Business Service Industries, Inc. v. Commissioner

1986 T.C. Memo. 86, 51 T.C.M. 539, 1986 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 521
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedMarch 4, 1986
DocketDocket No. 17209-79.
StatusUnpublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 1986 T.C. Memo. 86 (Business Service Industries, 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
Business Service Industries, Inc. v. Commissioner, 1986 T.C. Memo. 86, 51 T.C.M. 539, 1986 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 521 (tax 1986).

Opinion

BUSINESS SERVICE INDUSTRIES, INC., Petitioner v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Respondent
Business Service Industries, Inc. v. Commissioner
Docket No. 17209-79.
United States Tax Court
T.C. Memo 1986-86; 1986 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 521; 51 T.C.M. (CCH) 539; T.C.M. (RIA) 86086;
March 4, 1986.
Albert Kimbrough Gregory,Hubert A. McBride,James T. Bland, Jr; and James R. Hall, for the petitioner.
Shuford A. Tucker, Jr., for the respondent.

SHIELDS

MEMORANDUM FINDINGS OF FACT AND OPINION

SHIELDS, Judge: Respondent determined deficiencies in petitioner's Federal income taxes as follows:

Taxable Year EndedAmount
September 30, 1975$15,304.00
September 30, 19765,582.00
September 30, 197721,411.59

*522 Due to concessions, the only issue remaining for our determination is whether petitioner is entitled to deductions for depreciation of customer contracts and/or a franchise acquired in conjunction with the purchase and subsequent liquidation under section 334 1 of Business Music Corporation.

FINDINGS OF FACT

Some of the facts have been stipulated and are so found, the stipulation of facts and exhibits attached thereto being incorporated herein by reference.

Business Service Industries, Inc. (BSI), a Tennessee corporation, had its principal place of business at all times material hereto in Memphis, Tennessee, and filed its corporate income tax returns for the fiscal years 1975, 1976 and 1977 with the Memphis Service Center.

During the years under consideration, petitioner owned and operated a business which supplied music to various enterprises in the Memphis area. The business was originally founded in 1946 by E. A. Alburty, when he caused*523 his corporation, Business Music Corporation (BMC), to obtain a franchise agreement with "MUZAK" under which BMC had the exclusive right to sell Muzak's musical services to customers located in Shelby County, Tennessee. For the most part, such customers are industries, retail stores, and offices. Muzak is an international corporation which transmits musical programs to its franchisees or their customers. Its programming is designed to increase worker productivity and is described in one of its advertising brochures as follows:

Muzak isn't just music. It's more. Scientifically programmed in segments, each Muzak segment is designed to avoid depressing minor modes. It delivers a constantly ascending psychological lift, a lift which mitigates stress. At the same time, it masks numbing noise. What does this ascending movement, known as Stimulus Progression, do? It enhances employee morale. It makes employees feel management cares about their well-being. It reduces and relieves stress. It cuts down on boredom. It increases efficiency.

When Mr. Alburty's corporation first acquired the Muzak franchise, the system was virtually unknown in Memphis and he had no customers, business*524 contacts or employees. However, with years of hard work and "pounding the pavement" he obtained numerous customers and built an excellent reputation for Business Music Corporation. In fact, Muzak considered his business to be "the textbook case of how a Muzak franchise should be operated."

In 1973, Mr. Alburty decided to withdraw from the business of BMC and to retire. Consequently, he approached William Geralds about a possible purchase of BMC. At that time, Mr. Alburty and his wife owned 90 percent of BMC's outstanding stock. The other ten percent of the stock was owned by BSI, whose stockholders were: Mr. Geralds, who had been serving as the business manager of BMC for about 18 months and who was also the president of a local bank; Leo Valvoda, who had been the sales manager of BMC for 20 years; and Thomas Gantert, who had been BMC's chief engineer for about the same period.

Customer Contracts

Negotiations concerning the method and the price of the purchase continued over many months. At first, Mr. Geralds insisted on purchasing the assets of BMC in order to establish a separate value for each asset and to limit the purchaser's exposure to undisclosed liabilities. *525 Mr. Alburty, however, refused to sell the assets. He insisted on a sale of the stock.

During the negotiations, Geralds and Gantert examined each of the 1,339 location contracts which BMC had with its 814 customers in order to ascertain the acquisition and termination dates and the gross income value of each contract. They concluded that the gross value of the contracts, without taking service expenses into account, was approximately $2,500,000. Copies of the contracts, most of which were for periods of five years, and the analysis made by Geralds and Gantert were supplied to Geralds' bank which agreed to finance the purchase by BSI using the contracts as collateral. At this point, Geralds, Gantert, and Valvoda caused BSI to purchase all of the BMC stock owned by Mr. Alburty and his wife for $1,175,000, plus the assumption of certain liabilities; and, on November 15, 1973, they liquidated BMC and its subsidiaries into BSI pursuant to section 334(b)(2).

At the date of the liquidation, Jarvis Greer, a certified public accountant with the firm of Price-Waterhouse, was employed by BSI to determine the basis of each asset acquired by BSI from BMC. After consulting with Mr.

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1986 T.C. Memo. 86, 51 T.C.M. 539, 1986 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 521, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/business-service-industries-inc-v-commissioner-tax-1986.