Buffalo Wire Works Co. v. Comm'r

74 T.C. 925, 1980 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 90
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedJuly 31, 1980
DocketDocket No. 5963-76
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 74 T.C. 925 (Buffalo Wire Works Co. v. Comm'r) 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
Buffalo Wire Works Co. v. Comm'r, 74 T.C. 925, 1980 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 90 (tax 1980).

Opinion

OPINION

Goffe, Judge:

The Commissioner determined deficiencies in the Federal income tax of petitioner as follows:

Taxable year Deficiency in tax

1969 . $2,317

1970 . 2,317

1971 . 5,792

1972 . 187,345

Five issues are presented for our decision:

(1) Whether $418,052 was includable in the income of petitioner for the taxable year 1972 as ordinary income from the reimbursement of moving expenses;

(2) Whether $12,110 was includable in the income of petitioner for the taxable year 1972 as ordinary income from the excess reimbursement of moving expenses;

(3) Whether the moving expenses of petitioner for the taxable year 1972 should be disallowed because they were reimbursed during that same taxable year;

(4) Whether petitioner should include in its income for 1972 an amount equal to its claimed moving expense deductions for the taxable years 1965 through 1971 because such amounts were recovered during the taxable year 1972; and

(5) Whether petitioner correctly calculated its investment credit for the taxable year 1972 and its carryback of investment credit to the taxable years 1969, 1970, and 1971. Resolution of the fifth issue described above depends solely upon the resolution of the first four issues.

All of the facts have been stipulated. The stipulation of facts and the exhibits attached thereto are incorporated herein by this reference.

Buffalo Wire Works Co., Inc. (hereinafter petitioner), is a corporation organized under the laws of the State of New York and at all times pertinent to this case has had its principal office and place of business in Buffalo, N.Y. Petitioner, an accrual method taxpayer, filed its Federal income tax returns for the taxable years 1969, 1970, 1971, and 1972 with the Internal Revenue Service Center, Andover, Mass.

Petitioner owned the real property at 308-320 Lower Terrace, Buffalo, N.Y., and used that property as a principal place of business until Feburary 15, 1972. Such property (hereinafter the Lower Terrace property) consisted of land, buildings, and fixtures and was used by petitioner for the manufacture of wire and wire mesh products.

In 1954, the City Planning Commission of the City of Buffalo initiated Waterfront Redevelopment Project No. UR N.Y. R-35 (hereinafter the project). In 1956 or thereabouts, petitioner informally learned that the city of Buffalo intended to acquire a large tract of real property, of which the Lower Terrace property was a part, in connection with the project. During 1962, in anticipation of the condemnation of the Lower Terrace property, petitioner purchased a tract of land in West Seneca, N.Y., which was zoned for industrial use. Such property (hereinafter the West Seneca property) was intended as the site for a replacement facility, and petitioner hired an architectural and engineering firm to prepare plans for the construction of such a facility.

By'letter dated January 20, 1967, the city of Buffalo offered petitioner $399,330 for the Lower Terrace property. Petitioner did not accept the offer. Therefore, by petition dated February 28, 1967, the city of Buffalo commenced condemnation proceedings in the New York State Supreme Court. On October 4, 1967, a preliminary order of condemnation was entered in which the court ordered that just compensation for the taking of the Lower Terrace property would be fixed and determined without submission to a jury.

Between September 10, 1968, and July 9, 1969, hearings were held to determine the value of the Lower Terrace property. By memorandum dated July 31, 1969, the court found that $195,000 would be just compensation for the land taken and that $440,000 would be just compensation for the buildings taken, but that there was insufficent evidence to determine the value of the fixtures which were to be removed or could be removed. For purposes of valuing such fixtures, the court directed the parties’ attention to Rose v. New York, 24 N.Y.2d 80, 298 N.Y.S.2d 968 (1969), wherein the proper method of valuation was described. In short, that opinion requires that the value of fixtures which are removed or could be removed is usually to be determined as the lesser of these two values: (1) The difference between salvage value of such items and their present value in place (i.e., reproduction cost, less depreciation); or (2) the actual or contemplated costs of disassembly, trucking, and reassembling such items.

By memorandum dated December 10, 1969, the court made certain findings relative to the compensable value of the fixtures in place. First, the court determined that certain items were fixtures. Specifically, the court stated as follows:

I find all the items, I believe 162, to be fixtures in the broad definition of the word and are moveable and come within the definition in the Rose case (24 N.Y.2d 80). That these items can be profitably removed to another location and used by the owner and that it would be inequitable to treat these items as personalty simply because of the possibility of removal at less than total destruction of the machine or the structure which houses it.

Also, the court found the sound value of the 162 fixtures in place to be $1,276,663, their salvage value to be $237,665, and the resulting difference to be $1,038,988.1 Futher, the court found that certain items which were included as fixtures in place also had been included as part of the buildings for valuation purposes. To eliminate that duplication, the court deducted the value of those duplicate items, $62,175, from the value of the fixtures in place. Thus, the court determined that the value of fixtures in place for purposes of compensation in condemnation proceedings was at most $976,813.2 However, referring to the Rose case again, the court pointed out that the fixtures in place were found to be movable and, therefore, the condemnation proceeds allocable to the fixtures in place were limited to the lower of $976,813 or the costs of disassembling, trucking, and moving them. Because there was insufficient evidence to determine the costs of disassembly, trucking, and reassembly, a hearing was set to obtain such evidence.

By order of judgment dated December 24,1969, judgment was entered in favor of Buffalo Wire Works Co., Inc., in accordance with the findings in the Memorandum dated December 10,1969, with the proviso that the award for fixtures was subject to alteration. Specifically, Buffalo Wire Works Co., Inc., was awarded $635,000 for land and buildings and $976,813 for fixtures. The value of the fixtures was to be increased by any part of $178,605 that could be proved as expenses for carting, rigging, and installation of replacement fixtures. The value for fixtures so determined would constitute the award for fixtures unless the costs of moving, disassembling, trucking, reassembling, and relocating the existing fixtures were lower, in which case the award for fixtures would be the lower amount.

Further proceedings were held to determine the costs of moving disassembling, trucking, reassembling, and relocating the existing fixtures.

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Bluebook (online)
74 T.C. 925, 1980 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 90, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/buffalo-wire-works-co-v-commr-tax-1980.