Edell v. United States

28 T.C. 601, 1957 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 162
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedJune 10, 1957
DocketDocket No. 882-R.
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 28 T.C. 601 (Edell v. United States) 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
Edell v. United States, 28 T.C. 601, 1957 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 162 (tax 1957).

Opinion

OPINION.

Harron, Judge:

The first issue presents the problem whether any of the Edell partnership’s earnings for each of the 3 years, 1943-1945, inclusive, is subject to renegotiation under the provisions of section 403 (a) (5) (B) of the Renegotiation Act of .1942, as amended.2 If that issue is decided in the affirmative, another question must be decided, the amount in each year of the partnership’s excessive profits, if any, under the provisions of section 403 (a) (4) (A). It is now well established that in a Tax Court proceeding for the redetermination of excessive profits the petitioner has the burden of proving that the respondent’s determination is erroneous “with respect to any amount up to that originally determined as excessive, and that the respondent has the burden in respect to any additional amounts proposed for the first time in his answer.” Nathan Cohen v. Secretary of War, 7 T. C. 1002, 1011; Bass v. Stimson, 20 T. C. 428, 434. The questions to be decided under the first issue, relating to the contracts or arrangements made by the petitioner with various corporations, involve the provisions of section 403 (a) (5) (B). The petitioner has the burden of proving that the respondent erred in its determination that section 403 (a) (5) (B) applies to all such contracts or arrangements. Under the second issue, the respondent has the burden of proof in respect to an additional amount for 1943 which it claimed for the first time at the trial constituted excessive profits, namely, $10,265.3 Otherwise, the petitioner has the burden of proving that the respondent’s original determination of the amount of excessive profits for 1943, $25,735, is incorrect, and that the respondent’s determinations of amounts of excessive profits for 1944 and 1945 are erroneous. It is noted, further, that if the second issue is reached, the question must relate to each of the years 1943-1945, inclusive, separately, rather than to the 3-year period taken as a whole.

Under subsection (c) (1) of section 403 of the Renegotiation Act of 1942, as amended,4 it is provided, in part, unless there is request by a contractor or subcontractor to the proper renegotiation authority (the War Contracts Price Adjustment Board, in this case) the power to renegotiate shall be exercised “with respect to the aggregate of the amounts received or accrued during the fiscal year * * * by a contractor or subcontractor under contracts with the Departments and subcontracts.” Section 403 (a) (8) defines fiscal year to mean the taxable year of the contractor or subcontractor under chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code. Petitioner’s fiscal year, for purposes of the Renegotiation Act of 1942, as amended, is a calendar year. Petitioner did not request the Board to exercise its powers separately with respect to amounts received under any one or more separate contracts so as, for example, to determine whether excessive profits were realized during the 3-year period, 1943-1945, inclusive. The Board exercised its powers with respect to the aggregate amounts received by petitioner in each of the years 1943-1945, inclusive, and issued three separate orders, one for each year. This Court must, therefore, in this case, consider the question of whether petitioner realized any excessive profits on the basis of the aggregate amounts received by petitioner in each of the years 1943, 1944, and 1945. Sec. 403 (e) (1).5

Issue 1. This issue presents a question of fact as to whether Harry Edell solicited or procured Government contracts or subcontracts for each of eight corporations from which the Edell partnership received commissions during the years 1943-1945, inclusive. Respondent determined that the partnership’s profits during each of those years are subject to renegotiation, and its argument in support of its determination is that the arrangements with each of the eight corporations, from which the partnership’s profits were derived, constituted “subcontracts” as defined in section 403 (a) (5) (B). Petitioner contends that none of the eight arrangements constituted “subcontracts” as so defined, and its principal argument in support of this contention is that it did not solicit or procure Government contracts or subcontracts for any of the eight corporations.

In George M. Wolff et al. v. Macauley, 8 T. C. 146, and in Leon Fine, 9 T. C. 600, we held that the petitioners were not subcontractors merely because their compensation was based or computed upon the amount of Government contracts or subcontracts received by their principals, since the petitioners did not solicit or procure any of such Government contracts or subcontracts. In the Wolff case, we said (p. 152):

the language of the statute aptly applies to manufacturers’ agents and sales engineers who procure Government contracts for their principals and whose compensation is contingent upon the business they are able to obtain for the principals or fixed by the amount of such business.

We quoted this language in the Fine case, at page 608. In the instant case, petitioner was paid fixed percentages, varying from 2½ per cent to 5 per cent of the amounts paid by the Government to each of its principals under Government contracts. The Wolff and Fine cases make it clear that this is not, in itself, enough to make the arrangements subcontracts under section 403 (a) (5) (B). It is necessary, also, that the petitioner should have solicited or procured the Government contracts received by its principals.

Petitioner argues that the services performed by the partnership are sufficiently similar to the services performed by the petitioners in the Wolff case and the petitioner in the Fine case, to require the same conclusion as we reached in those cases, namely, that the petitioner did not solicit or procure Government contracts, and that, therefore, it was not a subcontractor whose profits are subject to renegotiation.

In French v. War Contracts Price Adjustment Board, 13 T. C. 276, we concluded that the services performed by French constituted soliciting of procuring Government contracts, and we therefore held that he was a subcontractor whose profits are subject to renegotiation. Be-spondent argues that the services performed by the petitioner are sufficiently similar to those performed by French (in the French case) to require the same conclusion.

The facts have been set forth at length in our Findings of Fact. Nevertheless, we believe a brief summary of the facts will be useful.

Petitioner had eight clients during the 3 years 1943-1945. It had one contract, or arrangement, with each of its clients. The parties have stipulated that the services performed by the petitioner for each of its eight clients and that the terms of the arrangement it had with each one were substantially the same. The evidence is general and fragmentary; it does not show in detail as to each of the eight corporations the precise services which were performed by petitioner. However, under the stipulation of the parties, if it is established that petitioner solicited or procured a Government contract for one of the eight corporations, it follows that we may find and conclude that it solicited or procured a Government contract for each of the eight corporations.

The burden of proof is upon petitioner and if it has failed to show what it did for each of its eight clients, there is failure of proof.

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Related

Beets v. Renegotiation Board
38 T.C. 677 (U.S. Tax Court, 1962)
Golbert v. Renegotiation Board
28 T.C. 728 (U.S. Tax Court, 1957)
Edell v. United States
28 T.C. 601 (U.S. Tax Court, 1957)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
28 T.C. 601, 1957 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 162, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/edell-v-united-states-tax-1957.