Baltimore Baseball Club, Inc. v. United States

481 F.2d 1283, 202 Ct. Cl. 481, 32 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5352, 1973 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 191
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedJuly 13, 1973
DocketNo. 92-72
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 481 F.2d 1283 (Baltimore Baseball Club, Inc. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Baltimore Baseball Club, Inc. v. United States, 481 F.2d 1283, 202 Ct. Cl. 481, 32 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5352, 1973 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 191 (cc 1973).

Opinions

Kashiwa, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

Plaintiff brought this suit to recover income taxes and assessed interest, plus interest as provided by law. We presently are called upon, by way of cross-motions for partial summary judgment, to rule on Count II of plaintiff’s petition. There is no genuine issue as to any material fact, which would prevent our granting partial summary judgment in this case. We hold for the defendant for reasons hereinafter stated, and therefore allow its cross-motion for partial summary judgment on Count II of the petition.

Plaintiff is a corporation which owns and operates a professional “major league” baseball team in Baltimore, Maryland, known as the “Baltimore Orioles,” a team which is a member of the American League of Baseball Clubs. It keeps its books and files its federal income tax returns on a fiscal year ending October 31 and uses the accrual method of accounting for ordinary items of income and expense.

■At meetings held on November 29-30, 1967, the member clubs of the American League adopted an expansion program contemplating the addition of two new clubs, the Boyáis and the Pilots, to the League. On October 15,1968, plaintiff sold six of its players under agreements of sale with the two expansion clubs.

The terms of the six agreements of sale were identical. Each provided for payment of the $175,000 purchase price “in full on November 15, 1968, but in no event shall any payment be made before November 1,1968.” Plaintiff’s fiscal year ended for book and tax purposes on October 81, 1968.

Plaintiff did not report gain on the October 15,1968, sales of player contracts in its income tax return for its fiscal year ended October 31,1968, but elected to report such gain on the installment method of accounting and submitted the information required by Treas. Keg. § 1.453-8 (b) with its return for that year. Gain on the sale of each contract was reported in plaintiff’s income tax return for its fiscal year ended October 31, 1969, the year in which the full purchase price for each contract was received by plaintiff.

[484]*484Plaintiff reported a net operating loss on its income tax return for the fiscal year ended October 31, 1968, which loss was carried back to plaintiff’s fiscal years ended October 31, 1965, and 1966. The loss carryback to fiscal 1965 also resulted in the carryback of an unused investment credit from that year to plaintiff’s fiscal year ended October 31,1962.

On November 19, 1971, the Internal Revenue Service assessed deficiencies in plaintiff’s income taxes for the fiscal years ended October 31, 1968, 1966, 1965, and 1962, in the following amounts:

Deficiency in
Fiscal Year Ended Income Taco
October 31, 1968_$278, 530.42
October 31, 1966_ 97, 520.19
October 81, 1965_ 59, 893.06
October 31, 1962_ 1,185.92

The deficiencies were based upon a determination by the Internal Revenue Service that plaintiff was not entitled to report gain on its October 15, 1968, sales of player contracts on the installment method, and that, as an accrual basis taxpayer, plaintiff was required to report the total gain ($1,028,556.70) 1 in its fiscal year ended October 31, 1968. This determination eliminated the net operating loss in plaintiff’s fiscal year ended October 31,1968, and carrybacks to plaintiff’s fiscal years ended October 31, 1966, 1965, and 1962, accounting for the deficiencies assessed for those years.

Plaintiff paid the aforementioned assessment of income taxes, plus the interest assessed thereon, and filed timely claims for refund of such payments with the Internal Revenue Service, which claims were denied. The assessed income taxes and interest described above were claimed by plaintiff under Count II of its petition to this court.

Two issues are raised for our resolution:

(1) Whether this plaintiff may take advantage of the installment method of accounting of section 453, Internal Revenue Code of 1954,2 on a casual sale of personalty when [485]*485no payments were received during tbe year of sale and the entire purchase price was paid in a lump sum in the following fiscal year.

(2) "Whether Treas. Beg. § 1.453-6, which, by its terms, applies only to deferred payment sales of real property not on the installment method, is applicable to plaintiff’s sales of personal property at issue in this case.

We shall first consider the issue of the applicability of the installment method. Absent the installment method provisions, it is clear that the plaintiff, an accrual basis taxpayer, would be required to recognize its gain on the sales in the year of sale; that is, in fiscal year ending October 31, 1968. See, generally, Treas. Beg. § 1.446-1 (c) (1) (ii); Treas. Beg. §1.451-1 (a). The installment method provisions are relief provisions, the basic purposes of which are to defer payment of tax on gains until the proceeds of sale with which to pay the tax have been received and also to avoid what may be the difficult requirements of valuing the obligations of the purchaser in a closed transaction. However, since these relief provisions are exceptions to the general “timing” rules, they must be strictly construed. Cappel Home Furnishing Co. v. United States, 244 F. 2d 525 (6th Cir. 1957). This is especially true when the consequence of the exceptional treatment is decidedly advantageous to the taxpayer.

The installment rules of section 453 provide a new method of reporting income for qualifying transactions. Section 453, for the taxable year involved, provided in pertinent part:

SEC. 453. INSTAELMENT METHOD.
(a) Dealers m Personal Pro forty.—
(1) In General. — Under regulations prescribed by the Secretary or his delegate, a person who regularly sells or otherwise disposes of personal property on the installment plan may return as income therefrom in any taxable year that proportion of the installment payments actually received in that year which the gross profit, realized or to be realized when payment is completed, bears to the total contract price.
(2) Total Contract Price. — For purposes of paragraph (1), the total contract price of all sales of personal property on the installment plan includes the [486]*486amount of carrying charges or interest which is determined with respect to such sales and is added on the books of account of the seller to the established cash selling price of such property. This paragraph shall not apply with respect to sales of personal property under a revolving credit type plan or with respect to sales or other dispositions of property the income from which is, under subsection (b), returned on the basis and in the manner prescribed in paragraph (1).
(b) Sales of Realty and, Oasual Sales of Personalty.—
(1) General Rule. — Income from—
(A) a sale or other disposition of real property, or

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481 F.2d 1283, 202 Ct. Cl. 481, 32 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5352, 1973 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 191, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/baltimore-baseball-club-inc-v-united-states-cc-1973.