Hartley v. Commissioner

23 T.C. 353, 1954 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 37
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedNovember 24, 1954
DocketDocket No. 47967
StatusPublished
Cited by61 cases

This text of 23 T.C. 353 (Hartley 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
Hartley v. Commissioner, 23 T.C. 353, 1954 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 37 (tax 1954).

Opinion

OPINION.

Black, Judge:

Respondent has determined that, in order to clearly reflect income for the years in issue, petitioners must take into account the inventories of old and rebuilt motor blocks in computing cost of goods sold of the business carried on under the name of International Motor Rebuilding Company. Sec. 41, I. R. C. 1939.1

In Elsie SoRelle, 22 T. C. 459, filed June 7,1954, we said:

Two methods of accounting are generally recognized for income tax purposes— cash receipts and disbursements method and accrual method. It is well settled that hybrid methods of accounting which do not clearly reflect the taxpayer’s income are improper. Massachusetts Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. United States, 288 U. S. 269; United States v. Anderson, 269 U. S. 422; Security Flour Mills Co. v Commissioner, 321 U. S. 281; Estate of Julius I. Byrne, 16 T. C. 1234; Regs. 111, sec. 29.41-2. [2] If, therefore, a taxpayer has used a hybrid method which does not clearly reflect income, adjustment must be made to make it conform to that method, cash or accrual, which it most closely resembles, Files Bement Pond Co. v. United States, 281 U. S. 357, Estate of Julius I. Byrne, supra, * * *

We think it clear from the stipulated facts that respondent’s determination is correct under the above quoted principles. The company’s accounts for all purchases, sales, and expenses were kept on an accrual basis and inventories were maintained for all new parts and materials used in rebuilding the old motor blocks. It appears that old and rebuilt motor blocks were the only items not inventoried in computing income and, to that extent, the accounting method in use was a hybrid one and did not clearly reflect income. For example, were the company to purchase old motor blocks on credit at the end of the year, then, since all purchases were accounted for on an accrual basis, those blocks would be included in determining the “Purchases” factor of cost of goods sold.3 However, although on hand at year’s end, the blocks would not be included in closing inventory. The net effect would be higher cost of goods sold and a lower income reported for that year — an obvious distortion of the true income picture.

As for the accounting method — cash or accrual — which the method used for the company most closely resembles, we have found that in all respects, except as regards inventorying the old and rebuilt blocks, an accrual method was used. There can be no doubt, therefore, that an accrual method must be used for the company under the above principles and that consistent use of that method requires that inventories of the old and rebuilt motor blocks be taken into account in computing income.

In an attempt to prove that the company’s accounts were kept pursuant to a method more closely resembling a cash method petitioners endeavored to show that the company’s dollar volume of cash transactions of one kind or another exceeded its dollar volume of credit transactions. Such a comparison is, we think, without value since the important factor here is not the type of transactions experienced, whether cash sales or credit sales, cash purchases or credit purchases, but how those transactions were actually accounted for. Following petitioners’ theory to its illogical extreme would compel a finding that a taxpayer whose books were kept in strict conformity with an accrual method must nevertheless be regarded as actually keeping books per a cash method because he had more cash than credit transactions during the particular taxable year. It is obvious that petitioners’ theory is untenable.

There is a second equally valid basis upon which respondent’s determination should be sustained. Regulations 111, section 29.22 (c) -1, provides, in part, as follows:

Need of Inventories. In order to reflect the net income correctly, inventories at the beginning and end of each taxable year áre necessary in every case in which the production, purchase, or sale of merchandise is an income-producing factor. The inventory should include all finished or partly finished goods and, in the case of raw materials and supplies, only those which have been acquired for sale or which will physically become a part of merchandise intended for sale, * * *

And section 29.41-2 of the regulations provides that in any case in which it is necessary to use an inventory, no method of accounting in regard to purchases and sales will correctly reflect income except an accrual method. These two regulatory provisions have been in the regulations ever since they first appeared as articles 1581 and 23 (1), respectively, of Regulations 45 (1918). Moreover, the statutory provisions, in sections 203 and 212 (b), Revenue Act of 1918, which they originally interpreted have been repeatedly reenacted without pertinent change and are contained in sections 22 (c) and 41 of the 1939 Code. Consequently, Congressional approval of those regulatory provisions must be inferred.4 Securities Allied Corp. v. Commissioner., (C. A. 2) 95 F. 2d 384, certiorari denied 305 U. S. 617; Elsie SoRelle, supra.

In the instant case the purchase of old motor blocks, their rebuilding and subsequent sale, were “income-producing” factors. The old blocks purchased did “physically become a part of the merchandise intended for sale,” i. e., the rebuilt blocks, and the rebuilt blocks themselves were the “finished goods.” Therefore, inventories of those old and rebuilt blocks were required, under section 29.22 (c)-l of the regulations, in computing the company's net income, and section 29.41-2 compelled use of an accrual accounting method. Herberger v. Commissioner, (C. A. 9) 195 F. 2d 293, certiorari denied 344 U. S. 820; Securities Allied Corp. v. Commissioner, supra.

Respondent, in determining the inventories of old and rebuilt motor blocks, failed to include any opening inventories for 1949. If there were such opening inventories they must be taken into account by respondent in determining the 1949 net income. David W. Hughes, 22 T. C. 1. However, there is no evidence in the record indicating the existence of such inventories and petitioners, therefore, have failed to carry their burden of proving error in respondent’s determination. Burnet v. Houston, 283 U. S. 223.

In their reply brief petitioners suggest that this Court may determine the amount of the aforementioned opening inventories in the subsequent Rule 50 proceedings.

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

Related

Davis v. Commissioner
1985 T.C. Memo. 356 (U.S. Tax Court, 1985)
Diffley v. Commissioner
1985 T.C. Memo. 361 (U.S. Tax Court, 1985)
Willis v. Commissioner
1985 T.C. Memo. 330 (U.S. Tax Court, 1985)
Burnham v. Commissioner
1984 T.C. Memo. 344 (U.S. Tax Court, 1984)
Green v. Commissioner
1974 T.C. Memo. 248 (U.S. Tax Court, 1974)
Modernaire Interiors, Inc. v. Commissioner
1968 T.C. Memo. 252 (U.S. Tax Court, 1968)
Cochrane v. Janigan
182 N.E.2d 496 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1962)
Welch v. Commissioner
1960 T.C. Memo. 163 (U.S. Tax Court, 1960)
Steingold v. Commissioner
1959 T.C. Memo. 134 (U.S. Tax Court, 1959)
Jones v. Commissioner
1959 T.C. Memo. 98 (U.S. Tax Court, 1959)
Schellenbarg v. Commissioner
31 T.C. 1269 (U.S. Tax Court, 1959)
King v. Commissioner
31 T.C. 108 (U.S. Tax Court, 1958)
Fred N. Acker v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue
258 F.2d 568 (Sixth Circuit, 1958)
Heard v. Commissioner
30 T.C. 1093 (U.S. Tax Court, 1958)
Neil v. Commissioner
1958 T.C. Memo. 88 (U.S. Tax Court, 1958)
Olshausen v. Commissioner
1958 T.C. Memo. 85 (U.S. Tax Court, 1958)
Ely v. Commissioner
1958 T.C. Memo. 86 (U.S. Tax Court, 1958)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
23 T.C. 353, 1954 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 37, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hartley-v-commissioner-tax-1954.