Diamond Alkali Co. v. Heiner

60 F.2d 505, 5 U.S. Tax Cas. (CCH) 1520, 11 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 777, 1932 U.S. App. LEXIS 2565
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedFebruary 10, 1932
DocketNos. 4419, 4426, 4427
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 60 F.2d 505 (Diamond Alkali Co. v. Heiner) 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
Diamond Alkali Co. v. Heiner, 60 F.2d 505, 5 U.S. Tax Cas. (CCH) 1520, 11 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 777, 1932 U.S. App. LEXIS 2565 (3d Cir. 1932).

Opinions

THOMPSON, Circuit Judge.

These eases were tried by the court below under a stipulation of the parties, without a jury. Diamond Alkali Company, the taxpayer, plaintiff below, was engaged in the manufacture of soda ash and related products. It filed its income and profits tax returns for iho years 1918 and 1920 on June 16, 1919, and May 13,1921, respectively, and paid the amounts shown therein as due. Thereafter the Commissioner of Internal Revenue assessed as additional taxes and interest tile sum of $1,398,518.54, and collected the same on November 15, 1927, more than five years after the returns.

The plaintiff’s claim for refund was rejected by the Commissioner, and suit was thereupon instituted in the District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania as of No. 5762. Judgment was entered for the plaintiff in the sum of $175,410.60, 39 F.(2d) 645. The ease is before this court on cross-appeals Nos. 4419 and 4426.

Suit was also brought by the Diamond Alkali Company as of No. 5761 for the recovery of alleged overpayment of taxes for the year 1919. Judgment was entered for the plaintiff in that suit for $13,106.40.1 Appeal No. 4427 is taken by the Collector of Internal Revenue alone from that judgment.

Appeals Nos. 4419 and 4426.

The plaintiff’s claims for refunds for the years 1918 and 1920 were based on the following general contentions: That the Commissioner of Internal Revenue unlawfully assessed additional taxes for the years 1918 and 1920 after the statute of limitations had run; that the 1918 allowance for amortization of war-time facilities was inadequate; that the allowance for depreciation for 1918 and 1920 was inadequate; that the invested capital for 1920 was wrongfully reduced by the unlawful collection of additional taxes for 1917; that the Commissioner assessed excess profits taxes for 1918 at a rate higher than that lawfully applicable.

The District Court held that the additional assessment for 1918 and 1920 was not barred by the statute; that the amount allowed for amortization by the Commissioner was inadequate in several respects; that the amount allowed for depreciation was lawfully ascertained; that the plaintiff was entitled to have its 1920 invested capital increased by sums collected as additional taxes and interest for 1917; and that the court had no power to revise the rate fixed by the Commissioner under the special assessment provisions. In addition, it directed that the amount allowed for amortization be allocated to the years 1918 and 1919.

Statute of limitations.

The plaintiff contended that it was entitled to a refund of all additional taxes assessed and collected after the statute of limitations had run, and based its contention upon section 250(d) of the Revenue Act of 1921 (42 Stat. 264), whieh reads as follows: “The amount of income, excess-profits, or war-profits taxes due under any return made under this Act for the taxable year 1921 or succeeding taxable years shall be determined and assessed by the Commissioner within four years after the return was filed, and the amount of any such taxes due under any return made nnder this Act for prior taxable years or nnder prior income, excess-profits, [508]*508or war-profits tax Acts, or under section 38 of the Act entitled ‘An Act to provide revenue, equalize duties, and encourage the industries of the United States, and for other purposes,’ approved August '5, 1909, shall be determined and assessed within five years after the return was filed, unless both the Commissioner and the taxpayer consent in writing to a later determination, assessment, and collection of the tax; and no suit or proceeding for the collection of any such taxes due under this Act or under prior income, excess-profits, or war-profits tax Acts, or of any taxes due under section 38 of such Act of August 5, 1909, shall be begun, after the expiration of five years after the date when such return was filed, but this shall not affect suits or proceedings begun at the time of the passage of this Act. * * * ”

Prior to the expiration of the five-year period, the Commissioner transmitted to the plaintiff an unexecuted agreement, by the terms of which the time for the assessment and collection of the 1918 taxes was extended beyond the statutory period. The agreement was signed by the plaintiff and returned to the Commissioner, who acknowledged its receipt and stated that it was on file in his office. From time to time similar written agreements were transmitted by the Commissioner to the plaintiff, signed by the plaintiff, and returned to the Commissioner, extending the time for assessment and collection to December 31, 1907. Although no one of the agreements was signed by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue in person, all of them were signed in his name, were on file in his office; and were relied upon by him in acting upon the plaintiff’s protests. The letters to the plaintiff with reference to the extension agreements went out in the regular course of business and were signed in the name of the assistant to the Commissioner.

The, cited statute requires only that the Commissioner and the taxpayer consent in writing to the later, determination, assessment,' and collection. It does not require that the consent, in order to be-valid, be in one instrument- or in any particular form. In the instant case, the consent by the Commissioner is found in the letters which- were sent out from his office.-. Contentions against the validity of agreements of extension, because of the lack of the Commissioner’s signature, were unsuccessfully made in this court in Liberty Baking Co. v. Heiner, 37 F.(2d) 703. See, also, Trustees for Ohio & Big Sandy Coal Co. v. Commissioner, 43 F.(2d) 782 (C. C. A. 4); Sabin v. United States, 44 F.(2d) 70 (Ct. Cl.); Stern Bros. & Co. v. Burnet, 51 F.(2d) 1042 (C. C. A. 8). In Stange v. United States, 282 U. S. 270, 276, 51 S. Ct. 145, 147, 75 L. Ed. 335, the court said: “As pointed out in Florsheim Bros., etc., v. United States, 280 U. S. 453, 466, 50 S. Ct. 215, 74 L. Ed. 542, a waiver is not a contract, and the provision requiring the Commissioner’s signature was inserted for purely administrative purposes and not to convert into a contract what is essentially a voluntary, unilateral waiver of a defense by the taxpayer.”

We find no error in the conclusion of the District Court that the additional assessments for 1918 and 1920 were made within the proper statutory period as extended by the waivers.

Amortization.

One of the contentions upon which the plaintiff relies in support of its claim for refund is based upon the Commissionei*’s treatment of its claims under section 234 (a) (8) of the Revenue Act of 1918 (40 Stat. 1077). In order to reimburse those who had incurred capital expenditures in their business for war purposes, that .act provides: “In the case of buildings, machinery, equipment, or other facilities, constructed, erected, installed, or acquired, on or after April 6, 1917, for the production of articles contributing to the prosecution of the present war, * * * there shall be allowed a reasonable deduction for the amortization of such part of the cost of such facilities * * * as has been borne by the taxpayer, but not again including any amount otherwise allowed under this title or previous Acts of Congress as a deduction in computing net income. * * * ”

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Bluebook (online)
60 F.2d 505, 5 U.S. Tax Cas. (CCH) 1520, 11 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 777, 1932 U.S. App. LEXIS 2565, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/diamond-alkali-co-v-heiner-ca3-1932.