Burck v. Commissioner

63 T.C. 556, 1975 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 190
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedFebruary 13, 1975
DocketDocket No. 8909-72
StatusPublished
Cited by78 cases

This text of 63 T.C. 556 (Burck 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
Burck v. Commissioner, 63 T.C. 556, 1975 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 190 (tax 1975).

Opinion

Fay, Judge:

Respondent determined a deficiency in the Federal income tax of petitioners for the taxable year 1969 in the amount of $245,956.55.

The primary issue for decision is whether the petitioners have prepaid 1 year’s interest or have in substance received a discounted loan in which no interest was paid during the taxable year in question. If the former, we must then determine whether a deduction in excess of 3/365 of the interest paid during the taxable year would result in a material distortion of income.

FINDINGS OF FACT

Certain facts have been stipulated and are found accordingly. The stipulation of facts and exhibits attached thereto are incorporated herein by this reference.

Petitioners G. Douglas Burck and Marjorie W. Burck, husband and wife, maintained their residence in Malawi, Africa, when the petition herein was filed. They timely filed a joint Federal income tax return for the taxable year ended December 31,1969. Any reference to “petitioner” hereinafter shall be deemed to mean G. Douglas Burck.

Petitioners maintained their books and records and filed their income tax return for the taxable year 1969 on the cash receipts and disbursements method of accounting.

After negotiations, the petitioner entered into a loan agreement with the Bank of the Commonwealth (the bank), a Michigan banking corporation, on December 23, 1969. The agreement was consummated on December 29, 1969, when petitioner executed a secured promissory term note in the amount of $3 million, made payable to the order of the bank and bearing interest at a rate of 7 percent per annum payable monthly. One million five hundred thousand dollars of the principal was payable on or before January 4, 1971, the balance on or before March 31,1972.

The term note was secured by the pledge of 51,333 shares of letter stock of the National Student Marketing Corp. and an agreement to pledge all additional such shares received by petitioner on or before January 30, 1970. Pursuant to such agreement 67,067 additional shares were pledged on January 20, 1970.

Pursuant to the loan agreement petitioner also executed a demand collateral note made payable to the bank in the amount of $2,388,600. Interest was payable at the rate of 7 percent per annum. The proceeds of said collateral note were placed in a non-interest-bearing time deposit account at the bank as security for the collateral note.

By letter authorization from petitioner the proceeds of the term note were wire-transferred by the bank on December 29, 1969, as follows:

$2,000,000 to the Birmingham Bloomfield Bank in Michigan for credit to the account of Comae Company.1
$1,000,000 to the First National City Bank in New York (First National) for credit to petitioner’s previously existing bank account.2

As per the negotiations preceding the loan agreement of December 23, 1969; and at the direction of petitioner First National debited his account by the amount of $377,2023 and transferred said amount to the bank on December 30,1969.4

The proceeds of the $3 million term note were subsequently invested as follows:

Amount Use
$2,350,000 Loaned to Comac Co.[5]
100,000 Purchased an interest in Ohio Investment Co., a partnership
377,202 Paid to the bank as interest on the term note and collateral note
150,000 Part payment on the purchase of a personal residence
22,798 Retained by petitioner

On their joint Federal income tax return for 1969 petitioners reported gross income of $1,049,387.93.6 Included in this figure is a long-term capital gain realized in the amount of $968,186. The petitioners claimed as one of several offsets to gross income the amount of $377,202 paid to the bank on December 30, 1969, as an interest expense deduction. The amount reported as taxable income was $41,383.

By statutory notice dated September 14, 1972, respondent disallowed the above deduction.

OPINION

Our first consideration is whether petitioner, a cash basis taxpayer, prepaid 1 year’s interest on certain loans so as to be entitled to an interest expense deduction in the year 1969.

Section 163(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 19547 provides “There shall be allowed as a deduction all interest paid or accrued within the taxable year on indebtedness.” It is essential that actual payment be made by a cash basis taxpayer if he is to be entitled to the deduction afforded by section 163(a). Clinton H. Mitchell, 42 T.C. 953 (1964).

Interest deductions are denied to cash basis taxpayers where the interest obligation is satisfied by the taxpayer’s note rather than cash. Nat Harrison Associates, Inc., 42 T.C. 601 (1964); James W. England, Jr., 34 T.C. 617 (1960). Similarly there is no payment of interest under section 163(a) when a cash basis taxpayer receives a discounted loan. John C. Cleaver, 6 T.C. 452 (1946), affd. 158 F.2d 342 (C.A. 7, 1946), certiorari denied 330 U.S. 849 (1947). That is, when a creditor withholds a certain sum from the face amount of a loan as interest, making available only the loan proceeds in excess of the interest obligation, there is no payment of interest by the debtor' until actual repayment of the loan. John Randolph Hopkins, 15 T.C. 160, 180-182 (1950).8

Petitioner here argues that there was actual payment of interest in the year 1969. Accordingly, he contends that a deduction under section 163(a) should be forthcoming. Respondent, on the other hand, argues that in substance the transaction in question constituted a discounted loan. Accordingly, he maintains that no interest expense deduction should be allowed in the year 1969. We agree with petitioner.9

Upon receipt of the loan proceeds petitioner directed that the borrowed money be deposited in his already existing bank account commingling it with the $42,009.02 in the account. Thereafter 1 year’s interest on the loans was prepaid in cash from this source. These facts are clearly within the scope of our decision in Newton A. Burgess, 8 T.C. 47 (1947).

In Burgess the taxpayer borrowed amounts totaling $203,988.90. Interest on this amount, to be prepaid, totaled $4,136.44. Just prior to the due date of the interest the taxpayer borrowed an additional $4,000, from the same creditor. The sum was deposited in his bank account, commingling it with his other funds. Shortly thereafter the taxpayer drew a check on this account in the amount of $4,219.33 to cover the interest payment due.10

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Bluebook (online)
63 T.C. 556, 1975 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 190, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/burck-v-commissioner-tax-1975.