following:

[[Image here]]

[486]*486The issue presented is whether the gain realized upon payment at maturity of bonds owned by the petitioners is taxable as capital gain or as ordinary income. Petitioners have abandoned the other allegations set forth in their petitions.

The parties have submitted the proceedings upon a written stipulation of facts with attached exhibits. We adopt the stipulation as our findings of fact, summarizing herein the facts deemed necessary to understand the issue presented.

Petitioners are husband and wife, residing in Waterville, Maine. The circumstances under which they acquired the bonds maturing during the taxable years were as follows:

For more than two years prior to January 1,1927, petitioners were stockholders of the Keyes Fibre Co., a Maine corporation, whose only outstanding stock consisted of 6,000 shares of common. George G. Averill owned 1,888 shares thereof and Frances M. Averill owned 1,500 shares thereof; their stock had a statutory basis for determining gain or loss of $223,295 and $187,500, respectively.

By a contract dated July 27, 1927, the owners of 5,912 shares of stock of the Keyes Fibre Co., hereinafter called the old company, agreed with the Rex Pulp Products Co., a Maine corporation, hereinafter referred to as Rex, that they would “sell, assign and convey all of the shares owned by them to a new corporation to be organized * * * at the agreed purchase price of seven hundred fifty dollars ($750) per share.” Rex agreed that it would cause the newly organized corporation to pay the purchase price of $750 per share on or before August 11, 1927, and that payment “of the purchase price for said shares” would be four-ninths in cash and five-ninths in first mortgage bonds of the new corporation. The agreement provided that the first mortgage securing the bonds should “constitute a first lien 'on all the real estate, machinery, patents, patent rights, application for patents, contracts and all other property now owned or hereafter acquired” by either the old company, Rex, or the corporation to be organized.

Pursuant to the contract of July 27, 1927, the Keyes Fibre Co., a Maine corporation, hereinafter referred to as the new company, was formed. On August 11,1927, the necessary corporate resolutions were voted by the directors and stockholders of the old company, Rex, and the new company, whereby the business and the assets of the old company and Rex were combined in the new company. The new company acquired all the assets of Rex in exchange for 134,993 shares of its common stock and the assumption of all liabilities of Rex. The new company acquired all but 88 shares of the stock of the old company, which it assigned and delivered to a trustee for the shareholders of the old company, the assignment being collateral security for the new company’s obligations under the contract of July 27,1927. [487]*487Tbe old company then, duly voted to sell and convey all its real and personal property to the new company for the agreed purchase price of $4,500,000, payable four-ninths in cash and five-ninths in bonds, plus interest on $2,500,000 from August 11 to September 1, 1927, at which date the bonds began to draw interest. Payment of the purchase price for the assets was made to the old company, which distributed the proceeds by a liquidating dividend of $750 per share, payable four-ninths in cash, $2,000,000, and five-ninths in bonds of the new company, $2,500,000, plus $3.38 per bond for interest adjustment from August 11 to September 1, 1927. The new company, as a stockholder of the old company, upon receipt of the liquidating dividend, immediately transferred it to the former stockholders in exchange for their stock, in accordance with the terms of the contract of July 27, 1927. Following payment in full of the liquidating dividend the ofiicers of the old company were directed to dissolve it.

After carrying out the provisions of the contract of July 27, 1927, and the corporate resolutions of August 11, 1927, the new company had acquired all the assets of the old company and of Rex, and the petitioners had accepted in exchange for their shares of stock a lesser amount of cash and a larger amount of bonds than provided for in said contract, namely, $346,000 cash and $1,070,000 bonds, as to George G. Averill, and $275,000 cash and $850,000 bonds, as to Frances M. Averill. The bonds were serial bonds, maturing 10 percent each year on and after September 1, 1931, until September 1, 1937, when the remaining 40 percent matured. The bonds were worth par at the time of their receipt in 1927, and no other cash or property was received by petitioners in 1927 on account of these transactions.

Petitioners filed separate income tax returns for 1927 and reported the gains from the disposition of their stock upon the installment basis, the cash received being 24% percent of the total consideration for their stock. Respondent made no adjustment as to Frances M. Averill’s return for 1927, but he disallowed the use of the installment basis as to George G. Averill and computed the gain under the reorganization exchange provisions. Since the gain involved was greater than the cash received, the respondent taxed as gain the entire cash received, giving credit, however, for the gain already reported. As a result of this adjustment George G. Averill paid under protest an additional tax for 1927. No claim for refund was filed by George G. Averill for 1927.

During the taxable years certain of the bonds received by the petitioners in the 1927 transaction matured and petitioners received payment therefor from the new company. In 1932 George G. Averill received $107,000 for 107 bonds. In his income tax return for 1932 he reported a capital gain therefrom of $84,074.81, which amount re[488]*488spondent has treated as ordinary income in determining the deficiency herein.

In 1931 Frances M. Averill received $85,000 for 85 bonds and reported a capital gain therefrom of $70,831.05 on her 1931 income tax return. Respondent treated this gain as ordinary income in determining the deficiency herein.

In 1932 Frances M. Averill received $85,000 from 85 bonds and reported a capital gain therefrom of $70,730.95 in her 1932 income tax return. Respondent treated this gain as ordinary income in determining the deficiency herein.

In 1933 George G. Averill and Frances M. Averill, together, received $167,000 from 167 bonds. They reported in their joint income tax return for 1933 a capital gain of $135,719.29, which the respondent has treated as ordinary income in determining the deficiency herein.

At all material times up to August 11, 1927, George G. Averill was a director, treasurer, and clerk of the company. Frances M. Averill held no office in the old company. Neither of the petitioners held office in nor was employed by the old company, Rex, or the new company after August 11,1927.

The real issue in these proceedings, whether the gain realized in the taxable years is capital gain or ordinary income, necessarily relates back to the transaction which occurred during July and August 1927. In order to understand the present contentions of the parties, their opposing positions with respect to that transaction must be understood. The petitioners considered the 1927 transaction a sale

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

White v. United States
22 F. Supp. 821 (Court of Claims, 1938)
Averill v. Commissioner
37 B.T.A. 485 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1938)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
37 B.T.A. 485, 1938 BTA LEXIS 1027, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/averill-v-commissioner-bta-1938.