C & R Investments, Inc. v. United States

310 F. Supp. 222, 25 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 477, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12885
District Court, D. Kansas·Decided December 10, 1969·No. No. KC-2016·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

ARTHUR J. STANLEY, Jr., Chief Judge.

This is an action for refund of certain internal revenue taxes assessed against and paid by the plaintiff. The facts material to a decision are that Sherold Crystals, Inc., the plaintiff’s predecessor corporation, filed an estimate of its 1953 taxes with the Wichita Director of Internal Revenue, accompanied by an $18,000 partial payment. Thereafter a consolidated return was filed by the parent corporation in Chicago, in which credit was taken for the $18,000 payment in issue. Later the plaintiff notified the Wichita director that a consolidated return would be filed by the plaintiff’s parent corporation, and an individual return for the 1953 tax year was not therefore submitted by the plaintiff. Notice of the Wichita payment was given to the Chicago director and claim made for the deposit, but the Wichita director erroneously failed to make a timely transfer and maintained the $18,000 payment in his suspense account.

Subsequently, Mr. and Mrs. C. R. Rice purchased all of the stock of the taxpayer corporation. C. R. Rice learned of the suspense account credit in an oral communication from the Wichita director. When plaintiff filed its tax return for 1954 in Wichita, it claimed and was allowed to credit the $18,000 against the tax reported due for 1954. Some years later, but before the period of limitations for collection of delinquent taxes had expired, the duplicate $18,000 credit was discovered, whereupon the Wichita office proceeded to collect the tax as a delinquent payment. The taxpayer paid the $18,000 plus interest and instituted this action for a refund.

This court initially rendered judgment in favor of the taxpayer upon the theory that the government’s deletion of the $18,000 in question from the plaintiff’s 1954 tax return was in the nature of an action for the recovery of an erroneous refund governed by 26 U.S.C. § 7405, [224] which contains a two-year statute of limitations (26 U.S.C. § 6532(b)) The government appealed and the Court of Appeals set the judgment aside and remanded the cause for disposition in accordance with its opinion. United States v. C & R Investments, Inc., 404 F.2d 314 (10th Cir. 1968). The Court of Appeals referred to Rushlight Automatic Sprinkler Co. v. United States, 294 F.2d 572, 574 (9th Cir. 1961), and Merlin v. Sanders, 243 F.2d 821 (5th Cir.1957), as authority for the proposition that the government had the alternative of using the deficiency collection procedure under the various provisions set forth in 26 U.S.C. § 6151 et seq. This court was directed to “make a determination relative to the propriety of the deficiency collection procedure in this specific factual setting”, and if it is determined that the procedural requirements were met, to resolve the case on the merits.

The filing of a consolidated return by the parent corporation is authorized by § 141 I.R.C. 1939 (as amended by § 159(a) Revenue Act of 1942). However, in this case, § 21.12(b), Treasury Regulations 129 (1939 Code), which requires that the taxpayer file the authorization and consent form, Form 1122, with the consolidated return, was not complied with. The plaintiff therefore argues that it had the right to direct that the $18,000 in the Wichita director’s suspense account be applied to payment of its 1954 tax liability.

There is no dispute that an officer of the plaintiff’s predecessor corporation notified the Wichita director that it would file a consolidated return and that no individual return would be filed by Sherold Crystals. It is also undisputed that credit for the $18,000 advance payment was taken on the consolidated return filed by the plaintiff’s parent corporation. Further, the officers of the plaintiff corporation were also officers of the parent corporation, and the plaintiff was a wholly owned subsidiary of the parent corporation, Standard Coil. In a factual situation closely analogous to this, the Tax Court held in Landy Towel and Linen Service, Inc. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 38 T.C. 296 (1962), aff’d per curiam, 317 F.2d 362 (3rd Cir. 1963), that the failure of a subsidiary to file Form 1102 with a consolidated return did not void the return so as to give the subsidiary the right to determine its tax liability for the years in question on a separate return. The court commented:

* * (I)t seems obvious that the requirement that the subsidiaries file the authorization and consent forms is an administrative provision for the protection of the Commissioner, and that the failure of the subsidiary corporations to file those forms did not prevent petitioners in this case from making a valid election of the consolidated return privilege.” (p. 301)

Furthermore, § 141 I.R.C. 1939 (as amended by § 159(a), Revenue Act of 1942) provides:

“* * * The making of consolidated returns shall be upon the condition that * * * an corporations which * * * have been members of the affiliated group * * * consent to all the consolidated return regulations * * *. The making of a consolidated return shall be considered as such consent." (Emphasis added.) See 26 C.F.R. § 1.1501.

To reason from these citations, it appears that the plaintiff in this action did not have the power to direct that the $18,000 payment in issue be applied to his 1954 tax liability, as it was bound by the contents of the consolidated return.

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C & R Investments, Inc. v. United States, 310 F. Supp. 222, 25 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 477, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12885 (D. Kan. 1969).

310 F. Supp. 222 (C & R Investments, Inc. v. United States) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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