Bankers Trust New York Corp. v. United States

36 Fed. Cl. 30, 78 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5099, 1996 U.S. Claims LEXIS 99, 1996 WL 352871
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedJune 26, 1996
DocketNo. 92-186T
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 36 Fed. Cl. 30 (Bankers Trust New York Corp. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Federal Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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Bankers Trust New York Corp. v. United States, 36 Fed. Cl. 30, 78 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5099, 1996 U.S. Claims LEXIS 99, 1996 WL 352871 (uscfc 1996).

Opinion

ORDER

MOODY R. TIDWELL, III, Judge:

This case is before the court on the parties’ cross motions for partial summary judgment pursuant to RCFC 56. At issue is whether plaintiff, Bankers Trust, is entitled to foreign tax credits under § 901 of the Internal Revenue Code, for taxes paid to the government [32]*32of Brazal, where the Brazilian government paid a subsidy to Brazilian borrowers for a portion of the taxes paid. The court heard oral argument on March 14, 1996. For the reasons set forth below, the court holds that plaintiff is not entitled to the foreign tax credits; accordingly, the court grants defendant’s motion and denies plaintiffs motion.

FACTS

The parties filed their cross motions with a Joint Stipulation of Facts. There are no genuine issues of material fact. During the 1980 tax year, Bankers Trust made several loans, called “net loans,” to Brazilian borrowers. A net loan is a loan in which the lender and the borrower agree, by contract, that all payments of principal and interest made directly to the lender be made net of Brazilian taxes. The Brazilian borrower agreed to pay Bankers Trust the amount of interest stated in the loan contract, after the reduction for Brazilian income tax due on the interest income. With a net loan, any risk or benefit from a change in the Brazilian tax rate falls to the borrower because the lender’s return is specified, by contract, net of tax. See Continental Ill. Corp. v. Commissioner, 998 F.2d 513, 519 (7th Cir.1993), cert. denied, 510 U.S. 1041, 114 S.Ct. 685, 126 L.Ed.2d 652 (1994).

Foreign lenders such as Bankers Trust were required to pay 25 percent Brazilian income tax on all interest income from these loans. Brazilian law provides that interest cannot be paid to the foreign lender until proof is provided that any Brazilian income tax due has been paid. The Brazilian borrower is required by law to withhold the Brazilian tax from the interest payment before paying the American lender. The borrower then remits the withheld tax to the Brazilian government, and pays the interest to the lender. Although the borrower remits the tax to the Brazilian government, and although the loans at issue are net of tax, Bankers Trust is the party legally liable for the tax.

As an incentive to encourage foreign loans to Brazil, Brazilian law provided for a “pecuniary benefit,” or subsidy, to Brazilian borrowers of foreign loans. According to the pecuniary benefit rules, the Brazilian borrower would receive a subsidy equivalent to a percentage of the stated income tax on the interest on these foreign loans. To obtain the pecuniary benefit, the Brazilian borrower was required to remit the Brazilian income taxes to the Brazilian government through an authorized intermediary commercial bank. The borrower received the pecuniary benefit by means of a credit to the borrower’s current account with a commercial bank through which the income tax was paid. For example, assuming a ten dollar tax liability on a particular transaction and an 85 percent pecuniary benefit, the borrower withholds the ten dollars from its interest payment to Bankers Trust and pays the ten dollars to the Brazilian government through the intermediary bank. Thereafter, in a wholly separate transaction, the Brazilian government provides a pecuniary benefit to the borrower in the amount of $8.50 ($10 x 85%). Essentially, the Brazilian government rebates to the borrower 85 percent of the Brazilian income tax paid. Economically speaking, the pecuniary benefit reduces the Brazilian borrower’s cost of borrowing foreign funds.

To afford smaller Brazilian borrowers the same advantages of these foreign loans and the accompanying pecuniary benefit, Brazil allowed large Brazilian banks to borrow from foreign lenders, such as Bankers Trust, and re-lend the funds to third parties throughout Brazil. These particular net loans are called “repass loans” and the third-party borrowers, “repass borrowers.” The American lenders had no relationship with the repass borrowers and generally were not aware of their identity. However, the repassing bank was obligated to transfer the proportionate value of the pecuniary benefit to the repass borrower on the day the bank received the credit. The transfer of the pecuniary benefit from the Brazilian bank to the repass borrower had the purpose of reducing the cost of the repass loan incurred by the repass borrower in order to encourage borrowing using foreign lenders. Bankers Trust made loans directly to Brazilian borrowers and also to Brazilian banks (repass lenders), which in turn made repass loans to repass borrowers.

[33]*33Bankers Trust filed a consolidated corporate income tax return for the taxable year ending December 31, 1980. While conducting an audit, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) made adjustments to income, credits, and deductions affecting Bankers Trust’s tax liability for 1980. During the audit, Bankers Trust claimed additional foreign tax credits, not claimed on the initial return, for the total stated amount of income tax which Brazilian law imposes on interest remitted by Brazilian borrowers to foreign lenders in accordance with the loan contract. The IRS disallowed that portion of Bankers Trust’s foreign tax credit which corresponded to the stated amount of income tax credited by the Brazilian government to the Brazilian borrowers under the pecuniary benefit provisions; that is, the IRS disallowed the amount of tax the Brazilian government refunded to the borrower. Bankers Trust timely filed a claim for a refund for the amounts attributable to the pecuniary benefit, which the IRS denied. On March 17, 1992, Bankers Trust timely filed a complaint in this court, seeking, inter alia, a refund for the claimed foreign tax credit based on the Brazilian pecuniary benefit disallowed by the IRS.

DISCUSSION

I. Summary Judgment

Summary judgment is appropriate only when there is no genuine issue as to any material fact, and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. RCFC 56(c). In evaluating a motion for summary judgment, any doubt as to whether a genuine issue of material fact exists must be resolved in favor of the non-moving party. Adickes v. S.H. Kress & Co., 398 U.S. 144, 158-59, 90 S.Ct. 1598, 1608-09, 26 L.Ed.2d 142 (1970); Campbell v. United States, 2 Cl.Ct. 247, 249 (1983). A genuine issue of material fact is one that would change the outcome of the litigation. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2510, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). In deciding a motion for summary judgment, the court does not “weigh the evidence and determine the truth of the matter but [only] determine[s] whether there is a genuine issue for trial.” Id. at 249,106 S.Ct. at 2510-11. When the moving party has carried its burden, the non-moving party must come forward with specific facts showing that a genuine issue for trial exists. Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 586-87, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 1355-56, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986). The non-moving party may not discharge its burden by cryptic, conclusory, or generalized responses. See Willetts v. Ford Motor Co.,

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36 Fed. Cl. 30, 78 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5099, 1996 U.S. Claims LEXIS 99, 1996 WL 352871, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bankers-trust-new-york-corp-v-united-states-uscfc-1996.