George C. McGee v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

519 F.2d 1121, 36 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5888, 1975 U.S. App. LEXIS 12599
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 26, 1975
Docket74-2006
StatusPublished
Cited by237 cases

This text of 519 F.2d 1121 (George C. McGee v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
George C. McGee v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 519 F.2d 1121, 36 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5888, 1975 U.S. App. LEXIS 12599 (5th Cir. 1975).

Opinions

LYNNE, District Judge:

The focus of this appeal is on the contentions of appellant, George C. McGee (McGee) that the Tax Court1 21 erred in its holding that the amounts received by him from Port Arthur Marine Engineering Works (PAMEW) in the years 1957 to 1963 were taxable income and that the Commissioner carried his burden of proving fraud under both sections [1123]*11236501(c), 26 U.S.C. 6501(c)2 and 6653(b), 26 U.S.C. 6653(b)3 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954. We affirm.

In its opinion the Tax Court thoroughly canvassed the facts developed upon stipulated and testimonial evidence.4 They are severely capsulated herein to highlight our rationale.

Throughout the years in question McGee was Port Engineer for Gulf Oil Corporation (Gulf) in Port Arthur, Texas, and filed individual income tax returns with the District Director of Internal Revenue, Austin, Texas. He was responsible for maintenance and repairs of Gulf’s ships and other marine vessels.

Within the scope of his authority for Gulf, he employed PAMEW to make repairs upon vessels which he had determined to have been necessary and which he supervised and directed. He received, examined and approved for payment invoices rendered by PAMEW to Gulf which were consistently paid by check payable to PAMEW.

With the cooperation of W. O. Nelson, the owner of PAMEW, he contrived a sordid scheme of “kickbacks”. At McGee’s request, invoices submitted by PAMEW contained either in whole or in part charges for services not actually performed. Such invoices were initialed by McGee to indicate his approval and were paid by Gulf. The excess over the true amount due, varying from five to fifty percent, was remitted to McGee as his share.5

Such payments were made to McGee in five ways: (1) in cash given to him in the offices of PAMEW’s president; (2) by check drawn on PAMEW payable to and endorsed by him; (3) by check drawn on PAMEW payable to McGee and endorsed for deposit in McGee’s bank account by PAMEW’s president; (4) by check drawn on PAMEW payable to PAMEW’s president but endorsed payable to McGee, and (5) by check payable to PAMEW’s president, but endorsed for deposit to McGee’s bank account. None of these payments were reported by McGee on his income tax returns for the years in question.

During the same period of time McGee employed in behalf of Gulf another marine contractor, Gulf Copper and Manufacturing Company (GCMC). As a condition of doing business with Gulf, GCMC was required to and did remit to [1124]*1124McGee an agreed upon percentage of the proceeds of its invoices. Such invoices were not false or padded, but for work actually performed by it for Gulf. GCMC reported all payments made to McGee on Treasury Forms 1099 and, aware of this, McGee included such sums in his income tax returns.

In the course of an audit of his returns for the years in question, performed in 1965, McGee denied to the investigating revenue agent that he had received any funds from PAMEW.6

Against this factual backdrop, the starting point is Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Wilcox, 327 U.S. 404, 66 5. Ct. 546, 90 L.Ed. 752 (1946). Wilcox was a bookkeeper for a Nevada company. When its books were audited it was discovered that he had converted a substantial sum of money to his own use, ■ which he frittered away in gambling. In affirming the Ninth Circuit’s reversal of the Tax Court decision, the Court squarely held that embezzled money did not constitute taxable income.

Six years later, in Rutkin v. United States, 343 U.S. 130, 72 S.Ct. 571, 96 L.Ed. 833 (1952), the Court determined that money obtained by extortion was income taxable to the extortioner under Section 22(a) of the Internal Revenue Code. Rutkin had obtained a large sum of money from one Reinfeld by, among other pressures, threats to kill Reinfeld and his family. In affirming Rutkins conviction under 26 U.S.C. § 145(b) for willfully attempting to evade or defeat federal taxes, arising out of his failure to report such money on his income tax return, it reasoned that

An unlawful gain, as well as a lawful one, constitutes taxable income when its recipient has such control over it that, as a practical matter, he derives readily realizable economic value from it. Burnet v. Wells, 289 U.S. 670, 678, 53 S.Ct. 761, 764 77 L.Ed. 1439; Corliss v. Bowers, 281 U.S. 376, 378, 50 S.Ct. 336, 337, 74 L.Ed. 916. That occurs when cash, as here, is delivered by its owner to the taxpayer in a manner which allows the recipient freedom to dispose of it at will, even though it may have been obtained by fraud and his freedom to use it may be assailable by someone with a better title to it. [Emphasis added].

Finally, it defused Wilcox by flatly stating: “We limit that case to its facts.” 343 U.S. at 138, 72 S.Ct. at 576.

The last of the triology is James v. United States, 366 U.S. 213, 81 S.Ct. 1052, 6 L.Ed.2d 246 (1961). James, a union official, with another person, embezzled large sums of money during the years 1951 through 1954 from his employer-union and from an insurance company with which the union was doing business. He failed to report these amounts in his gross income in those years and was convicted for willfully attempting to evade the federal income tax due for the years 1951 through 1954 in violation of Section 145(b) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1939, and Section 7201 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954.

James expressly overruled Wilcox. Implicit is its holding that the funds embezzled by James during the years 1951 through 1954 constituted taxable income in each of such years.7 A [1125]*1125fortiori, it compels us to hold, as we do, that the sums received by McGee from PAMEW during the years 1958 through 1963 constituted taxable income in each of such years.

Although the conviction of James was reversed, it does not follow that the Court limited the principles enunciated in its opinion to prospective application only. On the contrary, it referred to its definition of willfulness in Holland v. United States, 348 U.S. 121, 75 S.Ct. 127, 99 L.Ed. 150, as “involv[ing] a specific intent which must be proven by independent evidence and which cannot be inferred from the mere understatement of income.” It concluded with the belief— “that the element of willfulness could not be proven in a criminal prosecution for failing to include embezzled funds in gross income in the year of misappropriation so long as the statute contained the gloss placed upon it by

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Bluebook (online)
519 F.2d 1121, 36 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5888, 1975 U.S. App. LEXIS 12599, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/george-c-mcgee-v-commissioner-of-internal-revenue-ca5-1975.