HOME FEDERAL SAV. & L. ASS'N OF MACON v. United States

330 F. Supp. 852, 28 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5403, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12323
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Georgia
DecidedJuly 22, 1971
DocketCiv. A. 2522
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 330 F. Supp. 852 (HOME FEDERAL SAV. & L. ASS'N OF MACON v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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HOME FEDERAL SAV. & L. ASS'N OF MACON v. United States, 330 F. Supp. 852, 28 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5403, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12323 (M.D. Ga. 1971).

Opinion

ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANT’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT AS TO COUNT ONE

BOOTLE, Chief Judge:

This is a suit in two counts under 28 U.S.C.A. § 1346(a) (1) to recover income taxes and interest. Defendant’s motion for summary judgment (and this memorandum) relates only to Count One. Under Count One the problem which must be considered and resolved is whether the Commissioner of Internal Revenue properly determined that plaintiff was not entitled to compute the addition to its bad debt reserve as a domestic building and loan association because plaintiff’s nonresidential real property loans exceeded 18% of its total assets. This depends upon the propriety of the Commissioner’s determination that plaintiff’s loans on property used as nursing homes did not constitute loans on residential real property.

For the fiscal year 1967, plaintiff invoked the provisions of Section 593 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, (26 U.S.C.A. § 593) dealing with building and loan associations, and elected to set up a bad debt reserve and to take deductions for additions to the reserve in accordance with that section. However, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, upon examination of plaintiff’s return for the year ending June 30, 1967, determined that plaintiff was not entitled to compute its bad debts deduction under Section 593 because plaintiff did not qualify as a domestic building and loan association under the provisions of Section 7701(a) (19) (E), which section prohibits an organization from being classified as a building and loan association if the total of its nonresidential real property loans exceed 18% of its total assets. Accordingly, a tax deficiency was assessed against plaintiff for the fiscal year 1967. The deficiency was paid, plus interest, and a claim for refund and timely institution of this action followed.

Section 7701(a) (19) (E) provides in part that “not more than 18 percent of the amount of the total assets (may) * * * consists of assets other than those described in clause (i) of subparagraph (D)”. The assets described in Clause (i) of subparagraph (D), here pertinent reads “loans secured by an interest in real property which is [or, from the proceeds of the loan, will become] residential real property -x- * 1 ." Pursuant to the authority vested in him by Section 7805(a) the Secretary of the Treasury promulgated Treasury Regulation § 301.7701-13 Domestic building and loan associations; subsection (j) (8) which in defining “Residential Real Property” provides that:

“The term ‘residential real property’ means real property which consists of one or more family units. A family unit is a building or portion thereof which contains complete living facilities which are to be used on other than a transient basis by only one family consisting of one or more persons. Thus, an apartment which is to be used on other than a transient basis by one family, which contains complete facilities for living, sleeping, eating, cooking, and sanitation constitutes a family unit. Hotels, motels, dormitories, fraternity and sorority houses, rooming houses, hospitals, sanitariums, rest homes, and parks and courts for mobile homes do not normally constitute residential real property.”

*854 Plaintiff, conceding by brief that the nursing homes here in question do not meet the requirements of Reg. 301-7701 — 13(j) (8) 2 , attacks it as being void in that it places too restrictive a definition on the term “residential real property” as used in the Act. In this regard, plaintiff asserts that “a careful reading of the statutory definition [presumably the definition of Section 593] conclusively demonstrates the plain error of the Commissioner’s belated definition of residential real property * * *. We believe that it is a fair argument to say that the emphasis the Congress placed on home loans (one to four family units) is indicative that Congress did not intend a strained definition of residential real property loans.”

The question in this case thus boils down to one of law — the validity of the Secretary’s regulation. The case, therefore, may be appropriately handled by summary judgment.

Section 7805(a) (26 U.S.C.A. § 7805(a)) provides:

“Except where such authority is expressly given by this title to any person other than an officer or employee of the Treasury Department, the Secretary or his delegate shall prescribe all needful rules and regulations for the enforcement of this title, including all rules and regulations as may be necessary by reason of any alteration of law in relation to internal revenue.”

One attacking a regulation of the Secretary promulgated pursuant to Section 7805(a) has a heavy burden; the presumption of validity weighs heavily. Acker v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 258 F.2d 568 (6th Cir. 1958). As stated by the Supreme Court in Commissioner of Int. Rev. v. South Texas Lumber Co., 333 U.S. 496, 501, 503, 68 S.Ct. 695, 698, 700, 92 L.Ed. 831 (1948):

“This Court has many times declared that Treasury regulations must be sustained unless unreasonable and plainly inconsistent with the revenue statutes and that they constitute contemporaneous constructions by those charged with administration of these statutes which should not be overruled except for weighty reasons.
* * * * * *
“* * * [Interpretations of the Act and regulations under it should not be overruled by the courts unless clearly contrary to the will of Congress. See Burnet v. S. & L. Bldg. Corporation, 288 U.S. 406, 415, 53 S. Ct. 428, 430, 77 L.Ed. 861, 866.”

And in United States v. Correll, 389 U.S. 299, 306, 88 S.Ct. 445, 449, 19 L.Ed.2d 537 (1967), the Court pointed out that:

“Improvements might be imagined. But we do not sit as a committee of revision to perfect the administration of the tax laws. Congress has delegated to the Commissioner, not to the courts, the task of prescribing ‘all needful rules and regulations for the enforcement’ of the Internal Revenue Code. 26 USC § 7805(a). In this area of limitless factual variations ‘it is the province of Congress and the Commissioner, not the courts, to make the appropriate adjustments.’ Commissioner [of Internal Revenue] v. Stidger, 386 U.S. 287, 296, 87 S.Ct. 1065,1071,18 L.Ed.2d 53, 59. The role of the judiciary in cases of this sort begins and ends with assuring that the Commissioner’s regulations fall within his authority to implement the congressional mandate in some reasonable manner. Because the rule challenged here has not been shown deficient on that score, the Court of Appeals should have sustained its validity.”

*855 Application of these standards to Treasury Reg.

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330 F. Supp. 852, 28 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5403, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12323, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/home-federal-sav-l-assn-of-macon-v-united-states-gamd-1971.