Deakman-Wells Co., Inc. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

213 F.2d 894, 45 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 1666, 1954 U.S. App. LEXIS 4418
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedJune 8, 1954
Docket11214
StatusPublished
Cited by41 cases

This text of 213 F.2d 894 (Deakman-Wells Co., Inc. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Deakman-Wells Co., Inc. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 213 F.2d 894, 45 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 1666, 1954 U.S. App. LEXIS 4418 (3d Cir. 1954).

Opinion

MARIS, Circuit Judge.

In this case the court is asked to review a decision of the Tax Court. The facts are these. Taxpayer, a corporation organized under the laws of the state of New Jersey, was engaged in the business of constructing buildings. Since its incorporation, taxpayer has kept its books of account on the accrual basis but has filed its federal income tax returns on the cash basis. The accrual method of accounting clearly reflected the net income of taxpayer for each of the taxable years involved and taxpayer’s net income should have been computed and reported in its returns in accordance therewith. Taxpayer’s return for the taxable year ended April 30, 1947 was filed on July 15, 1947. The notice of deficiency was sent to taxpayer on June 27, 1951. The only portion of the notice relating to the taxable year ended April 30, 1947 concerned the dis-allowance of a carryback loss from the taxable year ended April 30, 1948 and the allowance of an increased carry-over *896 loss from the taxable year ended April 30,^1945. On September 21, 1951 the taxpayer petitioned for a redetermination by the Tax Court. On September 3, 1952, the Commissioner filed in the Tax Court an amendment to his answer which asserted that the taxpayer had failed to include properly in its gross income the sum of $72,694.87.

Taxpayer’s return for the taxable year ended April 30, 1947 did not contain any report on page one of the items includi-ble in its gross income, but in a schedule entitled “Statement of Operations— Fiscal Year Ended April 30, 1947” attached to the inside portion of the return, taxpayer reported and computed its “gross profit” as follows:

“Income
From Construction Contracts, rental of equipment, etc. $1,471,581.08
Plus: Unpaid Accounts Receivable 4/30/46 10,674.04
‘1,482,255.12
Deduct Unpaid Accounts Receivable 4/30/47 217,931.43
Sales — Cash Basis 1,264,323.69
Cost of sales
Job Costs 1,323,032.16
Small Tools Consumed 848.08 [red]
Job Expenses 4,336.86
Yard Rent 270.00
1,326,790.94
Less — Discounts 1,947.60
1,324,843.34
Plus — Accounts Payable—
Unpaid 4/30/46 23,747.57
1,348,590.91
Less — Accounts Payable—
Unpaid 4/30/47 158,310.09
1,190 280 82
Gross Profit 74,042.87”
If the “gross profit had been computed by taxpayer upon the accrual basis, such computation would have been as follows:
Income
From Construction Contracts, rental of equipment, etc. $1,471,581.08
Cost of sales
Job Costs 1,323,032.16
Small Tools Consumed 848.08 [red]
Job Expenses 4,336.86
Yard Rent 270.00
1,326,790.94
Less — Discounts 1,947.60
1,324,843.34
Gross Profit 146,737.74

The Tax Court concluded that the taxpayer had omitted from its gross income reported for the taxable year ended April 30, 1947 amounts properly includible therein which were in excess of 25% of the gross income reported, within the meaning of section 275(c) of the Internal Revenue Code, 26 U.S.C.A. The Court held that the five-year statute of limitations imposed by section 275(c) ap *897 plied, that the statute had been suspended by the filing of the taxpayer’s petition in the Tax Court before the expiration of the five-year period and that the claim for the deficiency based on the omission of the sum of $72,694.87 having been made at or before the Tax Court hearing, the claim was timely and should be allowed. 20 T.C. 610. The taxpayer then brought the case to this court for review.

The decision of the Tax Court must be reversed. We are satisfied that the case does not come within the purview of section 275(c) of the Internal Revenue Code. 1 We recently had occasion to consider the scope of that subsection in Uptegrove Lumber Co. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 3 Cir., 1953, 204 F.2d 570. In that case we pointed out that the statute applies only where the taxpayer has failed to make a return of some taxable gain, where he has altogether omitted an item from the income reported, and not to a case such as this where he merely understates the final figure in his gross income computation, the item in question having been disclosed in the return but eliminated in the computation of the final figure. We adhere to the views which we expressed in the Uptegrove case and conclude that the Tax Court erred in holding section 275(c) applicable.

The Commissioner contends that the present case is distinguishable from the Uptegrove case in that in Uptegrove the taxpayer computed his gross income on page one of the return, following the form supplied by the Commissioner, while in the present case the taxpayer did not use page one to compute its gross income but used instead a schedule attached to the return, making various adjustments in its accounts payable and receivable which were not required by the tax return. The asserted distinction is, we think, wholly without legal significance. In the present case the taxpayer made no computation of any kind on page one, substituting merely the notation “See Schedule Attached”. In computing its gross income in the attached schedule it substantially followed the form of page one of the return, except for the adjustment in its accounts from the accrual to the cash basis. It can scarcely be expected that every taxpayer’s business will be such that the form supplied by the Commissioner can always be followed in computing gross income. It is accordingly sufficient if all items of gross income are disclosed in a schedule attached to the return in which the computation is made.

The Commissioner makes another contention. He points to the fact that under section 276(d) 2 of the Internal Revenue *898

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Bluebook (online)
213 F.2d 894, 45 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 1666, 1954 U.S. App. LEXIS 4418, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/deakman-wells-co-inc-v-commissioner-of-internal-revenue-ca3-1954.