Brooks-Massey Dodge, Inc. v. Commissioner

60 T.C. No. 94, 60 T.C. 884, 1973 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 58
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedSeptember 17, 1973
DocketDocket No. 489-71
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 60 T.C. No. 94 (Brooks-Massey Dodge, Inc. 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
Brooks-Massey Dodge, Inc. v. Commissioner, 60 T.C. No. 94, 60 T.C. 884, 1973 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 58 (tax 1973).

Opinion

DreNNEN, Judge:

Respondent determined deficiencies in petitioner's corporate income taxes in the amounts of $30,411.83 and $16,318.75 for the tax years 1967 and 1968, respectively. Petitioner has abandoned one issue on brief, and two questions remain for our decision:

(1) Whether petitioner may use a hybrid form of the cash receipts and disbursements method of accounting to reflect income from manufacturer discount holdbacks on automobiles purchased from the manufacturer and sold to customers.

(2) Whether petitioner may use 80 percent of the NADA wholesale value as the adjusted yearend value of its used-car inventory or must use 100 percent of that value as determined by respondent.

If we sustain either of respondent’s changes to petitioner’s accounting procedures, as set out in the first two issues, then we will examine the adjustments respondent made pursuant thereto and decide whether they are the proper adjustments under section 481, so as to prevent amounts from being duplicated or omitted from petitioner’s 1966 gross income.

FINDINGS OF FACT

The stipulated facts and accompanying exhibits are incorporated herein by this reference.

Petitioner Brooks-Massey Dodge, Inc., is a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the State of Florida, with its principal office located in Tampa, Fla. During the years in issue, petitioner filed its Federal corporate income tax returns on a calendar year basis with the Internal Revenue Service Southeast Service Center in Chamblee, Ga., reporting its income primarily under the accrual method of accounting.

Petitioner was chartered on August 31, 1961, under the name of Massey Motors, Inc., of Tampa. By charter amendment, its name was subsequently changed to Brooks-Massey Dodge, Inc. Since the date of its organization, petitioner has been a retail dealer of new and used vehicles and has engaged in the business of acting as a franchised Dodge automobile dealer under a sales agreement from the Dodge Division of Chrysler Motors Corp. (hereinafter Dodge).

Petitioner maintains its books and records on an accrual basis of accounting with the exception of one account which reflects discount holdbacks on vehicles bought from Dodge. When petitioner receives a new vehicle from Dodge, it is placed in inventory at factory invoice cost which becomes petitioner’s final inventory cost, if no additional equipment or labor costs are attributable to the vehicle. Dodge provides petitioner with a manufacturer’s suggested list price for each new vehicle it sells to petitioner. The cost of the new Chrysler product to a dealer such as petitioner would normally be the suggested list price less a 25-percent (23 percent on Lancers) dealer’s discount. However, for reasons hereafter mentioned, Dodge “withheld” 2 to 214 percent of that discount and invoiced petitioner for the list price (plus destination charges), less only 23-percent or 2214-percent discount, which becomes petitioner’s final inventory cost for the new vehicle.

The discount holdback is a part of the overall discount enjoyed by all dealers of Dodge vehicles, and it is inconspicuously noted on each invoice that petitioner receives. The purpose of the discount holdback is to place Dodge dealers in a better competitive position with their rivals by placing an artificially high floor on the invoice cost of new vehicles and making it appear that each vehicle costs the dealer more than it actually does. Thus, the portion of the discount which is held back by Dodge on the sale of its cars and trucks to its dealers enables them to make an automatic minimum profit on each sale to their customers, since it is unusual for a new vehicle to be sold at less than factory invoice cost. An additional reason for the discount holdback is that Dodge dealers have found it convenient to have a surplus cash account available to them for payment of their obligations at yearend. In this respect, the discount holdback serves as a savings account for the dealers, though it earns no interest.

Under the discount holdback procedure, Dodge normally accrues the portion of the dealers’ discount which is held back and pays it to them at the end of the model year, which occurs in September. However, upon request, any dealer may have its accrued discount hold-backs paid at an earlier date, either quarterly or monthly.

During the years in issue, Dodge treated the discount holdbacks as property of the dealers upon the sale of each new vehicle to them. On all new vehicle transactions, Dodge reduced the amount of its sales by the entire amount of the dealers’ discount, including the discount holdback, and established a provisional account for the benefit of the dealers to maintain the discount holdback funds until their eventual payment.

During the years in issue, Dodge allowed its dealers a total discount of 25 percent of the suggested list price for all vehicles except its Lancer model, which was discounted at a rate of 23 percent. From January 1, 1966, to August 16,1968, Dodge held back 2 percent of the dealers’ discount on its vehicles.1 At the request of the dealers, the discount holdback was increased to 2y2 percent in August 1968 and continued at that figure during the remainder of the period in issue.

Petitioner does not use the accrual method of accounting to account for the amounts it receives as discount holdbacks. Instead it uses a procedure whereby it reports the discount holdbacks as income at the time a new vehicle is sold or at the time the funds are received from Dodge, whichever occurs last. If a new vehicle is sold 'before the hold-back funds attributable to it are received by petitioner, no entry is made in petitioner’s books to reflect the additional profit made on the car. Subsequently, when the funds are received from Dodge petitioner records them in its books as miscellaneous income. Conversely, if the discount holdback attributable to a new vehicle is received before the new vehicle is sold, no income is recorded in the petitioner’s books until the vehicle is sold, and then only if the sales transaction does not involve a trade-in. In the latter ease, the funds are held in a debit account until the sale. Petitioner’s accounting treatment of the discount hold-backs has been approved by its parent company, Massey Motors, Inc., and petitioner has consistently used this accounting procedure since its inception. Furthermore, Dodge has shown no disapproval of petitioner’s accounting treatment of the discount holdbacks.

During the period in issue, petitioner received the following amounts from Dodge which represented payment of dealer’s discounts previously held back:

Year holdback account Year of payment established by Dodge ' Amount
1967- 1966._ $13,541.44
1968- 1967_ 26,524.96
1969- 1968_ 43,922.02

These amounts were recorded in a manner consistent with petitioner’s discount holdback procedure.

Throughout its corporate existence, petitioner has employed the same business and accounting practice to account for sales of its new and used vehicles.

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Brooks-Massey Dodge, Inc. v. Commissioner
60 T.C. No. 94 (U.S. Tax Court, 1973)

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Bluebook (online)
60 T.C. No. 94, 60 T.C. 884, 1973 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 58, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brooks-massey-dodge-inc-v-commissioner-tax-1973.