Deluxe Check Printers, Inc. v. United States

14 Cl. Ct. 782, 61 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 1121, 1988 U.S. Claims LEXIS 68, 1988 WL 39159
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedApril 28, 1988
DocketNo. 316-83T
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 14 Cl. Ct. 782 (Deluxe Check Printers, Inc. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Deluxe Check Printers, Inc. v. United States, 14 Cl. Ct. 782, 61 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 1121, 1988 U.S. Claims LEXIS 68, 1988 WL 39159 (cc 1988).

Opinion

OPINION

REGINALD W. GIBSON, Judge:

Introduction

On May 17, 1983, Deluxe Check Printers, Inc. (hereinafter Deluxe Check or plaintiff) filed a complaint in this court claiming a refund of paid self-assessed excise taxes in the aggregate amount of $207,504.64 for calendar years 1976, 1977, and 1978. The complaint also seeks a refund of $3,831.37 in interest assessed against the excise tax due and paid for calendar year 1976. The interest assessment was paid by plaintiff in 1981 by means of a set-off against other monies then being refunded to plaintiff. Defendant, the United States, subsequently moved for summary judgment on December 14, 1983, and plaintiff cross-filed for summary judgment on July 25, 1984. And following re-briefing in 1986, oral argument was heard in open court on April 15, 1988. Jurisdiction duly lies in this court under 28 U.S.C. § 1491.

For the reasons given below, the court grants defendant's motion for summary judgment, except for the interest claim ($3,831.37) with respect to which we grant a partial summary judgment for plaintiff.

Facts

The court finds the following facts to be undisputed. Deluxe Check is a corporation having its principal place of business in St. Paul, Minnesota. In August of 1966, plaintiff instituted a Treasury Share Acquisition Program (the Program) to secure Treasury stock for the purpose of having shares available for plaintiff’s employee stock purchase plan. During the years 1966 through 1979, Deluxe Check redeemed a total of 1,721,133 shares of its stock under said Program in 39,406 transactions. By means of annual and quarterly reports, plaintiff periodically advised its shareholders of the existence of the Program. Under the Program, shares were acquired by means of unsolicited transactions, negotiated purchases of substantial blocks of shares off the market, and over-the-counter sales. The Program, by the following statement, specifically prohibited purchases from directors and officers of Deluxe Check: “No purchases shall be made from [784]*784officers or directors of the Company.” In the case of unsolicited transactions, the price paid per share offered “could not exceed the mean between the bid and asked prices for the common shares of the Company in the over-the-counter market as of the close of business”1 on the day before the unsolicited offer. All such redemptions were on a voluntary basis.

In 1976 and 1977, Deluxe Check Printers Foundation (the Foundation) tendered a total of 75,000 shares for redemption to Deluxe Check in six (6) separate unsolicited transactions. Deluxe Check redeemed 45,-000 shares for a price of $1,030,675 in 1976, and 30,000 shares for the price of $723,750 in 1977, as follows:

Date Shares Purchased Price Paid
7-19-76 25.000 $ 590,625
10- 19-76 10.000 216.250
11- 15-76 10,000 223.750
$1,030,675
1-3-77 10,000 $ 248,750
1-24-77 10,000 238.750
1-28-77 10,000 236.250
$ 723,750

The Foundation is a “private foundation” under 26 U.S.C. § 509 and is duly qualified as a non-profit corporation under 26 U.S.C. § 501(c)(3). As a result of a previous distribution of a testamentary charitable remainder trust in 1974, the Foundation had, as a consequence, acquired the shares subsequently sold to Deluxe Check. Given the invitation, supra, the Foundation approached Deluxe Check and voluntarily tendered the above shares for redemption in order to diversify its assets and to increase its investment yield. Both parties agree that the price paid by plaintiff in each of the six (6) transactions was not less than the fair market value of the shares redeemed.

Since Deluxe Check admitted that it was a substantial contributor2 to the Foundation, it filed a return (Form 4720) in May of 1978, regarding each of the taxable years 1976 and 1977, with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) reporting excise taxes for self-dealing as a “disqualified person” under 26 U.S.C. §§ 4946(a) and 4941.3 At that time, plaintiff paid a 5% excise tax, as required by the statute, for each of the three (3) acts of self-dealing occurring during the calendar year 1976, and for the taxable year 1977 for each of the three (3) acts of self-dealing occurring in 1977, as well as for the three (3) 1976 transactions, supra, not appropriately corrected in 1976. Said excise taxes paid were based on the cost price of the shares redeemed from the Foundation.4 With the filed return, plaintiff paid an excise tax of $51,532 for the taxable year 1976 (5% of $1,030,625) in connection with the three (3) 1976 transactions, and $87,721 in excise tax for the taxable year 1977 (5% of $723,750, or $36,-189 for the 1977 transactions, plus $51,532 for the cumulative 1976 tax). On or about the same time in May of 1978, plaintiff also [785]*785made an additional payment to the Foundation in the amount of $174,793.85. And again in July of 1978, plaintiff likewise made a second additional payment to the Foundation in the amount of $262,486, all with respect to the self-dealing transactions previously made in 1976 and 1977, supra. Plaintiff characterizes these two additional payments as “protective payments” and claims, without explanation, that said payments corrected the acts of self-dealing described above to the extent necessary. Thereafter, Deluxe Check filed a claim for a refund of the foregoing excise taxes paid for the taxable years 1976 and 1977 in July of 1978. On or about April 15, 1981, the IRS allowed plaintiff a refund of $28,125 for each year on its claim which related to an issue other than the self-dealing issue. Further, for the taxable year 1977, the Service also allowed a $9,734.68 claim which similarly was unrelated to the issues here at bar.

Deluxe Check, just prior to the refunds, filed a third return reporting excise taxes for the calendar year 1978 in May of 1979 based on the six (6) exchange transactions in 1976 and 1977 not previously corrected. Again plaintiff paid the amount self-assessed (i.e., $87,721) at the time of filing. Also at the time of filing, in May of 1979, plaintiff filed a refund claim for the amount of said excise tax paid for calendar year 1978. Similarly, as for the 1977 taxable year, the Service allowed a $9,734.68 refund regarding the 1978 taxable year which was unrelated to the issue(s) at bar.

Contentions of the Parties

A. Defendant

Defendant moved for summary judgment claiming that the mere purchase of shares by plaintiff, as a disqualified person, from the Foundation were acts of self-dealing that would not qualify for favorable treatment under the redemption exception to the statutorily imposed excise tax.

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14 Cl. Ct. 782, 61 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 1121, 1988 U.S. Claims LEXIS 68, 1988 WL 39159, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/deluxe-check-printers-inc-v-united-states-cc-1988.