Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. George M. Jones Co.

152 F.2d 358, 34 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 594, 1945 U.S. App. LEXIS 4110
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedDecember 12, 1945
DocketNo. 10012
StatusPublished

This text of 152 F.2d 358 (Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. George M. Jones Co.) 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
Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. George M. Jones Co., 152 F.2d 358, 34 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 594, 1945 U.S. App. LEXIS 4110 (6th Cir. 1945).

Opinion

MARTIN, Circuit Judge.

Although rulings upon several separate transactions were made by the Tax Court in a redetermination of deficiencies in the income tax of the respondent for the year 1934, only one issue is presented by this [359]*359petition for review. That issue is whether, in determining the gain of the. respondent corporation from its redemption in 1934 of the preferred stock of a wholly owned subsidiary corporation, the original basis of the taxpayer for the stock should be adjusted, under Section 113(b) of the Revenue Act of 1934, 26 U.S.C.A. Int.Rev.Acts page 700, and Article 113(b)-1 of Treasury Regulations 86, by reducing such basis by the amount of the subsidiary’s net losses which had offset the taxpayer’s net income in consolidated returns covering both corporations filed in years prior to 1934. The Tax Court, upholding the taxpayer’s basis in its return and reversing the determination of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, held that the basis of respondent taxpayer should not be so reduced.

The Tax Court found, as matters of fact, that on January 1, 1934, respondent, which then owned all the common stock of its subsidiary, The Ohio Collieries Company and still owned it at the end of the taxable year 1934, owned also all the preferred stock of the subsidiary company, that is, 10,000 shares of par value $100 each. The common stock had been acquired by respondent on February 16, 1917, at a cost of $10,449; and half of the preferred shares had been acquired on March 8, 1917, at a cash cost of $500,000, and the other half had been received as a stock dividend in 1922. The seven percent cumulative preferred stock was callable at $110 a share.

At the beginning of the taxable year 1934, the respondent was indebted to its subsidiary on open account in the sum of $2,911,905.33. On October 1, 1934, all the preferred shares of the Ohio Collieries Company were called for redemption, respondent surrendered the shares, and received a credit of $1,100,000 upon its open account.

As parent corporation, the respondent had filed consolidated income tax returns for the years 1924, 1925, and 1927 to 1933, inclusive, and had reported in each of those returns consolidated losses, with the result that respondent paid no income tax for any of those years.

In its return for 1934, the respondent reported as income the sum of $600,000, constituting the difference between its stated cost of $500,000 for the preferred shares and $1,100,000 credited upon the subsidiary’s books as the redemption value of the preferred shares.

The Commissioner increased to $1,100,-000 the profit of the respondent on the transaction. This was an increase of $500,-000 over respondent’s return. The rede-termination of the profit in the preferred stock redemption resulted from the adjustment by the Commissioner of the basis to the extent of $985,877.14, that being the total amount of the losses of the subsidiary of which respondent had availed itself on the consolidated returns filed in the prior years. This aggregate deduction in income during the prior years more than offset the $500,000 cost to respondent in the purchase of the preferred stock of the subsidiary. But the Tax Court found that, in 1934, the correct basis to respondent of the 10,000 shares of the preferred stock of its subsidiary was $500,000.

The respondent sought to establish a total base of more than $4,000,000 in consequence of the alleged transfer of assets to its subsidiary, The Ohio Collieries Company. The Tax Court, however, was plainly right in rejecting that insistence which found no substantial support in the evidence.

It becomes our function on this review to determine whether the decision of the Tax Court has “ ‘warrant in the record’ and a reasonable basis in the law.” If we cannot separate the elements of the decision “so as to identify a clear-cut mistake of law, the decision of the Tax Court must stand.” Dobson v. Commissioner, 320 U.S. 489, 501, 502, 64 S.Ct. 239, 247, 88 L.Ed. 248.

In an opinión not contained in its published reports but set forth in the record, the Tax Court took cognizance of the contention of the Commissioner that his action in adjusting the cash cost of the preferred shares, by application of losses of its subsidiary availed of by the respondent on consolidated returns filed in prior years, is supported by Article 113(b)-l of Treasury Regulations 86.1

The argument of the Commissioner was rejected by the Tax Court upon the ground [360]*360that Article 113(b)-! applies only where a taxpayer is claiming a loss and has had the benefit of deductions relative to its affiliate during the consolidated period, and that the double deduction rule is, therefore, not pertinent.

The Tax Court pointed to its previous decision in Jordahl & Company v. Commissioner, 35 B.T.A. 1136, which, it was declared, had been reviewed by the Board of Tax Appeals and acquiesced in by the Commissioner. 1938, Vol. 1, C.B. p. 17. Quoting from its opinion in the Jordahl case and declaring that Ilfeld Co. v. Hernandez, 292 U.S. 62, 54 S.Ct. 596, 78 L.Ed. 1127, and other like cases deal only with loss deductions, the court said: “There is no implication that the rule therein stated is to govern in the computation of a taxable gain to the parent corporation. The necessity for the rule restricting the loss deductions, as the court pointed out, is to prevent a parent corporation from twice deducting the losses of a subsidiary corporation. * * * In Remington Rand, Inc. v. Commissioner, 2 Cir., 33 F.2d 77, cited in Ilfeld Co. v. Hernandez, supra, the court held that a subsidiary company’s accumulated earnings could not be added to the cost of the stock in determining the parent company’s taxable gain on its sale to outside interests. As a corollary the subsidiary’s losses should not be subtracted from the cost' of the stock in determining the parent company’s gain. * * * Tbe basis in the hands of a parent corporation of the shares of a subsidiary is not affected by the operating losses of the subsidiary and must be determined as provided in the statute. * * *"

The Tax Court met the argument of the Commissioner, that the Jordahl case is not in point inasmuch as there the year involved was 1927 while here the consolidated return embraced the years 1929 to 1933, inclusive. Manchester Savings Bank and Trust Co. v. Commissioner, 34 B.T.A. 1008, relied upon by the Commissioner, was .distinguished, in that there the liquidation was complete, the affiliation with its subsidiary was destroyed, and the decision was based on Article 34(c), Regulations 78, while here the redemption of the preferred stock of the subsidiary owned by the parent company did not terminate the affiliation and was made subsequent to 1933, the last year in which consolidated returns were permitted to be filed.

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Related

Charles Ilfeld Co. v. Hernandez
292 U.S. 62 (Supreme Court, 1934)
McLaughlin v. Pacific Lumber Co.
293 U.S. 351 (Supreme Court, 1934)
Dobson v. Commissioner
320 U.S. 489 (Supreme Court, 1944)
McDonald v. Commissioner
323 U.S. 57 (Supreme Court, 1944)
Commissioner v. Scottish American Investment Co.
323 U.S. 119 (Supreme Court, 1945)
Trust Under the Will of Bingham v. Commissioner
325 U.S. 365 (Supreme Court, 1945)
Boehm v. Commissioner
326 U.S. 287 (Supreme Court, 1945)
Manchester Sav. Bank & Trust Co. v. Commissioner
34 B.T.A. 1008 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1936)
Jordahl & Co. v. Commissioner
35 B.T.A. 1136 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1937)
United States v. Lakewood Engineering Co.
70 F.2d 887 (Sixth Circuit, 1934)
Commissioner v. National Casket Co.
78 F.2d 940 (Third Circuit, 1935)
Greif Cooperage Corp. v. Commissioner
85 F.2d 365 (Third Circuit, 1936)
Weil v. Commissioner
92 F.2d 1022 (Sixth Circuit, 1937)

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Bluebook (online)
152 F.2d 358, 34 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 594, 1945 U.S. App. LEXIS 4110, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commissioner-of-internal-revenue-v-george-m-jones-co-ca6-1945.