Blenheim Co. v. Commissioner

42 B.T.A. 1248, 1940 BTA LEXIS 885
CourtUnited States Board of Tax Appeals
DecidedNovember 15, 1940
DocketDocket No. 95026.
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 42 B.T.A. 1248 (Blenheim Co. 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
Blenheim Co. v. Commissioner, 42 B.T.A. 1248, 1940 BTA LEXIS 885 (bta 1940).

Opinion

[1251]*1251OPINION.

T /uranTT:

The correctness of both contested deficiencies depends upon whether petitioner has perfected its right to certain asserted deductions. New Colonial Ice Co. v. Helvering, 292 U. S. 435.

The petitioner was a foreign corporation. Section 233 of Title I of the Revenue Act of 1934, controlling here, provides:

A foreign corporation shall receive the benefit of the deductions and credits allowed to it in this title only by filing or causing to be filed with the collector a true and accurate return of its total income received from all sources in the United States, in the manner prescribed in this title; including therein all the information which the Commissioner may deem necessary for the calculation of such deductions and credits.

Was the so-called normal tax return filed by petitioner on Form 1120 a sufficient compliance with section 233 to entitle petitioner to the deductions therein claimed? We think not.

Undoubtedly a taxpayer may litigate a determination of respondent on the basis of a return made by the latter under section 3176 of the Revised Statutes. But, a “return” filed by a taxpayer after such a return has been prepared and filed for him by¡ respondent, under the circumstances existing here, is a nullity and does not comply with section 233, supra. The taxpayer can not thus take advantage from an alleged return submitted by the taxpayer not only after the respondent’s filing of its return under section 3176, but also after the issuance of a notice of deficiency. Taylor Securities, Inc., 40 B. T. A. 696; Sarah Briarly, 29 B. T. A. 256; Joe Goldberg, 14 B. T. A. 465; Theodore R. Plunkett, 41 B. T. A. 700. Cf. Del Mar Addition v. Commissioner, 113 Fed. (2d) 410. The case of Anglo-American Direct Tea Trading Co., Ltd., 38 B. T. A. 711, does not aid petitioner, since it held only that a return filed before the determination of a deficiency was sufficient compliance with section 233. Moreover, in that case, the return filed by the revenue agent was never accepted by the Commissioner, and the taxpayer’s delinquent return was made the subject of an audit by respondent. In the Taylor case, supra, the Board held that these facts distinguished the Anglo-American case.

Was petitioner’s timely personal holding company surtax return on Form 1120 H a compliance with section 233, supra, sufficient to entitle it to the deduction of dividends received from domestic corporations subject to tax, in the computation of its normal tax? We think not.

Respondent did not prepare and file the normal tax return for the petitioner until after a failure of compliance with his repeated requests to the petitioner to file such a return.

Clearly, the normal and surtax here in dispute are separate and distinct taxes. Revenue Act of 1934, Title I, Title I-A; Taylor Securities, Inc., supra. The revenue act undoubtedly contemplates the filing of separate returns for these taxes. Secs, 52, 53, 54, and 351 of the [1252]*1252Revenue Act of 1934. Collateral Mortgage & Investment Co., 37 B.T.A. 630; Rotorite Corporation, 40 B. T. A. 1304; Noteman v.Welch, 108 Fed. (2d) 206; Taylor Securities, Inc., supra. That being so, it would seem obvious that our decision on the first question would conclude the petitioner here. Moreover, it seems to us to be the plain in-tendment of section 233 that a normal tax return on Form 1120 is required to be filed in order to secure deductions from income subject to normal tax, especially because the section specifies a “true and accurate return” filed “in the manner prescribed in this title.” .That can relate only to the normal tax return, Form 1120, required by section 53. The personal holding company return, Form 1120 H, does not contain all the information which the Commissioner “deems necessary” for the calculation of deductions and credits in respect of normal tax liability. For instance, there is no requirement in a Form 1120 H return of the schedule “Reconciliation of Net Income and Analysis of Changes in Surplus,” nor is there provision for the schedule “Balance Sheets.” Form 1120 H requires only 14 basic items, while Form 1120 requires approximately 25. Thus, the one return filed by petitioner is insufficient for normal tax purposes, and the sanction provided by section 233 must be applied. Gladstone Co., Ltd., 35 B. T. A. 764.

Did the timely personal holding company surtax return entitle the petitioner to deduct from its income subject to surtax the amount of its capital losses disallowed by section 117 (d) and included, as such, in that return ? We think it did.

It is stipulated that the income set out on the personal holding company surtax return on Form 1120 H was correct and that the correct amount of the “losses from sale or exchange of capital assets (disallowed by section 117 (d) of the Revenue Act of 1934) ” and thus deductible in the computation of the surtax was in an amount exceeding that claimed on the personal holding company surtax return on Form 1120 H. However, despite those facts, respondent contests the deductibility of any amount for such losses. He argues that section 233 applies to the surtax provisions which are contained in the separate Title I-A, by reason of section 351 (c), which reads:

All provisions of law (including penalties) applicable in respect of the taxes imposed by Title I of this Act, shall insofar as not inconsistent with this section, be applicable in respect of the tax imposed by this section, * * *.

His position then is that petitioner has not complied with the provisions ,of section 233, supra, in that the personal holding company .surtax return, on Form 1120 H, was not “a true and accurate return of * * * [petitioner’s] total ineome received from all sources in the United States, in the manner prescribed in this title; including therein all the information which the Commissioner may deem p.e<?ess,ary for &e calculation of such deductions and credits” ,as are [1253]*1253here disputed. He argues that the schedules contained in the personal holding company surtax return do not provide for information sufficient to calculate the deduction now contested, and that the scheme of returns formulated by the respondent contemplates the filing of both forms so that information contained in the normal tax return may be used to supplement and emphasize the items required in the personal holding company surtax return, the first return on Form 1120 and the second on Form 1120 H.

Respondent complains specifically that the personal holding company tax return discloses no data which would enable him to determine whether petitioner falls within the characterization of a personal holding company and that there is no breakdown of the item “Net income (as defined in Title I of the Revenue Act of 1934)” and no breakdown of the item “Losses from sale or exchange of capital assets”, so that audit of such figures is impossible.

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

Related

Adams Challenge (UK) Limited
U.S. Tax Court, 2021
Swallows Holding, Ltd. v. Comm'r
126 T.C. No. 6 (U.S. Tax Court, 2006)
Swallows Holding, Ltd. v. Commissioner
126 T.C. No. 6 (U.S. Tax Court, 2006)
Espinosa v. Commissioner
107 T.C. No. 9 (U.S. Tax Court, 1996)
Guillermo Baez Espinosa v. Commissioner
107 T.C. No. 9 (U.S. Tax Court, 1996)
InverWorld v. Commissioner
1996 T.C. Memo. 301 (U.S. Tax Court, 1996)
Florez v. Commissioner
1995 T.C. Memo. 358 (U.S. Tax Court, 1995)
Millsap v. Commissioner
91 T.C. No. 58 (U.S. Tax Court, 1988)
Brittingham v. Commissioner
66 T.C. 373 (U.S. Tax Court, 1976)
Burke Concrete Accessories, Inc. v. Commissioner
56 T.C. 588 (U.S. Tax Court, 1971)
Hackleman v. Granquist
147 F. Supp. 826 (D. Oregon, 1957)
Berwindmoor S.S. Co. v. Commissioner
3 T.C.M. 183 (U.S. Tax Court, 1944)
Blenheim Co. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue
125 F.2d 906 (Fourth Circuit, 1942)
Lane-Wells Co. v. Commissioner
43 B.T.A. 463 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1941)
Blenheim Co. v. Commissioner
42 B.T.A. 1248 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1940)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
42 B.T.A. 1248, 1940 BTA LEXIS 885, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/blenheim-co-v-commissioner-bta-1940.