Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. Employees' Retirement Fund v. Commissioner

36 T.C. 96, 1961 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 175
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedApril 17, 1961
DocketDocket No. 84279
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 36 T.C. 96 (Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. Employees' Retirement Fund 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
Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. Employees' Retirement Fund v. Commissioner, 36 T.C. 96, 1961 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 175 (tax 1961).

Opinion

OPINION.

Muironey, Judge:

The respondent determined deficiencies in petitioner’s income tax for the years 1956 and 1957 in the respective amounts of $2,602.55 and $1,783.84.

Petitioner is an employees’ trust, and the issue is whether the rental income it received under a lease of 20 machines is subject to the tax imposed by section 511 of the Internal Revenue Code of 19541 on unrelated business taxable income.

All of the facts were stipulated and they are found accordingly.

Petitioner was an exempt employees’ retirement trust as described in sections 401 (a), 501 (a), and 511 (b) (2) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 during the years 1956 and 1957.

Petitioner was created on December 31,1953, by the Cooper Tire & Rubber Company (hereinafter referred to as the company) and contributions have been made to petitioner by said company under a profit-sharing formula.

People’s First National Bank and Trust Company, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was trustee of petitioner during the year 1956 but received no compensation for services rendered during said year.

W. Robert Brewer, Bruce E. Esterly, and R. Henry Davis, all salaried executives of the Cooper Tire & Rubber Company, served as trustees of petitioner during the year 1957 and received no compensation for their services as trustees.

On August 3, 1955, the company tendered an offer to the bank as trustee of petitioner, proposing that the trustee purchase certain equipment needed by the company for its manufacturing operations in consideration of which the company would enter into a 10-year lease of the machines at stipulated yearly rentals. This offer was accepted by the trustee on August 3, 1955, and, concurrently therewith, the company and the trustee entered into the proposed lease agreement.

Petitioner purchased from the McNeil Machine and Engineering Company, 20 Bag-O-Matic Tire manufacturing machines and one M. G. Press at a total cost of $344,830. The trustee borrowed $200,000 of the purchase price at 4 percent interest from the National City Bank of Cleveland, Ohio, secured by a chattel mortgage on the machines.

The lease provided the lessee had the burden of the expense of installing the machines, and it assumed all responsibility for performance of the machines for the purpose intended. The lessee was to pay all taxes levied against the machines and costs of repair or replacement and keep the machines insured against loss by fire or windstorm.

In accordance with the terms of the lease agreement, the Cooper Tire & Rubber Company obligated itself to pay petitioner rentals, as follows:

First year_$69,600
Second year_ 69,400
Third year_ 60,400
Fourth year_ 42, 000
Fifth year_ 35,400
Sixth year_$32,400
Seventh year_ 29,400
Eighth year_ 26,400
Ninth year_ 24, 000
Tenth year_ 22,200

In accordance with the terms of the lease, petitioner would have recovered its entire investment plus some additional income by the end of the original 10-year term of the lease.

The lease agreement gives the Cooper Tire & Rubber Company the option to extend the lease for 5-year periods for an annual rental of $10,344.90.

The lease agreement also gives the Cooper Tire & Rubber Company the option to purchase the rented machinery during the original term of the lease at a price equal to the purchase price, plus 6 percent interest per annum on petitioner’s total investment, less rentals paid to the date of purchase. At the end of the 10-year term of the lease, the Cooper Tire & Rubber Company has the option to purchase the machinery at a price equivalent to the then-depreciated value in accordance with the schedule of depreciation set forth in schedule B to the lease agreement.

In accordance with the terms of the lease, the Cooper Tire & Rubber Company made rental payments to petitioner in the years 1956 and 1957 in the respective amounts of $67,900 and $54,700, which petitioner did not report for tax but which the Commissioner determined to be “unrelated business taxable income.” In computing deficiencies, respondent took into account interest and depreciation and other undisputed amounts.

Petitioner is an employees’ trust within the provisions of section 401(a) and as such it is exempt from tax under section 501(a), except that it is liable for the tax imposed by section 511 upon “unrelated business taxable income” as defined in section 512.

Section 512 provides, in part, as follows:

SEO. 512. UNRELATED BUSINESS TAXABLE INCOME.
(a) Definition. — The term “unrelated business taxable income” means the gross income derived by any organization from any unrelated trade or business (as defined in section 513) regularly carried on by it, less the deductions allowed by this chapter which are directly connected with the carrying on of such trade or business, both computed with the exceptions, additions, and limitations provided in subsection (b). * * *
(b) Exceptions, Auditions, and Limitations. — The exceptions, additions, and limitations applicable in determining unrelated business taxable income are the following:
*******
(3) There shall be excluded all rents from real property (including personal property leased with the real property), and all deductions directly connected with such rents.
(4) Notwithstanding paragraph (3), in the case of a business lease (as defined in section 514) there shall be included, as an item of gross income derived from an unrelated trade or business, the amount ascertained under section 514(a)(1), and there shall be allowed, as a deduction, the amount ascertained under section 514(a) (2).

Section 513 provides, in part, as follows:

SEC. 513. UNRELATED TRADE OR BUSINESS.
(a) Genebal Rule. — The term “unrelated trade or business” means, in the case of any organization subject to the tax imposed by section 511, any trade or business the conduct of which is not substantially related (aside from the need of such organization for income or funds or the use it makes of the profits derived) to the exercise or performance by such organization of its charitable, educational, or other purpose or function constituting the basis for its exemption under section 501 (or, in the case of an organization described in section 511(a) (2) (B), to the exercise or performance of any purpose or function described in section 501(e)(3)), except that such term does not include any trade or business—

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
36 T.C. 96, 1961 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 175, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cooper-tire-rubber-co-employees-retirement-fund-v-commissioner-tax-1961.