E. B. & A. C. Whiting Co. v. Commissioner

10 T.C. 102, 1948 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 287
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedJanuary 16, 1948
DocketDocket No. 11359
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 10 T.C. 102 (E. B. & A. C. Whiting Co. v. Commissioner) 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
E. B. & A. C. Whiting Co. v. Commissioner, 10 T.C. 102, 1948 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 287 (tax 1948).

Opinion

OPINION.

Disney, Judge:

Three questions are presented for answer. For clarity we separate them by headings:

Compensation of Unsworth.

Petitioner contends that the compensation paid Unsworth was reasonable, considering his unique abilities, the additional services rendered by him during the taxable years, and the normal practice with respect to executive compensation. It says that the increase in salary and bonus from $66,000 in 1941 to $123,000 in the taxable years was in fair proportion to the increased value of his services.

The sales of petitioner in 1942 increased about 43 per cent over 1941 and the increase in net income before officers’ salaries and bonuses was 115 per cent. The increase in salary and bonus of Unsworth was about 85 per cent. In 1943, when the salary and bonus were the same, there was a decrease of about .8 per cent in sales as compared with those in 1942, and net income was only about 52 per cent of the net income for the previous year. If the ability of Unsworth as an executive was responsible for the financial success of petitioner in 1942, it was not reflected in the earnings of the succeeding year in comparison with other years. Part of the increase in profits in 1942 was directly attributable to the advantageous purchase of raw material. The purchase of raw material was an ordinary transaction in the life of a corporation like petitioner, and the particular purchase relied on, though indicating close attention to business by Unsworth, was within his ordinary duty and was made by outbidding competitors. It did not require any particular or peculiar ability. We think petitioner overweighs it. Commencing with the fiscal year 1942, Unsworth, as an officer of petitioner, no longer had any executive duties respecting the production of tulatex, which had taken up a considerable part of his time in previous years. Net sales of tulatex in 1941 were about 28 per cent of total sales. The business of petitioner has always involved one of developing substitutes to meet the demands of its buyers. Inability to obtain its usual supply of raw materials increased petitioner’s problems to meet trade requirements, but its position in the industry overcame much of the usual marketing problems. The knowledge of Unsworth was not petitioner’s only source for preparation of new formulae for brush fiber.

It does not appear that Unsworth’s duties as a salesman differed in any material respect in the taxable years from prior years. The fact that petitioner employed no salesman especially to market its product is indicative of the monopolistic nature of its business. Evidence of its unique position in the brush fiber field is contained in the fact that a substantial part of its sales resulted from orders received without solicitation. In effect, petitioner had n,ot the sale problems usual to ordinary manufacturers.

The services rendered by Unsworth in organizing Fibras Duras are relied upon by petitioner as special duties of important benefit to it. The foreign corporation was formed and owned by Unsworth for the primary purpose of insuring a supply of material for the Tulatex Corporation, which acquired about 90 per cent of its output, the remainder going to petitioner. The services rendered by Unswortn in that regard benefited himself, personally, petitioner, and its subsidiary, in proportions indeterminable from the record. Some time was devoted to that activity by Unsworth during the fiscal year 1942, the exact amount not appearing. His own estimation of the time spent was that he was “on the go constantly” to the Mexican border and in the interior of Mexico. This testimony indicates generally a considerable portion of his time given to Fibras Duras, and is evidence of the ability of subordinates of Unsworth to manage petitioner^ affairs, including sales and production, without his presence at the plant. While petitioner was otherwise indirectly benefited through its ownership of all of the stock .of the Tulatex Corporation, the latter corporation was the principal beneficiary, and most of Unsworth’s services must be regarded as having been rendered as an official of it, for which he received a salary, rather than for petitioner. In any event, the circumstances are against regarding all of the services as having been rendered for petitioner. The services, rendered only in a small part for petitioner, influenced the voting on February 28, 1942, of the bonus ,of $25,000.

The returns of petitioner for the taxable years reported that Uns-worth devoted all of his time to its business, contrary to the evidence here that during such years he also was president and treasurer of the Tulatex Corporation and the Burlington Realty Co., and received salaries from them for his services. The salary from each subsidiary differed in 1943 from the prior year, indicating the existence of some method of measuring the compensation for his services. Unsworth regarded petitioner and its subsidiaries as one entity and admitted that some part of his salary from petitioner was for services rendered to' its subsidiaries. The corporations are separate and distinct taxpayers and one may not take a deduction belonging to another. Hal E. Roach Studios, 20 B. T. A. 917; South American Gold & Platinum Co., 8 T. C. 1297.

The salary of Unsworth as an officer of the Tulatex Corporation was not large in comparison with his salary and bonus from petitioner, the former having been $12,000 for the fiscal year 1942 and $8,500 for 1943. His services for the Tulatex Corporation during the taxable years were important and took some of his time, occasionally a great deal.

Upon brief, petitioner admits that it is probable that the subsidiary received some benefit from the services. Unsworth never gave any thought as to whether he was serving the petitioner, Queen City Tulatex Corporation, or Burlington Realty Co., all of which operated from the same office, a practice consistent with his personal opinion that there was only one entity for him to serve.

We find no evidence sufficient to support a conclusion that the bonuses were in recognition of services of Unsworth in prior years. To the contrary is the resolution adopted April 18,1942, which provides that the bonus of $50,000 was “for his services rendered during the present fiscal year.”

The record indicates particular generosity by the petitioner during the taxable years when its net income greatly exceeded those of prior years. Consideration of “financial success” and of the fact that “earned surplus was excellent” affected the directors’ action on April 18,1942, and May 29, 1943, respectively, the dates of resolutions authorizing bonus to Unsworth. This indicates doubt as to whether services actually rendered were being recompensed.

Several witnesses testified for petitioner on the reasonableness of the salaries in question. One, a director of petitioner after August 18,1942, who voted for the bonus in the fiscal year 1943, did not disclose much knowledge of salaries paid executives of corporations comparable in size to petitioner and was not familiar with the dividend record of petitioner until informed of it while on the witness stand, and he was an interested witness. It does not appear that he took into consideration the duties Unsworth had as an officer of the subsidiary corporations.

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E. B. & A. C. Whiting Co. v. Commissioner
10 T.C. 102 (U.S. Tax Court, 1948)

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Bluebook (online)
10 T.C. 102, 1948 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 287, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/e-b-a-c-whiting-co-v-commissioner-tax-1948.