Deere & Co. v. Comm'r

133 T.C. No. 11, 133 T.C. 246, 2009 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 31
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedOctober 22, 2009
DocketNo. 20320-06
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 133 T.C. No. 11 (Deere & Co. v. Comm'r) 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
Deere & Co. v. Comm'r, 133 T.C. No. 11, 133 T.C. 246, 2009 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 31 (tax 2009).

Opinion

OPINION

Chiechi, Judge:

This case is before us on the motion for summary judgment of respondent (respondent’s motion) and the motion for summary judgment of Deere & Co. and Consolidated Subsidiaries (petitioner’s motion).1 We shall grant respondent’s motion, and we shall deny petitioner’s motion.

Background

At the time of the filing of the petition, petitioner maintained its principal office in Illinois.

At all relevant times, petitioner manufactured, distributed, and financed a full line of agricultural equipment, a variety of commercial and consumer equipment, and a broad range of equipment for construction and forestry and other products and provided various services to a worldwide market.

During each of petitioner’s taxable years ended October 31, 1997 through 2001, petitioner’s operations were organized and reported in the following four major business segments: (1) Agricultural equipment (petitioner’s agricultural equipment division), (2) commercial and consumer equipment (petitioner’s commercial and consumer equipment division), (3) construction and forestry, and (4) credit. During each of those taxable years, petitioner received income from operations conducted, inter alia, through branches in Germany, Italy, and Switzerland that Deere & Co. (Deere), the parent corporation of petitioner, owned. (We shall sometimes refer to the operations conducted through Deere’s branches in Germany, Italy, and Switzerland as Deere’s foreign branch operations.)

Deere commenced Deere’s foreign branch operations in Germany (Deere’s German branch operations) in 1967. At all relevant times, Deere’s German branch operations, which were the largest of Deere’s foreign branch operations, were primarily part of petitioner’s agricultural equipment division. Deere’s German branch operations included the following factories or offices that Deere operated: (1) A tractor factory in Mannheim, Germany, (2) a combine factory in Zweibruken, Germany, (3) a cab factory and a parts depot in Bruchsal, Germany, and (4) a German domestic sales office and a European general office in Mannheim, Germany. Deere’s German branch operations also included the following entities: (1) John Deere Inti. GmbH (jdig) and (2) Maschinenfabrik Kemper GmbH & Co. KG (Kemper).

At all relevant times, JDIG, a corporation that Deere incorporated in 1998 in Germany and wholly owned, had offices in Mannheim, Germany. JDIG operated initially as a marketing organization for export sales outside of Germany and thereafter as an office for administrative, billing, and central services for the European operations of Deere.

Deere filed Form 8832, Entity Classification Election (Form 8832), in which it elected to treat JDIG, effective as of October 14, 1998, as a “foreign eligible entity with a single owner to be disregarded as a[n] * * * entity” separate from Deere. Respondent approved that election. (We shall sometimes refer to a foreign eligible entity with a single owner that is to be disregarded as a separate entity as a disregarded entity.) Since October 14, 1998, Deere and petitioner have (1) treated the activities of the disregarded entity JDIG as a foreign branch of Deere and (2) reported in the consolidated tax return, Form 1120, U.S. Corporation Income Tax Return, that petitioner filed for each taxable year (petitioner’s consolidated return) any income and expenses of JDIG as Deere’s income and expenses.

At all relevant times, Kemper, a limited partnership formed in 1997 in Germany,2 manufactured attachments for various farm equipment at a factory and offices in Stadtlohn, Germany. At those times, Deere was a limited partner of Kemper and, as such, owned directly more than 99 percent of Kemper. Maschinenfabrik Kemper-Verwaltungs and Beteiligungs GmbH (mkvb), a subsidiary of Deere organized in Germany that Deere wholly owned directly, was the general partner of Kemper.

At all relevant times, Deere and petitioner have treated (1) Kemper as a foreign branch and (2) MKVB as if it were a disregarded entity. Thus, petitioner has reported in petitioner’s consolidated return any respective income and expenses of Kemper and MKVB as Deere’s income and expenses. (We shall sometimes refer to all of Deere’s German branch operations, including the operations of jdig, Kemper, and mkvb, as Deere’s German branch.)

During petitioner’s taxable year ended October 31, 2001, the year at issue, Deere’s German branch, excluding the respective operations of JDIG and Kemper,3 (1) had approximately 4,500 employees, of whom approximately 1,500 were salaried employees, and (2) incurred approximately $237 million of wage, salary, and benefit expenses.

During each of petitioner’s taxable years ended October 31, 1997 through 2001, the operations within Deere’s German branch maintained separate books and records. During each of those taxable years, those German branch operations, other than the respective operations of JDIG and Kemper, comprised one or more permanent establishments as provided in article 5 of the Convention for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with Respect to Taxes on Income and Capital and to Certain Other Taxes, U.S.-F.R.G., Aug. 29, 1989, S. Treaty Doc. No. 101-10 (1991) (U.S.-German Treaty). (We shall refer to a permanent establishment as provided in article 5 of the U.S.German Treaty as a U.S.-German Treaty permanent establishment.)4

At all relevant times, Deere’s foreign branch operations in Italy and Switzerland were significantly smaller than Deere’s German branch. Deere’s foreign branch operations in Italy, which Deere began in 1977, were part of Deere’s agricultural equipment division. Those operations consisted largely of a marketing and sales office in Milan, Italy, that Deere operated for the sales of agricultural equipment primarily in Italy. (We shall sometimes refer to all of Deere’s operations in Italy as Deere’s Italian branch.)

Deere’s foreign branch operations in Switzerland consisted of (1) a small branch office in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, and (2) John Deere Inti. GmbH (JDIS). Deere established the small branch office in 2000 and has operated it as part of petitioner’s commercial and consumer equipment division. Deere established JDIS, a limited liability company that Deere organized in 2000 in Switzerland and wholly owned, in order to serve as the successor to JDIG' in conducting the export sales and marketing operations for petitioner’s agricultural equipment division outside Germany.

Deere filed Form 8832 in which it elected to treat JDIS, effective as of June 22, 2000, as a disregarded entity (i.e., an entity to be disregarded as an entity separate from Deere). Respondent approved that election. Since June 22, 2000, Deere and petitioner have (1) treated the activities of the disregarded entity JDIS as a foreign branch of Deere and (2) reported in petitioner’s consolidated return any income and expenses of JDIS as Deere’s income and expenses. (We shall sometimes refer to all of Deere’s operations in Switzerland, including the operations of JDIS, as Deere’s Swiss branch.)

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Procter & Gamble Co. and Subsidiaries v. United States
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Deere & Co. v. Comm'r
133 T.C. No. 11 (U.S. Tax Court, 2009)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
133 T.C. No. 11, 133 T.C. 246, 2009 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 31, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/deere-co-v-commr-tax-2009.