Colonial Milling Co. v. Commissioner

132 F.2d 505, 30 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 624, 1942 U.S. App. LEXIS 2631
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedDecember 10, 1942
DocketNo. 9173
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 132 F.2d 505 (Colonial Milling Co. v. Commissioner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Colonial Milling Co. v. Commissioner, 132 F.2d 505, 30 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 624, 1942 U.S. App. LEXIS 2631 (6th Cir. 1942).

Opinion

ALLEN, Circuit Judge.

This is a petition to review a decision of the United States Processing. Tax Board of Review which denied a refund of any portion of the amount paid by petitioner as processing tax. Petitioner’s amended claim, filed with the Commissioner, requested a refund of $108,518.30, and after due notice of disallowance of its claim petitioner filed with the Processing Tax Board a petition for review. The case was heard upon oral evidence and a stipulation of fact.

Petitioner is a Tennessee corporation which prior to and on May 12, 1933, the date of the enactment of the Agricultural Adjustment Act, c. 25, 48 Stat. 31, 7 U.S. C.A. § 601 et seq., and continuously thereafter has been engaged in the milling of wheat into flour and mill feed at Nashville, Tennessee. During the period from July 9, 1933, to March 31, 1935, inclusive, petitioner paid to the Collector of Internal Revenue on account of its first domestic processing of wheat, a processing tax in the total sum of $237,167.34.

Petitioner bought some of its wheat locally, and some of it in Chicago, St. Louis, Louisville and Indianapolis.

The Board found that beginning July 9, 1933, petitioner had on hand certain orders for flour which had not been shipped. On these orders it increased the price by $1.38 per barrel of flour as the amount of processing tax due thereon. With respect to all orders received and sales made after the processing tax went into effect, petitioner added the tax into its price computation and attempted to sell the flour at a price sufficient to get the tax back. Petitioner sold its flour in competition for what it could get at prices.that would vary from day to day and would vary with respect to sales to different customers on the same day.

The statutory provisions governing refunds of processing tax are sections 902-916 of the Revenue Act of 1936, 7 U.S.C.A. §§ 644-658. Section 902 provides that no refund of processing tax shall be made or allowed “unless the claimant establishes to the satisfaction of the Commissioner * * * or the Board of Review * * * that he bore the burden of such amount and has not been relieved thereof nor reimbursed therefor nor shifted such burden, directly or indirectly, (1) through inclusion of such amount by the claimant * * * in the price of- any article * * * processed from any commodity * * *; (2) through reduction of the price paid for any such commodity; or (3) in any manner whatsoever * *

The Board concluded that none of the burden of the amount paid or collected was borne by the petitioner but that such burden was shifted to others, and hence denied the refund.

It was found by the Board, and is conceded here, that the average margin per unit of the commodity processed computed in conformity with section 907 (printed in the margin)1 was not lower during the tax [508]*508period than the average margin during the period before and after the tax. In fact it was 4y2 to 5 cents higher. Hence under section 907(a) there is prima-facie. evidence that none of the burden of the amount paid or collected as processing tax was borne by the petitioner, but that it was shifted to others.

Petitioner contends that the adverse presumption established by section 907(a) does not exist if the average margin per bushel of 'wheat, taken to be 43.905 cents per bushel for the tax period is compared with an average margin computed upon the entire period of its operation from September 1, 1925, through March 31, 1937, excluding the tax period. So calculated, it claims that the average margin for the period before and after the tax would be 56.777 cents per bushel of wheat, and if this figure were used as a basis for determining whether or not petitioner had shifted the tax, the petitioner would be entitled to a refund in the amount of $108,518.20. It urges that the statutory period is an unfair time within which to test petitioner’s average margin, because it includes part of the national depression period of 1932 and 1933. We think that this fact is immaterial.' Congress had power to enact this statute (Anniston Mfg. Co. v. Davis, 301 U.S. 337, 57 S.Ct. 816, 81 L.Ed. 1143) and to establish the basis of comparison. No discrimination exists in its application here, and we overrule this objection.

Petitioner next contends that the statutory period is unfair as a basis for comparison of the average margins because of a special situation which existed in its business within the two years prior to the tax period. The statute provides that the period before and after the tax means the twenty-four months immediately preceding the effective date of the processing tax and the six months February to July, 1936, inclusive. The claimant may, however, rebut the adverse presumption by proof of the actual extent to which he did or did not shift to others the burden of the processing tax. Section 907(e). This proof may include evidence that the difference between the average margin for the tax period and the average margin for the period before and after the tax was due to changes in factors other than the tax. Petitioner contends that during 1931 and 1932 it was closing out certain retail stores and taking unusual losses, and that this constituted a factor other than the tax affecting the differential between the margins. We agree with petitioner that such facts, if proved as alleged, would tend to rebut the adverse presumption. But the Board was not satisfied that any such factor affected the adverse margin and no substantial evidence was presented to that effect. No records whatever were kept of the alleged losses, and petitioner’s general manager conceded that he could give no figures as to the items thereof. Moreover, it appears that in the fiscal years ending June 30, 1934, and June 30, 1935, which included the entire tax period, the petitioner made its out-of-pocket expenses as well as certain substantial profits, while in the so-called normal years ending June 30, 1926 and 1927 respectively, the petitioner operated at a loss. We conclude, therefore, that there is no merit in the contention that the statutory period is an unfair time within which to establish petitioner’s average margin. Cf. United States v. H. T. Poindexter & Sons Merchandise Co., 8 Cir., 128 F.2d 992.

Petitioner next asserts that the statutory presumption is completely rebutted by its evidence of specific sales upon which it claims to have failed to recover the processing tax. It introduced elaborate analyses of sales aggregating 135,400 barrels of flour, the original invoices showing the prices received, and a detailed analysis of the various costs taken from its records. Petitioner sold 189,417 barrels of flour during the tax period, in numerous transactions which usually involved the sale of a relatively small number of barrels. It admitted that in the sale of 54,017 barrels it shifted the burden of the tax by including the tax [509]*509in the price received plus a profit of 25 cents per barrel, but claimed that in the sale of the remaining 135,400 barrels it absorbed the tax either in whole or in part. The invoices and the actual figures covering the transactions in the sale of the 54,017 barrels of flour were not introduced in evidence.

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Bluebook (online)
132 F.2d 505, 30 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 624, 1942 U.S. App. LEXIS 2631, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/colonial-milling-co-v-commissioner-ca6-1942.