Community of the Heirs of Fajardo v. Tax Court of Puerto Rico

73 P.R. 499
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedJune 9, 1952
DocketNo. 272
StatusPublished

This text of 73 P.R. 499 (Community of the Heirs of Fajardo v. Tax Court of Puerto Rico) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Community of the Heirs of Fajardo v. Tax Court of Puerto Rico, 73 P.R. 499 (prsupreme 1952).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Snyder

delivered the opinion of the Court.

In Buscaglia, Treas. v. Tax Court, Community of the Heirs of Fajardo, Intervener, 70 P.R.R. 93, we affirmed the decision of the Tax Court to the effect that the Community was not taxable as a sociedad for the years 1938 and 1939 under $ 2(a)(3) of the Income Tax Act; but, reversing the Tax Court, we held that the Community was taxable for 1940 as a sociedad operating a joint venture, in view of the amendment of § 2(a) (3) found in Act No. 31, Laws of Puerto Rico, 1941, which was made retroactive to. January [501]*5011, 1940 by § 29 of Act No. 31.1 We remanded the case in order for the Tax Court to determine whether the Treasurer acted correctly in imposing on the Community a 25 per cent penalty for failure to file a return for 1940 as a sociedad, and for further proceedings.

On remand, the Tax Court held that the Treasurer had acted properly in imposing the 25 per cent penalty and in disallowing deductions of interest paid by the Community to the Central Eureka, Inc. We granted the petition for cer-tiorari filed by the taxpayer to review the decision of the Tax Court as to these two questions and as to the method used by the Tax Court to compute the tax.

We examine first the contention of the petitioner with reference to the 25 per cent penalty. As already noted, the petitioner was made taxable for the first time a's a sociedad operating a joint venture by Act No. 31 of 1941. That Act was made retroactive to January 1, 1940; it therefore applied to the taxpayer’s fiscal year ending June 30, 1940. But since Act No. 31 was not enacted until April 12, 1941, the petitioner had of course filed no return on or before September 15, 1940 for the fiscal year 1939-40.2 However, the Legislature foresaw this contingency. It took care of the situation by providing in § 26 of Act No. 31 that “Every person required to make a return in accordance with the provisions of this Act, as amended, and every person who, for any reason, may have failed to make his return on March 15, 1941, in spite of the fact that he was so required under the Act in force on that date, may make his return within the thirty (30) days following the effective date of this Act and pay the tax corresponding to the taxable year of 1940, and, upon so doing, he shall not incur the penalties pre[502]*502scribed in the first paragraph of subdivision (2) of Section 77 of this Act.”

This means that the taxpayer knew as of April 12, 1941 that it would be required to file a return within four months for the fiscal year 1939-40.3 The taxpayer never filed the return. Instead, the Treasurer made a return in 1944 from his own knowledge pursuant to § 70(a) of the Income Tax Act.4

In seeking to avoid the penalty for failing to file its return for 1940 pursuant to § 26, the taxpayer relies on § 70(6) of the Income Tax Act, reading as follows:

“(6) The Treasurer shall determine and assess all taxes as to which returns or lists are so made under the provisions of this Section. In case of any failure to make and file a return or list within the time prescribed by law, or prescribed by the Treasurer in pursuance of law, the Treasurer shall add to the tax 25 per centum of its amount, except that when a return is filed after such time and it is shown that the failure to file it was due to a reasonable cause and not to wilful neglect, no such addition shall be made to the tax. In case a false or fraudulent return or list is willfully made, the Treasurer, shall add to the tax 50 per centum of its amount.”

The petitioner contends that its failure to file a return for 1940 as a joint venture was due to a “reasonable cause and not to wilful neglect ... ”. In support of this contention, it argues as follows: (1) it was uncertain that it was taxable as a joint venture until we reversed the Tax Court and held in favor of the Treasurer on that question; [503]*503(2) on the advice of an account, it filed a return as a socie-dad5 in September, 1941 for the fiscal year 1940-41 with a view to litigating the question by a suit for refund; (3) counsel for the Treasurer stated at the trial in the Tax Court, apparently in view of previous decisions, that the petitioner was not required to pay income tax as a sociedad for 1940 as Act No. 31 of 1941 did not have that retroactive effect in the instant case; (4) the individual returns of the various co-owners reflected their incomes from the petitioner.

We would be required to weigh these arguments and pass on their validity if our statute were similar to the present Federal Act and authorized the Treasurer to forego the penalty where there was a reasonable cause for the failure to file a return. See 10 Mertens, Law of Federal Income Taxation, p. 42 et seq; Reisner, Relief from Delinquency Penalties: The Internal Revenue Code, 98 U. of Pa. L. Rev. 183. But the Tax Court correctly pointed out in its opinion that the “reasonable cause” set forth in § 70(6) comes into play only if a return is actually but tardily filed. Where as here no return whatsoever is filed by the taxpayer, the 25 per cent penalty is mandatory. The Supreme Court of the United States interpreted a similar provision in the earlier 1934 Federal Act in this way. “This provision excuses late filing, for reasonable cause, but not complete failure to file.” Commissioner v. Lane-Wells Co., 321 U. S. 219, 224, footnote 11; 10 Mertens, supra, pp. 37-38; Reisner, supra, p. 184.

Congress apparently felt that this was a harsh provision. In 1936 it amended the Federal statute to provide that the. penalty could be lifted even if no return was filed, provided the failure to file a return was for a reasonable cause. But our statute has not been amended in a similar fashion. We [504]*504are therefore constrained to hold that the 25 per cent penalty automatically attaches upon a mere showing as here of a failure by the taxpayer to file a return at any time.

The second question is whether the Tax Court erred in disallowing the deductions of interest payments made by the Community to Central Eureka, Inc., during 1940 and 1941. Prior to passage, of Act No. 31 of 1941, these interest payments would unquestionably have been deductible under § 32(a) (2) of the Income Tax Act.6 But Act No. 31 amended § 32(a) (2) by adding thereto the following:

“Provided, That interest shall not be deductible when payable between an individual and a corporation or partnership when the individual owns or controls, directly or indirectly, or through his family, more than fifty (50) per cent of the value of the outstanding stock of the corporation or more than fifty (50) per cent of the social capital, or between txoo corporations when one of them owns or controls more than fifty (50) per cent of the outstanding stock of the other corporation. The definitions of the term family contained in this Act shall be applicable for the purposes of this section.” (Italics ours.)

It is undisputed that during 1940 and 1941 the co-owners of the property of the Community owned more than 50 per cent of the outstanding stock of Central Eureka, Inc. The Tax Court therefore held that under the quoted

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Iselin v. United States
270 U.S. 245 (Supreme Court, 1926)
Commissioner v. Lane-Wells Co.
321 U.S. 219 (Supreme Court, 1944)
Hatfried, Inc. v. Commissioner of Internal Rev.
162 F.2d 628 (Third Circuit, 1947)
Girard Inv. Co. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue
122 F.2d 843 (Third Circuit, 1941)
Rullan v. Buscaglia
168 F.2d 401 (First Circuit, 1948)

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73 P.R. 499, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/community-of-the-heirs-of-fajardo-v-tax-court-of-puerto-rico-prsupreme-1952.