Herring v. Commissioner

70 F.2d 785, 14 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 189, 1934 U.S. App. LEXIS 4312, 1934 U.S. Tax Cas. (CCH) 9257, 14 A.F.T.R. (RIA) 189
Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit·Decided April 24, 1934·No. No. 7214·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinions

WALKER, Circuit Judge.

During the year 1926 the petitioner and his wife each owned a 50 per cent, interest in the partnership of C. T. Herring & Son, and they filed separate income tax returns for that year under the community property laws of the state of Texas. In 1926 the partnership owned several ranches in the vicinity of Amarillo, Tex., and its principal business was cattle raising. During that year it leased, for a period of five years, portions of its ranches to sundry individuals and corporations “for the sole and only purpose of mining and operating for oil and gas, and laying pipe lines, and building tanks, power stations and structures thereon to produce, save and take care of said products.” Under those leases the partnership received as cash bonuses therefor a total of $683,793.75. No oil development had been begun on any of the leased land at the dates of the leases, and at those dates there was no oil well within 3% miles of the leased land. During the year 1926, there was no oil production on the leased land. No wells were sunk on the leased land until the year 1930, during which four wells were sunk, with the result that gas and oil were produced. In the partnership return for the year 1926 a depletion deduction was taken in the amount of $188,-[786]*786043.28, being 27% per cent, of the total amount of bonus receipts. In his income tax return for that year the petitioner deducted from the amount of his gross income one-half of the amount of the above-mentioned ' deduction taken in the partnership return. This deduction was disallowed by the respondent, with the result that petitioner’s distributive share of the partnership net income was increased, and a deficiency of $11,-337.29 was determined. The Board of Tax Appeals sustained that action of the respondent. The action of that tribunal is complained of by petition for review.

The question presented is whether the petitioner was entitled to deduct from his 1926 gross income the whole or a part of the amount of the deduction claimed by him on account of depletion. The following are the governing statutory provisions: “In computing net income there shall be allowed as deductions: * • * A reasonable allowance for the exhaustion * * * of property used in the trade or business. * * * In the case of mines, oil and gas wells, other natural deposits, and timber, a reasonable allowance for depletion and for depreciation of improvements, according to the peculiar conditions in each ease,” etc. Section 214 (a) (8) (9), Revenue Act 1926, 44 Stat. 26, 26 USCA § 955 (a) (8) (9). “See. 204. (e) The basis upon which depletion, exhaustion, wear and tear, and obsolescence are to be allowed in respect of any property shall be the same as is provided in subdivision (a) or (b) for the purpose of determining the gain or loss upon the sale or other disposition of such property, except that— * ' * *

“(2) In the case of oil and gas wells the allowance for depletion shall be 27% per centum of the gross income from the property during the taxable year. Such allowance shall not exceed 50 per centum of the net income of the taxpayer (computed without allowance for depletion) from the property, except that in- no case shall the depletion allowance be less than it would be if computed without reference to this paragraph.” Revenue Act of 1926, 44 Stat. 9, 14, 26 USCA § 935 (c) (2).

For support of the contention of the petitioner much reliance is placed on the decision in the case of Murphy Oil Co. v. Burnet, 287 U. S. 299, 53 S. Ct. 161, 77 L. Ed. 318, to the effect that where the execution of an oil and gas lease is followed by the production of oil, a depletion allowance must be made in respect to a bonus paid to the lessor. The report of that decision contains no statement as to whether oil was or was not extracted from the leased land during the taxable years in question, 1919 and 1920. But from the report of the decision which was affirmed in that ease it appears that the leased land produced oil in each of those years. Murphy Oil Co. v. Burnet (C. C. A.) 55 F.(2d) 17. The court which rendered the decision which was affirmed by the Supreme Court expressly ruled that the depletion allowable to the lessor in an oil lease was limited to actual depletion during the taxable years in question. The decision of the Supreme Court in that ease does not support a contention that a deduction for depletion with respect to a bonus payment is allowable to a taxpayer who, during the taxable year in question, received that bonus upon his executing an oil and gas lease covering land which during that year contained no oil or gas well, but in which several years later were sunk wells which produced oil and gas. We think it cannot reasonably be said that the provision allowing, “in the ease of * * * oil and gas wells,” a deduction from gross income for depletion discloses an intention to authorize the allowance of such a deduction from a taxpayer’s gross income in a year in which he had no interest in any then existing oil or gas well, but during which he received a bonus upon his execution of an oil and gas lease covering land which had never been explored for oil or gas by sinking a well or starting to sink one, but in which several years later were sunk wells which produced oil or gas. The deductions from gross income authorized by an above-cited statute are based upon happenings or facts existing during the taxable year in question which are regarded as having the effect of offsetting to some extent the taxpayer’s gains or profits realized or accrued during that year, and may involve some return of the taxpayer’s capital investment. In the case of Lynch v. Alworth-Stephens Co., 267 U. S. 364, 45 S. Ct. 274, 275, 69 L. Ed. 660, the court construed and applied the provisions of the Income Tax Law of September 6, 1916, as to * deductions based on exhaustion or depletion of mines. The following are extracts from the opinion in that ease: “In the case of mines, a specific kind of property, the exhaustion is described as depletion, and is limited to an amount not exceeding the market value in the mine of the product mined and sold during the year. The interest of respondent under its leases in the mines being property, its right to deduct a reasonable allowance for exhaustion of such property, if there be any, during the [787]*787taxable year results from tbe plain terms of the statute, such deduction, since the property is an interest in mines, to be limited to the amount of the exhaustion of respondent’s interest caused by the depletion of the mines during the taxable year. We agree with the Circuit Court of Appeals (294 F. 194) that: ‘The plain, clear, and reasonable meaning of the statute seems to be that the reasonable allowance for depletion in case of a mine is to be made to every one whose property right and interest therein has been depleted by the extraction and disposition of the product thereof which has been mined and sold during the year for which the return and computation are made.’ * * * The deduction for depletion in the case of mines is a special application of the general rule of the statute allowing a deduction for exhaustion of property.” As to the measurement or determination of the amount of allowable depletion deduction, the statute applicable in the instant case is different from the one which was construed and applied in the cited ease.

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Herring v. Commissioner, 70 F.2d 785, 14 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 189, 1934 U.S. App. LEXIS 4312, 1934 U.S. Tax Cas. (CCH) 9257, 14 A.F.T.R. (RIA) 189 (5th Cir. 1934).

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