Carey Salt Co. v. Commissioner

26 B.T.A. 675, 1932 BTA LEXIS 1276
CourtUnited States Board of Tax Appeals
DecidedJuly 19, 1932
DocketDocket Nos. 36381, 36382.
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 26 B.T.A. 675 (Carey Salt Co. 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
Carey Salt Co. v. Commissioner, 26 B.T.A. 675, 1932 BTA LEXIS 1276 (bta 1932).

Opinion

OPINION.

Goodrich :

In these proceedings, which were consolidated for hearing, we are asked to redetermine deficiencies asserted by respondent against the Emerson Carey Fibre Products Company for the years 1923 and 1925 in the amounts of $13,594.35 and $12,721.22, respectively, and against the Carey Salt Company for the years 1923 and, 1924 in the amounts of $3,685.23 and $76.35, respectively. At the hearing allegations of error relating to depletion and depreciation were waived, leaving, as the sole issue for our determination, whether respondent erred in disallowing as a deduction from income for the year 1923 a loss sustained upon the liquidation of the Gazette Printing Company, a corporation.

Depositions on behalf of petitioners, together with certain exhibits, were lodged with the clerk on September 23, 1929, but, since they were not offered and received in evidence, we will not consider them in determining the issue before us. Attention is directed to Pules 29 and 46 of the Board’s rules of practice. See also Hotel Plaza Co., 25 B. T. A. 95.

The following stipulation of facts was agreed.to upon the record:

At all times herein referred to the above-named petitioners were Kansas corporations, with principal place of business at Hutchinson, Kansas. The entire capital stock of the petitioners was owned by members of the Carey family, and for the year 1917 and years subsequent thereto, including the taxable year herein involved, the said companies were affiliated as a Class B affiliation, and as such filed for each of the years named, a consolidated return. The deficiency proposed by the respondent for the calendar year 1923 was allocated to the respective corporations in accordance with the provision of Section 240 (b) of the Revenue Act of 1921.
In the latter part of the year 1916 the members of the Carey family caused to be organized under and by virtue of the laws of the State of Kansas, the corporation known as the Gazette Printing Company, and assigned to said company in exchange for its entire capital stock, the assets of a job printing company formerly known as the Mid-West Printing Company which had been acquired by the Carey family by assignment in lieu of foreclosure proceedings under the terms of a mortgage held by said family on said assets. The total cost of the stock of the Gazette Printing Company at the time acquired by the Carey family was $18,766.50, and was carried at that figure on the books of the Carey Salt Company.
Por the year 1918 and subsequent years, including the taxable year herein involved, the Gazette Printing Company was affiliated with the petitioners, and for each of said years filed a consolidated return with the petitioners.
[677]*677During all of tlie years herein referred to the Gazette Printing Company conducted a job printing business in the City of Hutchinson, Kansas. For each year the operations of the company resulted in a net loss as follows:
1917. $5, 917. 38
1918. 4, 969. 81
1919. 8, 089.36
1920. 12, 513.40
1921. 39,138. 86
1922. 50, 767.17
1923. 17, 416. 90
The loss for each year of affiliation was reflected in the consolidated balance sheet of the affiliated group, and taken as a deduction in arriving at the taxable income of the consolidated group for each year.
From time to time during the period of the operation of the Gazette Printing Company, the Carey Salt Company, one of the members of the affiliated group, loaned to said Gazette Printing Company a total sum of $87,192.43 for which promissory notes of the latter company were received by the Carey Salt Company.
During the same period of operation the Carey Salt Company advanced to the Gazette Printing Company the sum of $65,488.02 on open account which was carried on the books of the Carey Salt Company as an ordinary 'account receivable, of and from the Gazette Printing Company.
In the year 1923 the Gazette Printing Company was liquidated, and the assets received by the Carey interests, by reason thereof, were sold in that year to one Ross Burns for $25,000.00, paid as follows: $6,500.00 in cash and a promissory note for $18,500.00.
The cost of the assets as of the date of sale in 1923 was $54,474.67.
On March 26, 1925, tire stock of the Gazette Printing Company was cancelled and its charter forfeited. .
In closing the books of the Carey Salt Company for the year 1923 the sum of $87,192.43, representing loans, and the sum of $65,488.02, representing advances, made by the Carey Salt Company to the Gazette Printing Company were charged off on the books of the Carey Salt Company as a bad debt.

Respondent disallowed as a deduction from income for the year 1923 the amounts totaling $152,680.45, previously advanced by the petitioner, Carey Salt Company, to the Gazette Printing Company upon notes and open account, and charged off as worthless upon the liquidation of the Gazette Company. Since the answer filed by respondent in the case is but a general denial, and his counsel have not favored us with a brief setting forth his theory of the case, the only intimation we have of his reason for his action is contained in a statement in the deficiency notice to the effect that he regards this item as an intercompany transaction in connection with the liquidation of a subsidiary company and therefore not allowable as a deduction.

We think the petitioner, Carey Salt Company, sustained a deductible loss. Upon liquidation of the Gazette Printing Company the affiliation previously existing between it and petitioners was terminated. The Carey Salt Company’s claims were then determined to be worthless, its losses upon these debts were sustained, and, having [678]*678been charged off, may be deducted; since, resulting from the liquidation, they occurred outside the period of affiliation and were not sustained in an intercompany transaction. Aluminum Goods Manufacturing Co., 22 B. T. A. 1; reversed, 56 Fed. (2d) 568; Remington Rand, Inc., 11 B. T. A. 773; reversed, 33 Fed. (2d) 77; certiorari denied, 280 U. S. 591; United Publishers Corporation v. Anderson, 42 Fed. (2d) 787; American Printing Co. v. United States, 53 Fed. (2d) 98; Riggs National Bank, 17 B. T. A. 615; aff'd., 57 Fed. (2d) 980; Universal Corporation, 18 B. T. A. 319; Obenchain-Boyer Co., 18 B. T. A. 293; Manatee Crate Co., 22 B. T. A. 996; Canal-Commercial Trust & Savings Bank, 22 B. T. A. 541; Roy & Titcomb, Inc., 23 B. T. A. 12.

Upon brief petitioners argue that the claimed loss should be further increased by the amount of $29,474.67, being the difference between $54,474.67, the cost of the assets of Gazette Printing Company, and $25,000, the sales price thereof, and by the amount of $18,766.50, the cost of the stock of the company, thus treating the total loss from the several sources as one sustained upon liquidation.

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Carey Salt Co. v. Commissioner
26 B.T.A. 675 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1932)

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Bluebook (online)
26 B.T.A. 675, 1932 BTA LEXIS 1276, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carey-salt-co-v-commissioner-bta-1932.