Hagen Advertising Displays, Inc. v. Commissioner

47 T.C. 139, 1966 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 21
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedNovember 18, 1966
DocketDocket No. 474-64
StatusPublished
Cited by39 cases

This text of 47 T.C. 139 (Hagen Advertising Displays, Inc. 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
Hagen Advertising Displays, Inc. v. Commissioner, 47 T.C. 139, 1966 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 21 (tax 1966).

Opinions

Scott, Judge:

Respondent determined deficiencies-in petitioner’s income tax for the calendar years 1960 and 1962, in the amounts of $25,033.04 and $16,119.60, respectively.

The issue for decision is whether amounts paid to petitioner by certain of its customers for products ordered from petitioner which were to be delivered by petitioner at a later date were properly excluded from taxable income by petitioner in each of the years here involved to the extent that the products ordered with respect to which the payments were made had not been shipped at the close of the taxable year.

FINDINGS OF FACT

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

Petitioner was incorporated on January 2, 1948, under the laws of Ohio. Its principal office is in Cincinnati, Ohio. For the taxable years 1960 and 1962 petitioner filed its Federal income tax returns with the district director of internal revenue at Cincinnati, Ohio. It keeps its books and reports its income on an accrual basis.

Petitioner is and has been since its incorporation engaged in the business of manufacturing dealer identification signs for national advertisers including, among others, General Tire & Rubber Co., Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Hiram Walker, Republic Steel Corp., Toro Manufacturing Co., Arinco Steel Corp., and Cooper Tire & Rubber Co.

The national advertisers, who are petitioner’s customers, are continuously establishing new dealerships for which illuminated plastic identification signs are required. Such customers attempt to forecast their need for signs a year in advance, and then place a so-called blanket order with petitioner for the number of signs which this estimate shows will be needed for the ensuing year. Thereafter, as the new dealerships are opened, the customer directs petitioner to deliver a sign to such dealerships and petitioner ships against the blanket order until the total number of signs contracted for in the blanket order have been shipped. Although a blanket order normally represents a customer’s budgeted needs for 1 year, on some occasions the budget estimates are inaccurate or blanket orders are placed for more than 1 year. In such instances petitioner’s shipments under a blanket order will extend over a period longer than 1 year from the date of receipt of the blanket order. Some of the blanket orders received during the years here in issue remained outstanding (i.e., not all of the signs ordered were yet delivered) for as long as 2 or 3 years from the date of receipt.

Petitioner from 1955 through 1960 entered into sales contracts with its various customers created by the receipt of a purchase order based on a quotation to the customer by petitioner in response to the customer’s inquiry. The quotation by petitioner set forth the terms and conditions for the manufacture of the signs as well as the specifications for the sign, method of delivery, and the earliest delivery date to be required under the order. Upon receipt of a purchase order petitioner begins the process of manufacturing the signs described in the order. Normally, it takes about 4 weeks before petitioner is in a position to start shipping signs. No signs are shipped until petitioner receives instructions, or a “release,” from the customer specifying the dealer to whom the sign is to be shipped. Releases are received intermittently, on a sign-by-sign basis as the customer’s needs arise.

The degree to which a sign may be completed by petitioner prior to receipt of a shipping release depends on the character of the sign. Certain indoor signs may be fully completed and held in stock ready for immediate shipment. Other signs, such as those which require the imprint of an individual dealer’s name are held in stock partially completed and then completed and delivered usually within 10 days after receipt of a release with specific instructions. If a release calls for a special internal construction, completion and delivery are made within 2 weeks of the release. The signs are constructed strictly in accordance with the customer’s desires and specifications. The customer’s order controls the size, material, shape, design, lettering, and illustration. However, petitioner keeps some stock parts which it uses in some of the signs it manufactures. Once the customer’s name is imprinted on the face of a completed sign, such sign is not salable to any customer other than the one who ordered it. In most instances and normally a sign to be manufactured under a blanket order is not completed or ready for shipment prior to receipt of the customer’s release for that sign.

The terms of the above-described blanket order provide for payment by the customer for each sign, individually, upon delivery by petitioner after receipt of a release from the customer. The customer is billed for each sign within a day or two after it is shipped. Petitioner’s quotation of price forms specify “F.O.B. our plant, Cincinnati, Ohio terms are net 30 days.” With the limited exceptions mentioned below, there is no requirement, condition, or understanding, written or oral, that the customer will pay for any signs prior to release and shipment. 1STormally, petitioner’s customers do not make advance payments. However, some payments are received prior to delivery, under one of two types of circumstances:

(1) When a blanket order has been outstanding for an extended period of time (usually 12 months) and some of the signs ordered have not yet been “released” by the customer, the petitioner may, upon the judgment of its president, bill the customer for the remaining undelivered signs prior to release in order to induce the customer to order them out (i.e., “release” them), or to receive payment prior to shipment if the signs are not released by a customer. Such advance billings are infrequent and are made only when petitioner’s management considers it appropriate. Accounts billed in these circumstances are referred to as “slow-movers.”

(2) Some of petitioner’s customers request, as a matter of their own preference and at their own initiative, to be billed for all or a portion of their blanket order prior to delivery.

Receipts from these two types of advance billings were recorded in an account designated as “advances from customers.” This account was recorded on petitioner’s books as a liability and was included among liabilities on its financial statements and tax returns. Until sometime in 1961 petitioner deposited the amounts of advance payments in a separate bank account from that used for deposit of other receipts. In 1961 this bank account was closed out and the advance payments were deposited in the same bank account with petitioner’s other receipts. No restrictions were placed upon petitioner’s use of the money received from these predelivery billings, and, in fact, this money was used for current operating expenses and general corporate purposes. When petitioner delivered a sign upon the instructions of a customer who had been previously billed and had paid for his order in advance, petitioner merely issued a memorandum billing for the customer’s records, showing the balance of undelivered signs. Petitioner also used the memorandum billing in its own records as the basis for an entry removing the amount billed from the “advances from customers” account and recording i't in the sales account.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
47 T.C. 139, 1966 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 21, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hagen-advertising-displays-inc-v-commissioner-tax-1966.