First American National Bank v. United States

327 F. Supp. 675, 27 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 825, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14616
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Tennessee
DecidedFebruary 16, 1971
DocketCiv. A. No. 4744
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 327 F. Supp. 675 (First American National Bank v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
First American National Bank v. United States, 327 F. Supp. 675, 27 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 825, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14616 (M.D. Tenn. 1971).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

MORTON, District Judge.

This action was instituted by the plaintiff to recover certain taxes and interest for the calendar years 1961, 1962 and 1963.

The plaintiff, First American National Bank of Nashville, is a national banking corporation with its principal office in Nashville, Tennessee. It filed its corporate income tax returns for the calendar years 1961, 1962 and 1963 with the [676]*676District Director of the Internal Revenue of Nashville, Tennessee. Upon examination of these returns by the Internal Revenue Service, certain adjustments were made resulting in deficiency assessments. These assessments were duly paid, claims for refund were filed, and upon the disallowance by the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue, this suit was filed.

The questions presented are:

(1) Whether interest collected by the plaintiff bank as owner of municipal bonds subject to repurchase agreements, when at the option of the plaintiff seller will repurchase the bonds, is includable in plaintiff’s taxable income or is entitled to the exclusion as interest received by the bank on tax-free bonds.

(2) Whether expenditures made from certain construction performed on plaintiff’s building housing its banking facilities are deductible as an ordinary business expense as incidental repairs thereto.

(3) Whether loans involving no risk of loss such as those secured by holdback or reserve accounts are eligible for inclusion in the loan base in computing the allowable deductions for additions to plaintiff’s bad debt reserve.

QUESTION NO. 1

During the years in question the bond dealers who had been the successful bidders for municipal bonds, arranged for the bank to advance the money for the payment thereof and said bonds were delivered to the bank with the written repurchase agreements on which the dealers agreed to repurchase said bonds upon demand of the bank at the same price. During the same period involved some dealers who were successful bidders made an arrangement with the bank whereby the bank would advance the funds for the bonds with an oral agreement that the successful bidder would later pay for the bonds and accept delivery from the bank. The transactions were in effect similar in substance to those described in the opinion of the Court in the case of American National Bank of Austin v. United States of America, 421 F.2d 442 (5th Cir., 1970).

During the years involved customers of the bank who had agreed to purchase bonds from dealers requested the bank to purchase the bonds itself with the oral understanding that the customer would later purchase the bonds from the bank at the same price, with appropriate adjustment for accrued interest. These transactions were similar in substance to those described in the aforementioned American National Bank of Austin case.

During the years in question the bank purchased bonds from bond dealers and later sold these bonds to trust accounts for which the bank was acting as trustee through its Trust Department. Prior to such purchases there was discussion between the Bond Department and the Trust Department of the bank, in which the officer of the Trust Department made it known that the bonds in question were, in his opinion, suitable for trust accounts and that the Trust Department would like to acquire some of the bonds for such trust accounts as and when funds were available. In most cases it was not known at the time of the purchase of the bonds to what trust accounts particular bonds would be allocated. However, in some cases a particular lot of bonds were earmarked for a particular trust account, to be transferred to this trust account when it had funds available, as, for example, when other bonds matured and were paid. The trusts which purchased the bonds would not have sufficient funds at the time of the purchase of the bonds by the bank to acquire the bonds, and in the interim the bank kept the bonds in its regular investment account. When the trust accounts acquired the necessary funds, they were transferred to the bank and the bonds were transferred to the trust account. The trust accounts paid the bank the cost of the bonds plus accrued interest.

Looking at the last instance first, it appears to the Court that there is no material difference in the substance of the trust account acting for an estate mak[677]*677ing the arrangement with the plaintiff bank and the substance of a living customer making said same arrangement.

Looking at the substance of the transactions involved in each of these above mentioned instances, it appears that the coupon interest collected by the bank functioned as interest to the bond dealer customers, either individual or fiduciary. The bank insured itself from any loss of principal by having the option to require the bond dealers and its individual customers to repurchase said bonds at the original sales price, i. e., the price paid by the bank when the purchase was made and likewise had as security the bonds themselves. Insofar as the bank’s relationship with its own Trust Department, certainly it would be unrealistic to assume that the bank, having purchased the bonds for the Trust Department, could not require its own Trust Department to accept the same without a loss that would affect the general assets of the bank. The material fact is that the bank had the ability in these transactions to insulate itself from any loss and at the same time had possession of the bonds as security.

We feel that these questions are settled and foreclosed by the holding in the ease of Union Planters National Bank of Memphis v. United States, 426 F.2d 115 (6th Cir., 1970) in which case it adopted the rationale of the case of American National Bank of Austin v. United States, supra.

Thus it is the holding of this Court that the taxpayer has failed to establish that it is entitled to treat the income received by it in the form of interest collected on municipal bonds as exempt from taxation, the plaintiff’s “ownership” thereof being without substance.

The Government concedes that any interest received by the plaintiff as a member of a successful bidding syndicate is exempt. An appropriate provision for the refund thereof shall be made in the judgment entered in this case.

QUESTION NO. 2

By virtue of certain construction performed on taxpayer’s building housing its banking facilities, taxpayer expended in 1961 the sum of $402,755.58 and in 1962 the sum of $50,584.57. A portion of these expenditures were admittedly capital investment and a portion is claimed to be deductible as an ordinary business expense as incidental repairs.

The architect responsible for the construction determined that “certain percentages” of the various contracts constituted repairs and on this basis they were deducted by the taxpayer.

The architect was employed to draw up the plans and specifications and supervise the work of filling in, by construction of usable space, a court and do certain remodeling and renovation of the building.

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Related

First Nat'l Bank v. Commissioner
64 T.C. 1001 (U.S. Tax Court, 1975)
Loyola Federal Savings & Loan Ass'n v. United States
390 F. Supp. 1375 (D. Maryland, 1975)

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Bluebook (online)
327 F. Supp. 675, 27 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 825, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14616, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/first-american-national-bank-v-united-states-tnmd-1971.