Disabled American Veterans v. The United States

704 F.2d 1570, 51 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 1203, 1983 U.S. App. LEXIS 13580
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
DecidedApril 12, 1983
DocketAppeal 360-76
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 704 F.2d 1570 (Disabled American Veterans v. The United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Disabled American Veterans v. The United States, 704 F.2d 1570, 51 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 1203, 1983 U.S. App. LEXIS 13580 (Fed. Cir. 1983).

Opinion

EDWARD S. SMITH, Circuit Judge.

In earlier proceedings before the Court of Claims, appellant was held to have received unrelated business taxable income in the course of its direct mail solicitation efforts. 1 . On remand for calculation of quantum of recovery, the Claims Court held that the expenses of the fundraising must be allocat *1571 ed between the taxable and exempt parts of the solicitation program, and it provided formulas for making the allocation. 2 We affirm and remand for determination of the exact amounts owed to appellant.

I.

Disabled American Veterans (DAV) is a tax-exempt organization under the Internal Revenue Code, 3 whose purpose is the assistance of disabled veterans. During the years in question, 1970 through 1973, DAV had three main sources of income: general contributions, rental of its mailing list to other organizations, and the Special Solicitations direct mail program. 4 Under the Special Solicitations program, potential donors were offered different premiums (books, maps, charts, watch calendars) in return for contributions of $2, $3, or $5. While many people would contribute one of the stated amounts and receive a premium, others would receive no premium or receive a premium of less value than their contribution because their contributions were less than $2, more than $5, or because they requested that no premium be sent.

The tax-exempt status of the general contributions was never disputed, and the Court of Claims held that the rental of mailing lists was taxable as unrelated business taxable income under the code, sections 512-513. 5 With respect to the Special Solicitations program, the court held that $5 contributions for premiums were the only part of the program that constituted unrelated business taxable income, with the gross income from this portion of the program to be computed from the retail value of the premiums concerned. 6 All other parts of the program were exempt. The court remanded for calculation of “the exact amount of recovery.” 7

On remand, the Claims Court determined the retail value of the $5 premiums. This finding is not disputed on appeal. The court also held that both the direct and indirect expenses of the Special Solicitations program must be allocated between the taxable and exempt parts of the program. This conclusion is the subject of the present appeal.

DAV argues that all direct expenses of the Special Solicitations program should be allocated to the taxable part of the program. 8 DAV claims that allocation of direct expenses is a new defense, not pleaded, raised for the first time on remand, in violation of Court of Claims rules and basic principles of equity and fairness. Alternatively, DAV argues that the applicable Treasury Regulations do not permit allocation of these expenses. We consider these arguments in turn.

II.

DAV argues that the recalculation of deductions is improperly raised at this *1572 point because Court of Claims Rule 38 required that “[e]very defense * * * be asserted in the responsive pleading” and warned that all defenses not so raised were waived. Ct.Cl.R. 38(b), (h). DAV also argues that fairness and equity forbid the raising of this new defense, relying on a Sixth Circuit case of 1938, Routzahn v. Brown. 9 The Claims Court responded by emphasizing the high standards that the Court of Claims traditionally applied to es-toppel against the Government 10 and it found a lack of reliance by DAV. We need not enter the estoppel thicket, however, for we hold that there is simply no “new defense” before us. The 1981 Court of Claims decision, overturning the position of the Internal Revenue Service, necessitated re-computation of tax liability in any case, and the decision placed no limitations on the method or scope of recomputation. 11

The Government’s original position was that the entire Special Solicitations program was unrelated business taxable income and accordingly allowed all of the direct expenses 12 of the program as deductions. After the partially adverse Court of Claims decision, the Government recalculated the deductions. It explained that its original position with respect to deductions — that all direct Special Solicitations expenses were deductible — was based on its original position that all Special Solicitations income was taxable. The position on income had been unsuccessful, so the original deduction calculations had to be adjusted by allocating deductions.

The revised position on deductions was not new. In stipulations entered prior to the first trial in the Court of Claims trial division, the parties recognized that, in the event that any Special Solicitations income was held taxable,

the defendant then contends that the amounts of deductions allowable in determining net income from Special Solicitations must be recalculated. While DAV reserves all rights to object to such contention of the defendant as to any rede-termination of allowable deductions, the parties have agreed that the question of the allowable deductions, under such circumstances, shall be deferred, if necessary, for further proceedings under Rule 131(c). [Emphasis supplied.]

Stipulation 99(b). It is clear from the stipulation that all parties understood that recalculation of deductions by the Government would accompany any result that did not entirely conform to the Government’s original position. Furthermore, the question of allowable deductions was not litigated or decided in the prior proceedings, and the Government’s change of position on deductions was a logical response to the Court of Claims decision. Therefore, the recalculation introduced no considerations that DAV could not or should not have anticipated. 13

Most important, the remand to the trial court generally charged that court to determine the exact amount of recovery. 14 In so doing the Court of Claims instructed the trial court to make a just and lawful calculation, considering all of the factors it deemed relevant. One obviously relevant consideration was the proper amount of deductions. The Claims Court was therefore bound to consider deductions and to calculate them accurately regardless of who suggested the particular method used. Indeed, the Claims Court held — and we agree, see infra part III — that allocation of deductions was required by law; therefore, it had no choice but to allocate them.

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704 F.2d 1570, 51 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 1203, 1983 U.S. App. LEXIS 13580, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/disabled-american-veterans-v-the-united-states-cafc-1983.