Bayou Verret Land Co. v. Commissioner

52 T.C. 971, 1969 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 56, 34 Oil & Gas Rep. 137
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedSeptember 23, 1969
DocketDocket No. 6308-66
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 52 T.C. 971 (Bayou Verret Land Co. v. Commissioner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Tax Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bayou Verret Land Co. v. Commissioner, 52 T.C. 971, 1969 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 56, 34 Oil & Gas Rep. 137 (tax 1969).

Opinion

OPINION

A. Personal holdmg company issues. — The years here in controversy, 1959 through 1964, span significant changes in the personal holding company tax provisions. Amendments, enacted by the Beve-nne Act of 1964, Pub. L. 88-272, 78 Stat. 19, apply to taxable years beginning after December 81, 1963. The issue is whether, under the applicable statute, petitioner is subject to the personal holding company tax for each of the years before the Court.

1. Pre-1961 years. — Petitioner’s income for 1959 through 1968 consisted only of (1) bonuses received on the execution of oil and gas leases4 and (2) amounts corresponding to sums previously deducted as percentage depletion (sometimes referred to hereinafter as previously deducted depletion), which were returned as income in the current years under section 1.612-3 (a) (2), Income Tax Begs.,5 as follows:

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Pre-1964 section 542 (a) (1)6 defined “personal holding company” to mean any corporation (with exceptions not relevant here) if at least 80 percent of its gross income for the taxable year was personal holding company income. Pertinent to the present controversy, pre-1964 section 543 (a) (8) defined “personal holding company income” to include—

(8) * * * Mineral, oil, or gas royalties, unless—
(A) such royalties constitute 50 percent or more of the gross income, and
(B) the deductions allowable under section 162 (relating to trade or business expenses) other than compensation for personal services rendered by the shareholders, constitute 15 percent or more of the gross income.

Thus, petitioner’s status under the personal holding company provisions for the years prior to 1964 initially depends on whether the bonuses or the previously deducted depletion, or both, constitute “mineral, oil, or gas royalties.” If so, the prescribed mathematical computations must be made.

Relying on Porter Property Trustees, Ltd.. 42 B.T.A. 681 (1940), petitioner contends that the term “royalties” as used in pre-1964 section 543(a) (8) implies a division between the lessor and lessee of the mineral products or the proceeds realized therefrom, and that bonuses, therefore, do not constitute royalties if, as here, there is no actual production under the leases.

Respondent argues to the contrary, relying on Commissioner v. Clarion Oil Co., 148 F. 2d 671 (C.A. D.C. 1945), reversing 1 T.C. 751 (1943), certiorari denied 325 U.S. 881 (1945). In that case the Court of Appeals held that a cash bonus received on the execution of an oil and gas lease was personal holding company income even though no production ensued. Upon careful reflection we have decided to follow the holding of the Court of Appeals in the Clarion case, and we will no longer follow our holding therein on this issue.7

The original version of the personal holding company tax, enacted by the Revenue Act of 1934,48 Stat. 680, contained no special provision relating to mineral royalties, but section 351(b) (1) thereof defined the term “personal holding company” to mean any corporation (with specified exceptions) if, inter alia, at least 80 percent of its gross income for the taxable year was derived from “royalties” or other designated types of income. Section 353 (h) of the Revenue Act of 1937, 50 Stat. 813, rearranged the definition of personal holding company income, separating mineral, oil, and gas royalties from other types of royalties, and adopted language substantially similar to pre-1964 section 543(a) (8), quoted above.

Prior to the adoption of the Revenue Act of 1934, a series of court decisions had defined the income tax character of a bonus received on the execution of an oil and gas lease. These decisions had established that both the bonus and royalties are consideration for the lease, taxable as ordinary income rather than capital gain, even where, under applicable State law, the lease effects a conveyance of title to the mineral in place. The “payment of an initial bonus alters the character of the transaction no more than an unusually large rental for the first year alters the character of any other lease * * Burnet v. Harmel, 237 U.S. 103, 106 (1932). It was reasoned that mineral in the ground is a “reservoir of capital investment of the several parties” entitled to share in production; that payment of a bonus reduces the lessor’s, and thus increases the lessee’s, capital investment to the extent of the depletion allowable thereon;8 and that since the lessor receives a bonus, he will receive a correspondingly reduced royalty share in future production. Palmer v. Bender, 287 U.S. 551, 558 (1933); Murphy Oil Co. v. Burnet, 287 U.S. 299 (1932). Consequently, if the lessor retains the right to share in the oil or gas when produced, the bonus is in every real sense “payment in advance for oil and gas to be extracted” even though no production is obtained in the year in which the bonus is paid, Herring v. Commissioner, 293 U.S. 322, 324 (1934).

A review of these principles led the Court of Appeals in Olarion Oil Oo., supra, to declare:

The inevitable result of this is to indicate that the word “bonus”, as used in oil leasing parlance, is, in relation to federal taxation, included in the word “royalty;” and this meaning had become fixed and certain before Congress enacted the Revenue Act of 1934 * * *. [148 S'. 2d at 674.]

Other court opinions, with equal clarity, also have described bonuses to be advance royalty. See, e.g., Anderson v. Helvering, 310 U.S. 404, 409 (1940); Bankers Coal Co. v. Burnet, 287 U.S. 308, 313 (1932); McLean v. Commissioner, 120 F. 2d 942, 945 (C.A. 5, 1941); cf. Work v. Mosier, 261 U.S. 352, 357-358 (1923).

In Murphy Oil Co. v. Burnet, supra at 306, the Supreme Court explained that allowance of the depletion deduction on the basis of anticipated production was required, among other reasons, to avoid “the attendant inconvenience of indefinite postponement of the allocation of the bonus to income and return of capital.” Also see Sneed v. Commissioner, 119 F. 2d 767, 770 (C.A. 5, 1941), affirming 40 B.T.A. 1136 (1939), rehearing denied 121 F. 2d 725 (C.A. 5, 1941), certiorari deified sub nom. Thompson v. Helvering, 314 U.S. 686 (1941). The same practical administrative considerations require classifying bonus income for personal holding company tax purposes in the year of receipt even though no actual production has been obtained; otherwise, the status of the recipient corporation could remain in limbo indefinitely.

Accordingly, we hold that the term “royalties” as used in pre-1964 section 543(a) (8) includes cash bonuses received on the execution of oil and gas leases.

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Bluebook (online)
52 T.C. 971, 1969 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 56, 34 Oil & Gas Rep. 137, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bayou-verret-land-co-v-commissioner-tax-1969.