Champion Paper & Fibre Co. v. Glander

71 N.E.2d 302, 48 Ohio Law. Abs. 129
CourtUnited States Board of Tax Appeals
DecidedJanuary 23, 1947
DocketNo. 11605
StatusPublished

This text of 71 N.E.2d 302 (Champion Paper & Fibre Co. v. Glander) 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
Champion Paper & Fibre Co. v. Glander, 71 N.E.2d 302, 48 Ohio Law. Abs. 129 (bta 1947).

Opinion

[130]*130ENTRY

This cause and matter came on to. be heard and considered by the Board of Tax Appeals upon an appeal filed herein under date of May 1, 1946, by the appellant above named, an Ohio corporation, from a final order of the tax commissioner under date of April 2, 1946, denying an application for review and correction theretofore filed by appellant from and with respect to a corporation franchise tax certification made by the tax commissioner. The case was heard by the Board of Tax Appeals upon said appeal, upon a transcript of the proceedings of the tax commissioner relating to said franchise tax assessment and certification, upon the evidence offered and introduced by the appellant on a hearing of the case before one of the members of the Board of Tax Appeals, and upon the briefs of counsel.

Upon consideration of the case as thus submitted, the Board of Tax Appeals finds that on or about the 31st day of March, 1945, the appellant, an Ohio corporation engaged in the manufacture of paper and pulp in this State and elsewhere, filed with the Department of Taxation of the State of Ohio its annual corporation franchise tax report for the tax year 1945; which tax report set out the property owned and business done by the corporation during its preceding fiscal year ending April 30, 1944. In and by this report the corporation returned the book value of all assets owned and used in Ohio in the sum of $28,355,859, and the book value of all assets owned and used outside of Ohio in the sum of $24,849,690, and the total book value of all of its assets in the sum of $53,205,-549. And by this report the appellant set out the total value of its issued and outstanding capital stock in the amount and value of $32,949,878. With said tax report and as a part of the same, the appellant filed a claim for deduction of certain items of valuation in and by the amount of which the appellant claimed the book value of its assets exceeded the fair value thereof.

The tax commissioner, on audit of the corporation’s tax report, added to the amount of the company’s Ohio assets, as [131]*131reported by it, the sum of $18,962 representing miscellaneous corporate stocks owned by the company, and the sum of $19,-414 representing the amount of the tax commissioner’s disallowance of a reserve set up by the company with respect to certain accounts receivable and investments owned by the company. Against the amount of the Ohio assets of the company thus obtained, the tax commissioner allowed as claims against the book value of the company’s Ohio assets the sum of $1,369,177 included in the claim for deduction filed by the company with its tax report; and in this manner the tax commissioner determined the fair value of the Ohio assets of the company to. be the sum of $27,025,058. The tax commissioner likewise made certain additions to and deductions from the total book value of all of the assets of the company, as shown by its tax report, and thereby determined the fair value of all of the assets of the company, wherever owned and held, in the sum of $51,833,786.

In the manner above indicated the tax commissioner determined the property fraction provided for by §5498 GC, and applying the same, together with the business fraction likewise computed by him, as provided by this section of the General Code (as to which business fraction no question is made in this case), the tax commissioner determined the taxable valuation of the issued and outstanding shares of stock of the company represented by the property owned and business done in this State in the sum of $16,106,782; upon which the corporation franchise tax extended at the rate'provided for in §5499 GC, was and is the sum of $16,106,78.

No complaint is made by appellant in its appeal herein or otherwise with respect to the above noted additions and deductions made by the tax commissioner in determining the fair value of the Ohio assets of .this company for said tax year. However, the appellant in its claim for deduction filed with its annual franchise tax report for said year, set out therein, besides the particular items upon which it claimed deductions as to valuations, a claim with respect to certain United States tax notes, so-called, in the amount of $4,101,777, which the appellant had included in the book value of its Ohio assets in its said tax report. As to this the claim of appellant was and is that these notes should not be included as assets of the corporation in determining the corporation franchise tax liability of the company for said tax year, and this for the stated reason that these notes did not represent an asset of the corporation, but were, in effect, a prepayment of the company’s Federal income tax and excess profits tax liability. This claim so made by the appellant was denied by the tax commissioner; [132]*132and the action of the tax commissioner in this respect is included as one of the assignments of error in this appeal. From the evidence in this case, as corrected by the witness for appellant, who testified on this point, the notes above referred to, which the company owned and held at the end of its preceding fiscal year on April 30, 1944, were United States Treasury Notes, Tax Series C of the amount and value of $4,101,777, as above stated. In this connection it is noted that in 6A, F C A Title 26, Sec. 3657 it is provided:

“Collectors may receive, at par with an adjustment for accrued interest, notes or certificates of indebtedness issued by the United States in payment of income, war profits and excess profits taxes, and any other taxes payable other than by stamp, during such time and under such rules and regulations as the Commissioner, with the approval of the Secretary, shall prescribe.”

Although these United States Treasury Notes in the amount above stated were acquired by the appellant company sometime prior to April 30, 1944, for the purpose of using the same in the payment of its Federal income and excess profits tax liability, as authorized by the section of the Federal Code above noted, these notes provide that if they are not presented in payment of taxes, they will be paid at maturity, or, at the option of the owner, will be redeemed for cash during and after the sixth calendar month following the month of issue, on thirty days advance notice, at par and accrued interest to the month of payment. In this view these notes had the character of investments and of assets of the company. And although, as obligations of the United States, these notes were not subject to ad valorem property taxes, they were properly included as a part of the assets of the company in determining its corporation franchise tax liability under the provisions of §5495, et seq., GC. See Home Insurance Company v New York, 134 U. S. 594.

[133]*133[132]*132In this connection it is noted that the appellant, in its claim for deduction filed with and as a part of its tax report for said tax year and thereafter in its application for review and correction and in its appeal filed herein, makes a further claim in the alternative that if these tax notes, so-called, cannot legally be deducted from the assets of the corporation in the determination of its corporation franchise tax liability for said year, only such proportion of the amount and value of such tax notes should be allocated to Ohio and as a part of the Ohio assets of the company as is represented by the percen[133]

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Related

Home Insurance v. New York State
134 U.S. 594 (Supreme Court, 1890)

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Bluebook (online)
71 N.E.2d 302, 48 Ohio Law. Abs. 129, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/champion-paper-fibre-co-v-glander-bta-1947.