Brick Milling Co. v. Commissioner

1963 T.C. Memo. 305, 22 T.C.M. 1603, 1963 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 41
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedNovember 13, 1963
DocketDocket No. 91876.
StatusUnpublished

This text of 1963 T.C. Memo. 305 (Brick Milling 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
Brick Milling Co. v. Commissioner, 1963 T.C. Memo. 305, 22 T.C.M. 1603, 1963 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 41 (tax 1963).

Opinion

Brick Milling Company v. Commissioner.
Brick Milling Co. v. Commissioner
Docket No. 91876.
United States Tax Court
T.C. Memo 1963-305; 1963 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 41; 22 T.C.M. (CCH) 1603; T.C.M. (RIA) 63305;
November 13, 1963
*41

Sometime after January 23, 1956, two brothers acquired control of a corporation engaged in the manufacture and sale of ice. On October 23, 1957, they became the owners of all but one share of stock by virtue of the corporate acquisition of all other outstanding shares. They immediately transferred their stock in the ice business to the petitioner, a milling corporation of which they were sole stockholders. It in turn immediately liquidated the acquired corporation and thus received a distribution of all of its assets. The petitioner thereafter deducted the net operating loss carryovers as well as the current net operating losses of the ice business on its income tax returns for its fiscal years ending March 31, 1958, and 1959.

Held: The principal purpose for the acquisition of control of the ice corporation by petitioner was the evasion or avoidance of Federal income tax by securing the benefit of deductions for net operating losses which it would not otherwise enjoy, and consequently the respondent properly disallowed the use of these losses under section 269 of the 1954 Code.

David P. Brown, Jr., 1222 Western Savings Fund Bldg., Philadelphia, Pa., for the petitioner. Malin Van *42 Antwerp, for the respondent.

HOYT

Memorandum Findings of Fact and Opinion

HOYT, Judge: The respondent has determined deficiencies of $17,134.19 and $6,021.71 for the petitioner's fiscal years ending March 31, 1958, and 1959, respectively. Disallowance of claimed depreciation is not contested by petitioner. The only issue for decision is whether the petitioner acquired control of another corporation with the principal purpose of evading or avoiding Federal income tax within the meaning of section 269 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, so as to be denied the allowance of deductions secured by such acquisition.

Findings of Fact

Some of the facts have been stipulated and are so found.

The petitioner, Brick Milling Company, (hereinafter sometimes referred to as Brick Milling or petitioner) is a corporation organized under the laws of the State of New Jersey on September 25, 1956. Its principal office and place of business is in Bordentown, New Jersey, approximately four miles from Crosswicks, New Jersey. The petitioner maintains its books on the accrual basis of accounting and operates on a fiscal year ending March 31. It filed its income tax returns with the district director of internal *43 revenue at Camden, New Jersey.

Brick Milling is the ultimate outgrowth of a proprietorship originally owned and operated by Charles W. Brick. Charles W. Brick acquired a tract of land around 1917 containing water power and a grist mill at Crosswicks, New Jersey, upon which he built a plant for the production and distribution of artificial ice. He subsequently began operating a business for the milling and sale of poultry feeds in an adjoining building and later at another mill in Columbus, New Jersey. He used the income from the ice plant to finance the development of the feed business.

Charles W. Brick died on November 7, 1931, and his milling and ice businesses came into the ownership of, and were operated by, members of his family, particularly his sons Edgar and Charles B. Brick. In 1933 the Estate of Charles W. Brick sold the Crosswicks ice plant, its distribution facilities and business to Sanitary Ice and Coal Company, a corporation. The members of the Brick family continued to operate the milling and feed business as a partnership known as C. W. Brick Milling Company until September 30, 1956. As of that date Edgar Brick, Charles B. Brick and their sister, Susan Brick Laycock, *44 were equal partners in this partnership, each having a one-third interest therein.

Sanitary Ice and Coal Company was a corporation organized under the laws of the State of New Jersey on August 21, 1914. It was engaged in the business of manufacturing and distributing artificial ice in the general area of Trenton, Princeton, and later Crosswicks, New Jersey. In 1926 the shares of Sanitary were owned as follows:

Charles W. Brick87 shares
William De Cou, Jr.67 shares
Charles Urshel60 shares
John Staiger30 shares
244 shares
Charles W. Brick managed the business and served as its president. There was an informal understanding between him and William De Cou, Jr., in later years that he (Brick) would always control the stock, and, except for one inadvertent situation which was quickly remedied, this was always carried out. On the death of Charles W. Brick, his 87 shares passed to his widow, and roughly two years thereafter on April 20, 1933, the shares of Sanitary were owned as follows:
Alice B. Brick - widow of Charles W.
Brick87 shares
Edgar Brick - Secretary4 shares
William De Cou. Jr.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1963 T.C. Memo. 305, 22 T.C.M. 1603, 1963 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 41, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brick-milling-co-v-commissioner-tax-1963.