Chapin v. Commissioner

33 B.T.A. 688, 1935 BTA LEXIS 716
CourtUnited States Board of Tax Appeals
DecidedDecember 11, 1935
DocketDocket No. 59994.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 33 B.T.A. 688 (Chapin 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
Chapin v. Commissioner, 33 B.T.A. 688, 1935 BTA LEXIS 716 (bta 1935).

Opinion

[689]*689OPINION.

Seawell:

Respondent determined a deficiency in income tax of petitioner for the year 1927 in the amount of $19,746.56.

The deficiency arises, in part, by reason of the respondent’s determination that the petitioner realized taxable gain of $151,146.91 on the sale of a parcel of land based upon a fair market value of $100 per share for stock received as part of the consideration for the property, and further gain of $28,582.85 realized from a sale later in the year of a portion of the stock so received, computed on a cost basis of $100 per share. In his return for 1927 the petitioner placed no fair market value on the stock, and, since the cash received in the sale was less than his cost basis, reported no gain. As to the stock subsequently sold, he reported gain computed by deducting from the selling price the unrecovered cost basis of the land, increased by the amount of an assessment. The question is the fair market value, if any, of the shares of stock at the time received, the contention of the respondent being that it had a fair market value of $100 per share, as determined by him, and the claim of the petitioner being that the stock had no fair market value at that time.

The case was submitted upon a stipulation covering substantially all the facts and the tetsimony of one witness called by petitioner.

Petitioner is an individual, residing in Chicago, Illinois. In 1916 he purchased for investment at a total cost of $73,853.09 a parcel of real estate in Chicago fronting on Lincoln Park at No. 2430 Lake View Avenue, this realty being hereinafter referred to as the Lake View Site.

On or about November 19, 1926, petitioner and eight other men agreed orally to organize a corporation to acquire said Lake View Site and construct a cooperative apartment building thereon under a plan hereinafter appearing. Accordingly, on November 19, 1926, a corporation was organized under the laws of the State of Illinois by petitioner and the eight others, under the name of 2430 Lake View Avenue Corporation (the name was changed on December 24, 1926, to 2430 Lake View Avenue Building Corporation, hereinafter sometimes referred to as the building corporation). The authorized capital stock of the corporation was $550,000, represented by 5,500 shares of stock of the par value of $100 per share. There were nine stockholders, including petitioner, when the corporation was organized, but immediately thereafter another joined in the agreement with reference to the cooperative apartment and became the tenth stockholder, the ten being sometimes referred to hereinafter as the original stockholders. The entire authorized capital stock of the building corporation was subscribed for by the original stockholders at par. The petitioner received 1,750 shares thereof together [690]*690witli $50,000 in cash, all in the year 1927, for the conveyance by him to the building corporation o.f the Lake View Site. This transaction was entered on the books of the building corporation at a cost to it of $225,000. The remaining 3,750 shares of the stock were issued in equal blocks of 416% shares to each of the nine other original stockholders, as it had been subscribed. Under the plan adopted (at first orally, later embraced in the bylaws) the ownership of 323-9/17 shares of stock of the building corporation was a prerequisite to owning a proprietary lease in the apartment building. Each of the original stockholders held and retained such number of shares, designated as qualifying shares, in addition to shares not so designated. The original stockholders agreed, and it was later incorporated in the bylaws of the building corporation, that the stock in excess of qualifying shares held by each should be held for resale on the holders’ own account, and that the stock should be sold only in blocks of 323-9/17 shares, contributed by all the stockholders proportionately out of their several holdings of stock above qualifying shares.

About the end of November 1927 an 18-story apartment building, containing 17 apartments, with space for laundry and storage room for each apartment on the basement floor, was completed on the Lake View Site at a cost of $1,113,940.88. It stood in an almost unbroken line of the finest and most desirable skyscraper hotel and apartment buildings existing in Chicago.” Money borrowed from a bank was used to pay part of the cost of construction and became an indebtedness thereafter assumed or paid proportionately by leaseholders. Apartments were allotted to each of the original stockholders. The entire fourth floor was allotted to petitioner, with usual basement space, The other nine original stockholders were each allotted a duplex apartment, that is, one half of two contiguous floors, one above the other, with basement space. This allotment of space to the original stockholders was agreed upon when the building corporation was organized.

Pursuant to authority granted by resolution of the board of directors of the building corporation on November 18, 1927, the ten original stockholders sold and transferred to Iver Lawson and E. A. Cudahy 323-9/17 shares each of the stock of the building corporation ; and the proper officers of the corporation, under like authority, leased to Lawson the south apartment on the seventh and eighth floors, together with basement space, and to Cudahy the south apartment on the ninth and tenth floors, together with basement space. These leases commenced December 1, 1927, and the term extends to April 30, 2026. This is the term provided in the bylaws and in a form of lease prescribed November 18, 1927, by the building corporation for [691]*691all leases. The lease to the original stockholders contains the same term. Laivson and Cudahy each paid for the transfer of the stock and the granting of the “ proprietary leases ” the sum of $55,000 in cash to the former owners of the stock, and each assumed all the obligations contained in his proprietary lease contract, including payment of his pro rata share of the outstanding indebtedness of the corporation, of which $44,117.65 was apportioned to each apartment. Lawson paid the indebtedness apportioned to his apartment on December 1, 1927, and Cudahy paid that apportioned to his apartment on February 3, 1928. Of the $110,000 paid for stock in cash by Lawson and Cudahy, each of the original stockholders was credited with and received during 1927 an amount bearing the same relation to $110,000 as the stock of the original stockholders in excess of 323-9/17 qualifying shares of each bore to all such excess stock, and upon Lawson and Cudahy receiving their leases the original stockholders were relieved from all liability with respect to the two apartments taken by Lawson and Cudahy. The number of petitioner’s shares sold to Lawson and Cudahy was 408.3264, for which petitioner received $69,415.49. On June 22, 1928, qualifying shares were sold to one Frank E. Wilhelm, with a proprietary lease of an apartment, for the same consideration as paid by Lawson and Cudahy each.

Upon the foregoing and all pertinent facts of the case, respondent contends that the shares of stock of the building corporation had a fair market value of $100 per share when acquired by petitioner, and that that value was petitioner’s basis upon his sale of 408.3264 shares to Lawson and Cudahy.

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Related

Baldwin v. Commissioner
1959 T.C. Memo. 203 (U.S. Tax Court, 1959)
Chapin v. Commissioner
33 B.T.A. 688 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1935)

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Bluebook (online)
33 B.T.A. 688, 1935 BTA LEXIS 716, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chapin-v-commissioner-bta-1935.