Daube v. Oklahoma Tax Commission

1957 OK 55, 310 P.2d 768, 7 Oil & Gas Rep. 175, 1957 Okla. LEXIS 412
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 12, 1957
DocketNo. 36805
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 1957 OK 55 (Daube v. Oklahoma Tax Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Daube v. Oklahoma Tax Commission, 1957 OK 55, 310 P.2d 768, 7 Oil & Gas Rep. 175, 1957 Okla. LEXIS 412 (Okla. 1957).

Opinions

JOHNSON, Justice.

In 1948, the plaintiff in error, Leon Daube, who will hereafter be referred to as taxpayer, engaged in various business activities, including the mercantile, cattle, and oil and gas business. In connection with said year, he filed an income tax return with the Tax Commission and paid the tax shown to be due by the return. Following the filing of the return, the Tax Commission proposed the assessment of additional 1948 income taxes against him, which assessment was timely protested. It was stipulated that “irrespective of the contention made in the aforesaid protest, taxpayer at present only disputes the proposed additional assessment to the extent of $643.85, together with interest thereon at the rate of 6% per annum from March 15, 1949, until paid. This portion of the proposed additional assessment of income taxes resulted in the Tax Commission treating Federal and State income taxes as an allowable expense and for the purpose of allocating such expense included same in overhead, thereby reducing the net income attributable to the oil and gas properties in connection with which taxpayer had claimed and taken percentage depletion.”

It was further stipulated that in 1948 taxpayer and his wife paid a substantial amount as Federal income taxes, $124,526.-14, of which amount was attributable to Oklahoma income, and they also paid $567.-48 as 1944-45 Oklahoma income tax; that in the Tax Commission’s “audit of the taxpayer’s return for 1948, the Tax Commission took 80% of the total amount of taxes, above set out, that were paid in 1948, which amounted to $100,074.90, and for the purpose of determining the net income from the oil producing properties of the taxpayer on which to base depletion allowances only, treated such sum (it appears that consistent with community property law only one-half of this amount was in fact deducted) as a deductible expense chargeable to the oil and gas operations of the taxpayer, and for the purpose of allocating such expense included same in overhead.” It was further stipulated that the, Tax Commission’s action in the foregoing particulars “resulted in a decrease in the amount of the depletion allowance claimed by the taxpayer in the amount of $13,137.26. This amount the Tax Commission added to taxpayer’s net income,, resulting in the proposed assessment of the additional taxes that taxpayer complains of, as aforesaid.”

In the last paragraph of the stipulation, which paragraph immediately follows the language last above quoted, the parties stipulated as follows:

“(7) If the Commission had the right to treat the income taxes paid by the Taxpayer in 1948 as a deduction from net income from the oil properties of the Taxpayer for the purpose of determining the depletion allowance of Taxpayer and for that purpose only, as is herein set out and as is reflected [770]*770by the exhibits hereto, then said proposed assessment is proper. If not, then the Taxpayer has fully paid and discharged his 1948 liability to the State of Oklahoma.”

The statutes cited and referred to herein form a part of Oklahoma’s Income Tax Law and have been codified under 68 O.S. 1951.

The applicable portion of Sec. 880, which section treats with the deductions that may be taken from gross income in computing net income, reads as follows:

“In computing the net income, there shall be allowed as deductions from gross income: * * *
«(g) * * * (A)nd, provided, further, that in the case of income derived from oil and/or gas wells, * * * any taxpayer may at his option deduct as an allowance for depletion in lieu of the calculation of depletion as otherwise provided for herein, the following per centum: In the case of oil and/or gas wells, twenty per centum (20%), * * of the gross income from the property during the taxable year, excluding from such gross income an amount equal to any rents or royalties paid or incurred by the taxpayer in respect of the property. Such allowance shall not exceed fifty per centum (50%) of the net income of the taxpayer (computed without allowance for depletion) from the property.”

Subsection (g), which is in part above quoted, was enacted in 1935. See Ch. 66, Art. 6, p. 292, S.L.1935. The substance of that portion of subsection (g) which is above quoted is the same now as when originally enacted.

As we read Sec. 880(g), supra, the legislature clearly provided therein that “percentage depletion” cannot exceed 50% of the “net income” of a taxpayer from the property (lease) in connection with which percentage depletion is taken. Therefore, the basic question for determination is how should net income from a lease be determined for percentage depletion purposes. The answer to the foregoing question is found in the income tax statutes.

The term “net income” is defined in Sec. 877(a) as follows:

“(a) The term ‘net income’ (except in the case of life insurance companies, as to which see Section 911 means the gross income less the deductions allowed.”

As heretofore pointed out, the deductions that may be taken from gross income in computing net income are set out in Sec. 880, supra. In subsection (c) of said section, it is provided that taxes paid by a taxpayer within the taxable year are deductible in computing net income.

The Board of Tax Appeals held in Grison Oil Corp. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 42 B.T.A. 1117, that in determining the percentage limitation on percentage depletion allowed under Sec. 114(b)(3), Revenue Act of 1936, 26 U.S.C.A. § 114(b)(3), amounts of income tax paid to the State of Oklahoma must be deducted in computing net income from the property in connection with which percentage depletion is taken.

In Holly Development Company v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 44 B.T.A. 51, the Board of Tax Appeals held that interest paid during the taxable year on a Federal income tax deficiency for prior years was deductible from gross income from oil properties in determining net income from said properties for percentage depletion purposes. The Board of Tax Appeals cites a number of cases in support of its decision.

The Supreme Court of Utah in New Park Mining Co. v. State Tax Commission, 113 Utah 410, 196 P.2d 485, 486, held that Federal income taxes must be considered in computing net income for percentage depletion purposes. Therein the Utah Court said:

“(1,2) We have heretofore set out, the essential provisions of Section 80— 13 — 7 and 80 — 13—8, U.C.A.1943, the former statute defines ’ net income as ‘gross income * * * less the deductions allowed by Section 80 — 13—8.’ [771]*771The latter enumerates the various items to be deducted from gross income to determine net income. In making their argument plaintiffs have either overlooked or wholly ignored subsection (3) of Section 80 — 13—8. That subsection provides, in language which could hardly be made more clear, and certainly cannot be said to be ambiguous or uncertain, that taxes ‘paid or accrued within the taxable year’ are one of the items to be deducted from gross income in order to determine net income. And subsection (9) (b) provides, in terms of equal clarity, that the allowance for depletion shall be 33i/$ per cent of the net income from the property.

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Bluebook (online)
1957 OK 55, 310 P.2d 768, 7 Oil & Gas Rep. 175, 1957 Okla. LEXIS 412, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/daube-v-oklahoma-tax-commission-okla-1957.