Eli Lilly & Co. v. Commissioner

84 T.C. No. 65, 84 T.C. 996, 1985 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 73
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedMay 28, 1985
DocketDocket No. 5113-76
StatusPublished
Cited by37 cases

This text of 84 T.C. No. 65 (Eli Lilly & 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
Eli Lilly & Co. v. Commissioner, 84 T.C. No. 65, 84 T.C. 996, 1985 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 73 (tax 1985).

Opinion

Wiles, Judge:

Respondent determined deficiencies in petitioners’ Federal income taxes as follows:

Year Deficiency
1971. $7,622,449
1972 . 7,340,867
1973 . 6,853,816

By amendment to his answer, respondent asserted increased deficiencies in the following amounts:

Year Deficiency1
1971. $11,711,792
1972 . 11,626,363
1973 . 10,882,192

The entire amounts of the deficiencies determined by respondent for 1971 and 1972 are in dispute, and petitioners claim refunds for 1971 and 1972 in the amounts of $1,700,038 and $1,697,257, respectively. For 1973, all but $189,048 of the deficiency determined by respondent is in dispute.

Pursuant to petitioners’ motion, this Court severed from the case all issues other than the propriety of respondent’s allocations of gross income under section 4822 from Eli Lilly & Co., Inc. (hereinafter Lilly P.R.) to petitioner Eli Lilly Co. (hereinafter petitioner) with respect to Darvon® and Darvon-N® products. The severed issues were consolidated with docket No. 19606-80 for purposes of trial, briefing, and opinion; consequently, a final decision as to the income tax deficiencies of petitioners for the taxable years 1971, 1972, and 1973 will not be possible based upon the opinion of this case.

The section 482 allocations of gross income from Lilly P.R. to petitioner with respect to Darvon and Darvon-N products determined by respondent in his notice of deficiency and amendment to answer are as follows:

Year Notice of deficiency Amendment to answer
1971 $18,522,924 $26,620,387
1972 17,820,986 26,314,918
1973 10,717,187 18,078,205

These allocations raise the following questions for our consideration:

1. Whether petitioner’s 1966 transfer pursuant to section 351 of certain Darvon and Darvon-N income-producing intangibles to Lilly P.R., a wholly owned subsidiary corporation engaged in manufacturing in Puerto Rico and qualifying as a possessions corporation within the meaning of section 931, should be recognized for the purposes of determining arm’s-length prices for Darvon and Darvon-N products purchased by petitioner from Lilly P.R. during 1971, 1972, and 1973;

2. Whether respondent’s determinations that gross income should be allocated from Lilly P.R. to petitioner with respect to Darvon and Darvon-N products for the years 1971, 1972, and 1973 were arbitrary, capricious, or unreasonable;

3. Whether Lilly P.R.’s prices to petitioner for Darvon and Darvon-N products manufactured by Lilly P.R. and sold to petitioner during 1971, 1972, and 1973 were prices at which those products would have been sold between unrelated parties dealing at arm’s length.

FINDINGS OF FACT

Some of the facts have been stipulated and are found accordingly.

I. History and Background of Eli Lilly & Co.

A. Petitioner

Petitioner is an Indiana corporation whose principal place of business at the time of filing the petition herein was Indianapolis, Indiana. During the years 1971,1972, and 1973, petitioner and its consolidated subsidiaries maintained their books and records on the accrual method of accounting with taxable years beginning on January 1 and ending on December 31. Petitioner and its consolidated subsidiaries filed consolidated Federal income tax returns on Forms 1120 for the taxable years 1971, 1972, and 1973, at the Memphis Service Center, Memphis, Tennessee.

Petitioner is engaged in the United States in the invention, development, manufacture, marketing, and sale of a wide variety of ethical (i.e., prescriptions) and other pharmaceutical products, as well as certain agricultural, chemical, and cosmetic products. Petitioner is engaged in similar activities in approximately 145 countries throughout the world through a network of approximately 70 partially and wholly owned domestic and foreign corporations. During the time period 1960 through 1975, petitioner and its subsidiaries employed from 10,000 to 24,000 individuals.

During the years 1971 through 1973, the relevant divisions and subsidiaries of petitioner and their respective responsibilities were as follows:

(a) Pharmaceutical Division: Marketing and sale of pharmaceutical products in the United States.

(b) Elanco Products Co.: Marketing and sale of animal health and agricultural products in the United States.

(c) Elizabeth Arden, Inc.: Marketing and sale of cosmetic products in the United States.

(d) Lilly Research Laboratories: Fundamental and developmental research in the life sciences.

(e) Production Operations Division: Operation of all manufacturing facilities in the United States.

(f) Lilly P.R.: Manufacture and sale of ethical pharmaceutical products in Puerto Rico.

(g) Lilly Industries Ltd.: Fundamental and developmental research in the life sciences and manufacturing, marketing, and sale of pharmaceutical, animal health, and agricultural products.

(h) Eli Lilly S.A., Geneva: International marketing, licensing, and holding company.

The consolidated net sales (excluding intercompany sales) of petitioner and its worldwide subsidiaries and the United States pharmaceutical net sales of petitioner for the years 1965 through 1973 were as follows (000’s omitted):

Year Consolidated net sales US. pharmaceutical net sales
1965 $316,600 $176,358
1966 366.700 196,482
1967 408,400 212,829
1968 479,600 257,610
1969 537,200 284,501
1970 592.300 304,933
1971 723.300 338,321
1972 819.700 351,044
1973 972,500 368,915

During the years 1971 through 1973, approximately 60 percent of the consolidated sales of petitioner and its worldwide subsidiaries was attributable to the sale of pharmaceutical products.3 During those years, petitioner marketed approximately 750 pharmaceutical products in the United States.

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Bluebook (online)
84 T.C. No. 65, 84 T.C. 996, 1985 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 73, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/eli-lilly-co-v-commissioner-tax-1985.