Goldner v. Commissioner

27 T.C. 455, 1956 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 22
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedDecember 7, 1956
DocketDocket No. 44884
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 27 T.C. 455 (Goldner 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
Goldner v. Commissioner, 27 T.C. 455, 1956 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 22 (tax 1956).

Opinion

OPINION.

MulRoney, Judge:

The principal issues are whether the petitioner is entitled to a long-term capital loss deduction of $34,147.601 in 1948 under section 23(g) of the 1939 Internal Revenue Code through the worthlessness of stock owned by him in a corporation located in Budapest, Hungary, and whether he is entitled to a deduction in 1948 under section 23(e) of the 1939 Internal Revenue Code for the loss in that year of certain veneers owned by him in Budapest, Hungary.

As shown in the foregoing Findings of Fact, petitioner and his two brothers established the corporation in 1933 for the purpose of operating a sawmill in Budapest, Hungary, and to import various wood products. When petitioner came to the United States in 1941 his two brothers ran the corporation and in 1948 they had the corporation transfer 3,100,000 square feet of veneers to petitioner in payment of petitioner’s 1939 advancement to the corporation of 763,854.32 pengos. The bales of veneers remained in storage in Budapest and petitioner made various efforts to sell them but was unsuccessful and in March 1948 the veneers were “nationalized.”

Petitioner argues that the advances of 763,854.82 pengos to the corporation in 1939 were loans which were repaid to him in 1946 by the distribution to him by the corporation of approximately 3,100,000 square feet of veneers. He then contends that the nationalization by the Hungarian Government in 1948 of the corporate assets and of the veneers belonging to him caused the stock owned by him in the corporation to become worthless in that year and also resulted in a loss of the veneers in the amount of $134,009.53.

Petitioner’s argument falls at several points. We believe that the advances made by petitioner to his corporation in 1939 were capital contributions, not loans. It is not necessary that capital contributions be in proportion to the stockholdings of the various stockholders. Harry Sackstein, 14 T. C. 566; Cambridge Apartment Building Corporation, 44 B. T. A. 617. There was no evidence of the alleged loan, such as a note, and there was no provision for the payment of interest or for the repayment of the “loan” on any fixed date. See Alfred R. Bachrach, 18 T. C. 479, affirmed per curiam 205 F. 2d 151. The petitioner and his two brothers, who were the only stockholders of the corporation, apparently anticipated that the initial capital of the corporation would prove insufficient and they provided in the agreement establishing the corporation in 1933 that “in case the original capital should not be enough [for the operation of the business] * * * without any special agreement the contracting parties will furnish the required capital.” Petitioner’s only security for the amounts advanced was the corporation itself. After a consideration of all the facts we conclude that the advances petitioner made to the corporation in 1939 were contributions to capital, which would increase the basis of the stock held by the petitioner in the corporation.

Section 127 (a) (2) and (3) 2 of the 1939 Internal Revenue Code established a conclusive presumption that the petitioner’s investment in the Budapest corporation became worthless when the United States declared war on Hungary in 1942. Petitioner did not claim any loss deduction for worthless stock in 1942. Ervin Kenmore, 18 T. C. 754, affd. 205 F. 2d 90. Congress contemplated recoveries of property or interest deemed lost in the war and therefore provided in subsection (c) (1) that “Upon the recovery in the taxable year of any money or property in respect of property considered under subsection (a) as destroyed or seized in any prior taxable year, the amount of such recovery shall be included in gross income to the extent provided in paragraph (2).” Paragraph (2) provides that the amount to be included in gross income is the fair market value of the recovered property “determined as of the date of the recovery,” with certain adjustments, with one such adjustment turning upon whether or not “the allowable deductions in prior taxable years on account of the destruction or seizure of property described in subsection (a)” resulted in a reduction of the taxpayer’s tax for that year. Subsection (d) 3 provides for a new basis for the recovered property. This new basis is the fair market value of the property on the date of recovery, with several adjustments similar to those in subsection (c).

It is evident that the petitioner must first establish some new basis for his stock when he recovered it. We cannot say with any great certainty when this event took place. Presumably, it occurred when the United States entered into an armistice agreement with the provisional national government of Hungary on January 20, 1945. Originally, the corporation had issued temporary receipts to the petitioner in lieu of stock, and these temporary receipts had been left behind in Hungary when the petitioner left that country in 1940. Recovery of property “deemed” lost under section 127 (a) must be proven like any other fact. As we pointed out in Ervin Kenmore, supra, “there is no provision to the effect that such property, if in existence, ‘shall be deemed to have been recovered’ upon the happening of some event such as the recapture of the country in which the property was located or the end of hostilities with such country.” Assuming, however, that the petitioner recovered his stock in 1945, when hostilities with Hungary ceased, we have no way of placing a value on such stock so that it may acquire a new basis. • Charles Goldner, one of the stockholders, testified that the corporation suffered “very heavy losses” during the war. Petitioner testified that all of the corporation’s structures were destroyed, except for the sawmill, and that other assets of the corporation, except for a concealed quantity of veneers, were “either destroyed or robbed.” The sawmill was the only operating asset left to the corporation after the war and it was in a damaged condition. It was subsequently put in operating condition and rented to another corporation. No attempt is made by the petitioner to establish a fair market value for his stock in 1945, and with the unsatisfactory record before us we are unable even to make an approximation. Moreover, there is no evidence of the exchange rate in 1945 of pengos to dollars to arrive at some valuation of the petitioner’s stock in that year, even if some evidence were produced by the petitioner of the condition of the corporation at the end of the war.

Even assuming that the petitioner had established a new basis for his recovered stock in 1945 under section 127 (d), another serious difficulty presents itself in petitioner’s argument. He argues that the nationalization of the corporation in 1948 was the event marking the worthlessness of his stock. We do not have the decree of nationalization before us and we cannot determine its effect. All we are told is that a “Commissioner of the Government” appeared and took over the operation of the corporation in 1948. Nothing is said about the stock of the corporation held by the petitioner. In Erwin de Reitzes-Marienwert, 21 T. C. 846, where the taxpayer claimed a loss for worthless stock in a corporation nationalized by the government of Czechoslovakia, we said:

We think the respondent’s determination must be sustained. The property owned by the petitioner was stock in Nitra. So far as we can ascertain from the record this stock as such was never seized or nationalized or confiscated by Czechoslovakia.

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Goldner v. Commissioner
27 T.C. 455 (U.S. Tax Court, 1956)

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Bluebook (online)
27 T.C. 455, 1956 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 22, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/goldner-v-commissioner-tax-1956.