Budd International Corp. v. Commissioner

45 B.T.A. 737, 1941 BTA LEXIS 1074
CourtUnited States Board of Tax Appeals
DecidedNovember 19, 1941
DocketDocket No. 102842.
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 45 B.T.A. 737 (Budd International Corp. 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
Budd International Corp. v. Commissioner, 45 B.T.A. 737, 1941 BTA LEXIS 1074 (bta 1941).

Opinion

[745]*745OPINION.

Sternhagen :

The first matter to be determined is the petitioner’s basis of gain on the sale of its Pressed Steel common in 1936. Petitioner demands the use of its own cost and respondent demands the use of the preceding owner’s cost. This dispute turns upon the legal question whether the exchange in 1930 by Schroder and [746]*746the Manufacturing Co. of cash and assets, respectively, for petitioner’s shares was tax-free under the Revenue Act of 1928, section 112 (b) (5).1 If the proportions in which petitioner’s shares were issued to them were the same as their proportionate ownership had been of the assets and cash which they transferred to petitioner, the exchange was tax-free, and the basis to be used by petitioner in computing gain is the same as the basis applicable to the transferor Manufacturing Co. This, it is agreed by both parties, was the $1,000,000 cost which had been paid by the Manufacturing Co. in 1926. In using 'this basis the Commissioner made no affirmative determination, but only adopted that figure as used by petitioner on its 1936 return upon the conception that the 1930 exchange was tax-free under section 112 (b) (5).

In lieu of the transferor’s basis of $1,000,000, petitioner now demands the use of its own actual cost in 1930, and this it seeks by evidence to establish at $3,500,000. It argues that the shares issued by it in 1930 to the Manufacturing Co. and Schroder were not proportionate to the assets and cash which they respectively transferred to it, and that it is now incorrect to carry forward the Manufacturing Co.’s cost as its basis, as if section 112 (b) (5) were applicable. If that proposition be established, petitioner’s next step is to prove that the actual cost to it in 1930 of the Pressed Steel common which it sold in 1936 was more than $1,000,000.

Since we are of opinion that the petitioner’s cost of Pressed Steel common in 1930 has not been established at a greater figure than $1,000,000, we may adopt arguendo the view that the 1930 transaction was not tax-free under section 112 (b) (5). This view is only taken hypothetically, since a decision on the point is unnecessary and would be obiter; but we are inclined to the view that the Manufacturing Co.’s assets and Schroder’s cash were not in the same ratio as the petitioner’s shares which they respectively received. Both section 112 (b) (5) of the 1928 Act and section 113 (a) (8) of the 1936 Act are exceptions to the general clause of each of those sections. Unless the special facts appear which are described in those sections, the special clause has no application and the general rule applies. The general rule of section 112 (a) of the 1928 Act provides that [747]*747the entire amount of gain shall be recognized, and the general rule of section 113 (a) of the 1936 Act provides that the basis shall be cost. Therefore, in the 1930 transaction the gain was required to be recognized, and in the 1936 sale the actual cost to the petitioner was required to be used, imless it was affirmatively established that the Manufacturing Go. and Schroder each received the petitioner’s shares in the same ratio as their ownership in the assets and cash they transferred. There has never been an official determination that those ratios were substantially the same, and such a finding may not be made merely because that postulate was apparently used by the Manufacturing Co. on its 1930 return, which was adopted by the Commissioner, and was again used by the petitioner as the basis for gain on its 1936 return and adopted by the Commissioner. There is nothing to indicate that at any time the actual or relative values of the assets transferred by the Manufacturing Co. to petitioner in 1930 were investigated or determined. The evidence in this proceeding gives little ground for a determination of the value of all the Manufacturing Co. assets or of the ratio of such value to the $3,000,025 cash paid by Schroder. If a finding of fact were unavoidable, the evidence would tend to establish that the ratio of assets and cash transferred was not the same as the ratio of shares issued to each. Thus the Manufacturing Co. would have had a recognizable gain based upon its actual cost of the Pressed Steel shares, and petitioner would not be required to use that cost as its own basis. Petitioner’s basis would be its own actual cost of the Pressed Steel shares, and this cost would be the value of such of petitioner’s common shares issued to Manufacturing Co. as could be identified or allocated as the price of the Pressed Steel shares.

It can not, however, be found as a fact upon the evidence that petitioner’s direct cost of the Pressed Steel common was more than $1,000,000, the figure which it used on its return. It paid 360,000 common shares for the composite group of assets and promises given by the Manufacturing Co. The $344,458.01 cash and the guaranty may properly be put aside as being clearly regarded as cost of the 1,000 shares of Pressed Steel preferred. It is impossible to assign any definite portion of petitioner’s common as the cost of the Pressed Steel common. Petitioner has submitted no evidence upon which such an allocation can be based. Its proof has been directed to the value of the Pressed Steel common at the time of the exchange, and has consisted largely of the opinions of persons who were at that time in one way or another connected with the business or with the financial aspects of the exchange transactions. These opinions, however, related to the value not of the petitioner’s shares given up, [748]*748but of the Pressed Steel shares received. This obviously does not determine its cost, for a purchaser’s cost is not as a rule determined by the value of the property purchased. The value of all assets transferred to a newly formed corporation has sometimes been accepted as evidence of the value of all its shares; W. S. Parish & Co., 38 B. T. A. 150, 158; affd., 104 Fed: (2d) 833; Ida I. McKinney, 32 B. T. A. 450, 456; affd., 87 Fed. (2d) 811; but the value of one of several assets transferred for less than the aggregate of the shares issued gives no help in the effort to determine the specific value of the shares issued for the particular asset. Pierce Oil Corp oration, 32 B. T. A. 403, 430.

Since, therefore, the petitioner’s cost was 360,000 common for the entire conglomeration of Manufacturing Co. assets and promises (except the Pressed Steel preferred), it is not xrossible to say what portion thereof is assignable as the cost of the Pressed Steel common; and this is true even though the value of the Pressed Steel common was $3,500,000, as opined by witnesses, or $2,000,000, as entered on the books. There is no ground upon which to distribute the petitioner’s common among the several assets and promises received therefor; there is no proof upon which the number of shares issued as cost of the Ambi-Budd shares can be found either relatively or absolutely, and this is likewise true as to the absolute or relative number of shares to be regarded as the cost of the licenses, contracts, and promises. All of these seem to have been regarded as substantially valuable. For the purpose, therefore, of determining the cost of any part of what was received from the Manufacturing Co., it is of little or no assistance to know the several figures which witnesses regard as the value of the Pressed Steel common so received.

The issuance to Schroder of 68,572 preferred and 68,572 common for its cash of $3,000,025, while at the same time 8,000 preferred and 8,000 common were issued to the Manufacturing Co.

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Budd International Corp. v. Commissioner
45 B.T.A. 737 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1941)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
45 B.T.A. 737, 1941 BTA LEXIS 1074, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/budd-international-corp-v-commissioner-bta-1941.