Bowman v. Commissioner

8 B.T.A. 526, 1927 BTA LEXIS 2847
CourtUnited States Board of Tax Appeals
DecidedOctober 6, 1927
DocketDocket No. 7467.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 8 B.T.A. 526 (Bowman 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
Bowman v. Commissioner, 8 B.T.A. 526, 1927 BTA LEXIS 2847 (bta 1927).

Opinion

[529]*529OPINION.

Lansdon:

This proceeding presents an unusual situation. Two deficiency notices were mailed the petitioner, each involving the same year (1919). The first deficiency notice, mailed July 1, 1924, gave rise to the appeal reported in volume 1 of the United States Board of Tax Appeals Reports, at page 60. According to the report of said case—

The only issue presented at the bearing related to a disallowance by the Commissioner of the income-tax return of the partnership of certain claimed deductions on account of bad debts. The parties thereafter stipulated that of $21,613.17 bad debts deducted by the partnership and disallowed by the Commissioner, the sum of $16,935.27 represented debts ascertained to be worthless and charged off within the taxable year and the sum of $4,077.90 represented accounts not determined to be worthless and not charged off as such.
The parties have further stipulated, with respect to the tax liability of each individual partner, that the correct deficiency in the case of J. W. Bowman is $1,479.93 on account of income tax for the year 1919; that the correct deficiency for the same year in the case of H. H. Bowman is $964.62, and of J. K. Bowman, $834.93.

The Board thereupon determined that the asserted deficiency against J. W. Bowman for the year 1919 was allowed in part and disallowed in part and that the deficiency was $1,479.93. This decision was made November 14, 1924.

Thereafter the Bureau of Internal Revenue ascertained that what it regarded as an error in the original audit of the petitioner’s liability for the year 1919, had not been corrected in the deficiency notice of July 1, 1924, and it so advised the petitioner by the letter of the then Solicitor of Internal Revenue dated January 22, 1925, [530]*530quoted above in full. The attempted correction of this alleged error gave rise ultimately to an assessment of the amount in dispute under section 274 (d) of the Revenue Act of 1924, the filing of a claim in abatement under section 279 (a) of said Act, followed by the rejection by the Commissioner of the abatement claim under date of August 4, 1925, upon which action the instant proceeding is based.

The facts involved raise a preliminary question as to the right of the Commissioner to issue a second deficiency notice covering the same taxable year under the Revenue Act of 1924. In connection with the preparation of the Revenue Bill of 1926, this matter received consideration. A new provision incorporated in the Revenue Act of 1926 (subdivision (f) of section 274) provides that the Commissioner shall have no right to determine any additional deficiency in respect to the same taxable year, with certain exceptions not here material, if after the enactment of this Act the Commissioner has mailed to the taxpayer notice of a deficiency. The explanation of this new provision made by the Committee on Ways and Means in its report to the House of Representatives, is as follows:

Subdivision (f) provides that after tire enactment of tbis act and after the Commissioner has notified the taxpayer of the deficiency he shall have no right to determine an additional deficiency in respect of the same taxable year, except in the case of fraud and except as may be provided by the Board of Tax Appeals under the provisions of subdivision (e) of this section. Under this section, if the Commissioner has sent a 60-day letter after the enactment of this Act, he may not thereafter send another 00-day letter, but must raise before the Board in accordance with subdivision (e) of this section his claim for a deficiency greater than that set out in the 60-day letter. It should he noted that this section prohibits the sending of a second G0-day letter only in cases where there has already been, after the enactment of this Act, one 60-day letter sent to the taxpayer. (Italics ours.)

The Congressional intent thus expressed would seem to leave no doubt but that the Commissioner had the right under the Revenue Act of 1924 to issue a second deficiency notice covering the same taxable year. Cf. Dallas Brass & Copper Co., 3 B. T. A. 856.

The only issue presented in the prior proceeding as stated by the Board “ related to a disallowance by the Commissioner * * * of certain claimed deductions on account of bad debts.” The deficiency notice of August 4, 1925, presents an issue not raised in the prior proceeding either by the pleadings or otherwise, namely, the .correct interpretation of sections 205(c), 206 and 218(b) of the Revenue Act of 1918. The construction of said provisions contended for by the Commissioner and embodied in his deficiency notice of August 4, 1925, has the practical effect of increasing the petitioner’s taxable net income for 1918 for purposes of normal tax, from $32,471.69 to $36,035.37.

[531]*531We believe that the Commissioner was entirely within his rights in issuing the second deficiency notice in this case; that the matter is properly before this Board under section 279(b) of the Revenue Act of 1924; and that a new issue is raised thereby which was not before this Board in the prior proceeding above mentioned.

The proposed deficiency involves the statutory method of computing the income-tax liability of an individual member (reporting income on the calendar year basis) of a partnership, which partnership has a fiscal year beginning in 1918 and ending in 1919. The respondent has applied the rates prescribed for the year 1918 to the sum of $36,035.37 (being eleven-twelfths of the petitioner’s distributive share of the partnership profits for its fiscal year ended January 31, 1919), without reducing said sum by losses sustained in 1919 and without allowing as a credit for the purpose of the normal tax, the corporate dividends received directly by the petitioner during 1919.

As a matter of fact, the petitioner did not suffer a net loss, operating or otherwise, during the taxable year 1919. His net income for that year was $32,471.69. The Revenue Act of 1918, however, prescribes that under the instant facts the petitioner’s distributive share of the partnership profits for its fiscal year ended January 31, 1919, shall be split up for the purpose of ascertaining the rates to be used in computing the tax, into the proportion of eleven-twelfths attributable to 1918 and one-twelfth attributable to 1919. It is from the standpoint of that portion of his income for 1919, subject to tax at 1919 rates that the petitioner discloses no income subject to tax. The statute does not provide that the income shall be regarded as of two years or that the tax is a tax to any extent for the earlier year. The income is all income of the later year (1919), the tax upon which is, in recognition of the source of the income, measured pro tanto by the schedule of both years. See Appeal of Charles Colip, 5 B. T. A. 123, 125.

The specific provisions of the Revenue Act of 1918 covering the instant situation are as follows:

Sec. 205.

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Related

Skaneateles Paper Co. v. Commissioner
29 B.T.A. 150 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1933)
Corn Products Ref. Co. v. Commissioner
22 B.T.A. 605 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1931)
Bowman v. Commissioner
8 B.T.A. 526 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1927)

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Bluebook (online)
8 B.T.A. 526, 1927 BTA LEXIS 2847, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bowman-v-commissioner-bta-1927.