Hawaiian-Philippine Co. v. Commissioner

35 B.T.A. 173
CourtUnited States Board of Tax Appeals
DecidedDecember 17, 1936
DocketDocket No. 69619
StatusPublished

This text of 35 B.T.A. 173 (Hawaiian-Philippine Co. v. Commissioner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Board of Tax Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hawaiian-Philippine Co. v. Commissioner, 35 B.T.A. 173 (bta 1936).

Opinion

[176]*176OPINION.

Hill:

Petitioner is a Philippine corporation which, during the fiscal year ended September 30,1930, sold in the United States certain sugar which it had received in the Philippine Islands as compensation for milling services. Admittedly it is subject .to the Federal income tax upon any net income derived from sources within the United States, and also it is conceded that if .petitioner realized any net profit from the sale of sugar in this country such profit was derived from these taxable sources. The issue presented for decision is whether or not petitioner in fact realized any net income from such sources during the taxable years, within the purview of the applicable provisions of the revenue act. The parties are in sharp disagreement as to the proper method of determining this question.

In the deficiency notice respondent determined a deficiency of $66,403.47, computed on the basis of a net income of $565,135.94 as shown in schedule 1 of the revenue agent’s report, which started with “Net income as disclosed by books”, subject to certain adjustments not material here. Thus, the adjusted net income, upon the basis of which respondent determined the deficiency, consisted of the total net income realized by petitioner from all sources, with the [177]*177exception of certain items of Philippine income excluded by the revenue agent in the adjustments above referred to.

Respondent does not here contend that the deficiency so determined by him represents petitioner’s correct tax liability, nor that the proper method was used for computing petitioner’s net income from sources within the United States. On the contrary, respondent now argues on brief that the profits realized by petitioner from the manufacture of raw sugar in the Philippine Islands and its sale in the United States constituted “gains, profits and income from the sale of personal property” produced by petitioner without and sold within the United States, and that the statute requires that such profits should be apportioned between sources within the United States and sources without the United States. Obviously, such an apportionment, to the extent the profits were thereby attributed to Philippine sources, would reduce the amount of the deficiency originally determined by respondent.

Petitioner contends that the provisions of the statute relied on by respondent are hot applicable under the facts of this case, and asserts that it sustained a net operating loss of $16,792.45, instead of realizing net income, from sources within the United States during the taxable year.

The pertinent provisions of the statute are quoted in the margin.1

[178]*178That petitioner realized substantial net “gains, profits and income” from the operation of its business during the taxable year is not denied. The only controversy between the parties is whether or not any portion of such net income is properly attributable under the statute to United States sources. The statute lays down very comprehensive general rules for determination of the sources of income, and provides that items, either of gross income or deductions, not directly attributable to sources within or without the United States, shall be allocated or apportioned under rules and regulations prescribed by the Commissioner. It is settled that such rules and regulations, if reasonably designed to carry into effect the general provisions of the statute, have the force and effect of law. Maryland Casualty Co. v. United States, 251 U. S. 342, 349. However, detailed reference to the regulations promulgated under the quoted statute we think is unnecessary, since the issue goes to the matter of determining the particular source of the gross income rather than to an allocation of gross income from undeterminable sources. As to deductible items of expense not directly attributable to a definite source, there appears to be no controversy respecting the application of respondent’s regulations.

Consideration of the general provisions of the statute fails to indicate any intention on the part of Congress arbitrarily to fix the “sources” of income or to give to the term “income” any other than its ordinarily accepted meaning, as defined in Eisner v. Macomber, 252 U. S. 189. The allocation or apportionment provisions apply, and plainly are intended to apply, only to items of income and deductions which can not properly be ascribed in their entirety to sources within or without the United States. Here we are not dealing with income of that classification, and hence respondent’s position, we think, can not be sustained.

Petitioner, under the milling contracts, ground the cane of the planters and manufactured the sucrose content into raw centrifugal sugar, receiving as compensation for its milling services a portion of the sugar, which it sold in the United States. The cane belonged to the planters, and the title to the share of the sugar retained by petitioner passed to petitioner only upon the manufacture thereof. The milling contracts were in the nature of a bailment, not a sale, and petitioner’s portion of the sugar constituted income to it at the place and time of receipt to the extent of its fair market value. San Carlos Milling Co., Ltd., 24 B. T. A. 1132; affd., 63 Fed. (2d) 153.

The facts in the cited case, in all material respects, are the same as in the case at bar. There the petitioner operated a sugar mill in the Philippine Islands under contracts with planters of sugar cane whereby it milled the cane produced by the planters and accepted as [179]*179compensation for its milling services a percentage of the manufactured sugar. In our opinion, we said, beginning at page 1140.:

The record supports the intent of the parties, as expressed in the contract, to compensate the petitioner for milling the cane into sugar by allowing the petitioner to retain 40 per cent of the sugar produced. * * * The plain language of the contracts and the action of the parties show that these were milling contracts for the manufacture of sugar by the petitioner from the planter’s cane and that petitioner was to have a toll or share of the sugar manufactured as compensation for its services. Such provisions would have been wholly unnecessary had the parties to those contracts contemplated a sale of the cane to the petitioner. * * * the transaction contained elements of bailment and lacked elements of sale. * * * The petitioner realized income at the time and place the sugar was received to the extent of its fair market value. * * *
The amount of sugar received by petitioner being stipulated, there remains the question of its fair market value on the several dates when received. There was an established market for 96-degree centrifugal sugar in the Philippine Islands and the record shows that petitioner sold some of its sugar there. We have before us quotations of prices on actual sales of sugar on or about the dates that petitioner received the sugar for its milling services. In the circumstances we hold that the average quoted price on a given date is the fair market value of the sugar received by the petitioner on or about that date. Cf. Ralph Andrew Applegate, Executor, 10 B. T. A. 705; Western Bank & Trust Co., 19 B. T. A. 401.

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Related

Maryland Casualty Co. v. United States
251 U.S. 342 (Supreme Court, 1920)
Eisner v. MacOmber
252 U.S. 189 (Supreme Court, 1920)

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Bluebook (online)
35 B.T.A. 173, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hawaiian-philippine-co-v-commissioner-bta-1936.