Ciba Pharmaceutical Products, Inc. v. Commissioner

35 T.C. 337, 1960 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 17
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedNovember 25, 1960
DocketDocket No. 45364
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 35 T.C. 337 (Ciba Pharmaceutical Products, 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
Ciba Pharmaceutical Products, Inc. v. Commissioner, 35 T.C. 337, 1960 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 17 (tax 1960).

Opinions

Mulronet, Judge:

The respondent disallowed in part the petitioner’s applications for excess profits tax relief under section 722 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1939 1 for the years 1940 through 1944 and disallowed in full the petitioner’s application for relief mider section 722 for the year 1945. Respondent allowed the petitioner a constructive average base period net income of $295,000 for the year 1940 and $400,400 for the years 1941 through 1945. In his notice of deficiency and of disallowance (under sections 272 and 732), the respondent accordingly determined overassessments of excess profits tax and corresponding deficiencies in income tax as follows:

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Kespondent explained that the 80 per cent limitation provided for in section 710(a) (1) (B) precludes any relief for the year 1945 under section 722.

The questions before us are:

(1) Whether the petitioner, under sections 722(a) and 722 (b) (4), is entitled to a constructive average base period net income in excess of that allowed by the respondent for the years 1940 through 1945.

(2) Whether the petitioner’s average base period net income is an inadequate standard of normal earnings because its business was depressed during the base period by temporary economic circumstances unusual in its case within the meaning of section 722(b) (2).

(3) Whether the petitioner is entitled to a refund of amounts of tax and interest withheld by it in connection with royalty payments made by it in 1944 and 1945 to its parent company, Society of Chemical Industry in Basle, Switzerland, and paid by the petitioner to the respondent.

(4) Whether in computing petitioner’s excess profits tax liability the petitioner is entitled to deductions under section 23 (p) in the amounts of $100,000 and $97,658 in 1944 and 1945, respectively, for contributions made to an employee’s profit-sharing trust.

FINDINGS OF FACT.

Some of the facts have been stipulated and they are herein incorporated by this reference.

Ciba Pharmaceutical Products, Inc., hereinafter called petitioner, is a corporation organized under the laws of the State of New Jersey on July 15, 1936. Its principal office is in Summit, New Jersey. Its Federal income and excess profits tax returns for the years here involved were filed with the then collector of internal revenue at Newark, New Jersey.

The pharmaceutical industry is divided into two groups, the proprietary and ethical. In the proprietary group the pharmaceutical product is promoted and sold directly to the consumer, while in the ethical group the product is promoted with the medical and allied professions. Petitioner is in the ethical pharmaceutical group and its method of approach is through the medium of professional service representatives who call personally on physicians, through the medium of direct mail, and through the medium of general advertising, coupled with research done in various institutions.

The Food and Drug Administration decides whether a product is to be sold as an ethical or proprietary medium. It instructs the manufacturer whether a product is to bear a label requiring a prescription or is to be labeled for over-the-counter sale. Some of the petitioner’s products are proprietary drugs.

Petitioner commenced operations in May 1937, at which time it occupied a newly constructed industrial plant in Summit, New Jersey. At all times the petitioner kept its books and filed its Federal tax returns on a calendar year basis and on an accrual method of accounting. Petitioner is a wholly owned subsidiary of a Swiss corporation, Society of Chemical Industry in Basle, Switzerland. In 1920 the parent corporation, hereinafter referred to as the Society in Basle, or the Society, organized as a wholly owned subsidiary a New York corporation, Ciba Company, Inc., hereinafter referred to as Ciba of New York. From the date of its organization in 1920, Ciba of New York sold in the United States products manufactured by the Society in Basle and imported by Ciba of New York in finished packages. In 1925 Ciba of New York started to have manufactured for it by independent manufacturers in the United States under United States patents issued or assigned to the Society in Basle, bulk pharmaceutical products which Ciba of New York packaged on its own premises and sold in the United States under trade names owned by the Society in Basle. In addition to the packaging and sale of pharmaceutical products, Ciba of New York also engaged in similar operations with respect to industrial dyes.

On May 21,1937, Ciba of New York sold inventories of pharmaceutical products to the petitioner at the book value of $170,351.77, and, in addition, the petitioner acquired from Ciba of New York its accounts receivable at book value of $68,123.21, its machinery and equipment at book value of $22,443.58, and its list of pharmaceutical customers at no cost to the petitioner. After this date Ciba of New York engaged in no way in the packaging or sale of pharmaceutical products, and effective May 21, 1937, the Society in Basle terminated its pharmaceutical license agreement with Ciba of New York. Also on this same date, the petitioner employed Hein Kamp as general manager, V. A. Burgher as sales manager and N. F. Storm as production manager, and K. Zimmerman as assistant treasurer and office manager. These individuals were formerly employed by Ciba of New York, and, with the exception of Zimmerman, in similar positions.

On May 24, 1937, the petitioner entered into a “License Agreement” with, the Society in Basle granting to petitioner the exclusive right and license to practice the processes and to make, use, or sell the articles, predominantly pharmaceutical in nature, covered by certain United States patents owned by the Society and to use certain of the Society’s trademarks (registered in the United States) throughout the United States and its territories and dependencies for an indefinite period of time in return for the payment to the Society of a royalty amounting to 5 per cent of the petitioner’s net selling price of the articles or materials sold. The agreement includes schedules showing 59 United States letters patent and 42 United States registered trademarks which are covered by the licensing agreement. The agreement specified, however, that “the term ‘the Patents’ means not only the patents and applications listed in the annexed schedule but also all other United States patents and applications therefor and improvements therein that may be hereafter issued to or otherwise acquired by licen-sor for the production or use of pharmaceutical specialties, pharmaceutical chemicals or cosmetic materials or processes.”

On October 1,1939, the “License Agreement” was amended to permit the petitioner to operate under the agreement not only in the United States and its territories and dependencies but throughout the world. This supplemental agreement of October 1,1939, stated that the “outbreak of war in Europe has made it desirable” to modify the earlier agreement.

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Ciba Pharmaceutical Products, Inc. v. Commissioner
35 T.C. 337 (U.S. Tax Court, 1960)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
35 T.C. 337, 1960 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 17, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ciba-pharmaceutical-products-inc-v-commissioner-tax-1960.