Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America v. United States

72 F. Supp. 70, 108 Ct. Cl. 724, 35 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 1529, 1947 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 39
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedJune 2, 1947
DocketNo. 45855
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 72 F. Supp. 70 (Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America v. United States, 72 F. Supp. 70, 108 Ct. Cl. 724, 35 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 1529, 1947 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 39 (cc 1947).

Opinion

Jones, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

This suit was instituted for the recovery of Social Security taxes alleged to have been overpaid for the years 1936 and 1937. While three issues are set out in the petition, two of them have been conceded by the defendant which leaves as the one issue to be decided whether plaintiff is entitled to credit against taxes imposed by Title IX of the Federal Social Security Act sums which it was obliged to contribute to State unemployment funds with respect to persons who were deemed to be employees under the State laws but were deemed not to be employees under the Federal Social Security Act.

Plaintiff is a mutual insurance company which employs certain individuals who function in the dual capacity of supervisors and soliciting insurance agents. These individuals receive a stated salary for services performed by them as supervisors and also commissions on insurance solicited by them. The Commissioner of Internal Eevenue originally ruled that the total compensation received (salaries and commissions) for 1936 and 1937 constituted taxable wages within the meaning of the Social Security Act and imposed taxes accordingly.

The Commissioner has now reversed his position with regard to the taxability of the commissions received by such individuals and the defendant accordingly concedes that plaintiff is entitled to recover $457.42 on this issue.

For the year 1936 plaintiff paid into the unemployment fund of the State of Colorado an amount for which it claimed credit against its Federal Social Security tax [730]*730liability but the Commissioner refused to allow $14.76 of the amount claimed because of insufficient evidence of the payment of that amount to the State. The necessary evidence to establish the payment has been adduced in this proceeding and defendant now concedes that the plaintiff is entitled to recover that sum.

In redetermining plaintiff’s tax liability for the calendar years 1936 and 1937 under Title IX of the Social Security Act, the Commissioner disallowed credit against the tax imposed by Section 901 of the Social Security Act for contributions paid by plaintiff into the State unemployment fund with respect to individuals (general agents, their employees and soliciting agents) who are not deemed to be plaintiff’s employees under the Federal Social Security Act but are deemed plaintiff’s employees under the respective State unemployment laws. Whether credit should be allowed for such contribution is the sole issue before the court.

Section 902, Title IX, of the Social Security Act enacted in 1935,49 Stat. 620,639, provides as follows:

Sec. 902. The taxpayer may credit against the tax imposed by section 901 the amount of contributions, with respect to employment during the taxable year, paid by him (before the date of filing his return for the taxable year) into an unemployment fund under a State law. The total credit allowed to a taxpayer under this section for all contributions paid into unemployment funds with respect to employment during such taxable year shall not exceed 90 per centum of the tax against which it is credited, and credit shall be allowed only for contributions made under the laws of States certified for the taxable year as provided in section 903.

By reason of the definition of employment given in Section 907 of the same act, the phrase “with respect to employment” set out in that act prevented the allowance of a credit for contributions made under a State law with respect to services not covered by the Federal Social Security Act. In other words, under that act, even though a taxpayer was required by State law to make payments into State unemployment funds with respect to individuals who were .considered his employees under the State act, he could not receive credit for such payments under Section 902 unless such individuals [731]*731were deemed to be plaintiff’s employees under the Federal Social Security Act. That condition continued until amendments were made by the Social Security Tax Amendments of 1939, 53 Stat. 1360, 1387, wherein Section 609 amended Section 1601 of the Internal Revenue Code to read in part as follows:

Sec. 1601. Credits Against Tax.—
(a) Contributions to State Unemployment Funds.—
(1) The taxpayer may, to the extent provided in this subsection and subsection (c), credit against the tax imposed by section 1600 the amount of contributions paid by him into an unemployment fund maintained during the taxable year under the unemployment compensation law of a State which is certified for the taxable year as provided in section 1603.

A comparison of the above statute with Section 902 quoted above shows that the significant phrase “with respect to employment” which appears in the earlier act does not appear in the later act. With that phrase eliminated, the 1939-, amendment allowed the taxpayer to credit against the tax the contributions which it paid under a State law without any limitation as to the Federal definition of the term “employment.” That section, however, related only to the tax with respect to services rendered in 1939 and thereafter-With respect to the years 1936,1937, and 1938, a liberalization was provided in the same act but it merely extended the time for taking the credit and in so providing made it applicable only “for the amount of contributions with respect to employment during such year, paid by him into an unemployment fund under a State law.” In other words, in making the liberalization for 1939 and subsequent years in order to permit, credit on the basis of the amount paid into the State unemployment fund without regard to whether such employees, would be considered employees under the Federal Social Security Act, Congress saw fit to eliminate the phrase “with respect to employment” and when it came to make a liberalization in the same act applicable to the years 1936, 1937, and 1938 only with respect to the time of payment it continued the use of this critical phrase.

That situation continued until the enactment of the Second'. Revenue Act of 1940,54 Stat. 974. When that act was before* [732]*732the Senate, an amendment was offered by Senator Clark which had for its only stated purpose the extension of time within which taxpayers might claim credit for Social Security taxes paid to States for the years 1936 to 1939, inclusive, that is, a time limitation similar to that contained in the 1939 amendment for these earlier years. No attempt was made in the amendment as submitted to change the service limitation as was done in the 1939 amendment for 1939 and subsequent years. The amendment as offered and adopted continued the use of the phrase “with respect to employment.” However, when the bill went to conference the amendment as offered by Senator Clark was rewritten and enlarged in many particulars to the end that Section 701 (a) as enacted read as follows:

Allowance of Credit. — Against the tax imposed by section 901 of the Social Security Act for the calendar year 1936, 1937, or 1938, or against the tax imposed by the Federal Unemployment Tax Act for the calendar year 1939, any taxpayer shall be allowed credit for the amount of contributions paid by him into an unemployment fund under a State law—

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
72 F. Supp. 70, 108 Ct. Cl. 724, 35 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 1529, 1947 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 39, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/guardian-life-insurance-co-of-america-v-united-states-cc-1947.