Hudson City Sav. Bank v. Commissioner

53 T.C. 70, 1969 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 39
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedOctober 23, 1969
DocketDocket No. 2716-67
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 53 T.C. 70 (Hudson City Sav. Bank 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
Hudson City Sav. Bank v. Commissioner, 53 T.C. 70, 1969 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 39 (tax 1969).

Opinion

Dawson, Judge:

Respondent determined deficiencies in petitioner’s Federal income taxes for the calendar years 1962, 1963, and 1961 in the following amounts;

Year Deficiency
1962 _,_$748,693.10
1963 _ 20, 748. 03
1964 _ 71,903. 53

By amendments to his answer respondent has alleged certain increased deficiencies for these taxable years.

Some adjustments have been agreed to or conceded and can 'be given effect in the Rule 50 computation. The issues remaining for decision are; (1) 'Whether section 591, I.R.C. 1951,1 is the exclusive statutory authority for the allowance of deductions to petitioner, a mutual savings bank which uses the accrual method of accounting, for interest paid to its depositors; (2) whether under section 591 semiannual interest on deposits for the last 6 months of each of the years 1962, 1963, and 1964 was properly deducted by petitioner in such years or whether the claimed deductions are allowable in each succeeding year; (3) whether under section 593 the semiannual interest on deposits for the last 6 months of each of the years 1959 through 1963 represented a part of petitioner’s “reserves” at the beginning of the taxable years 1960 through 1964 or whether such amounts of interest were properly treated by petitioner as “liabilities” in the computation of net worth under section 593.

FINDINGS OF FACT

Some of the facts have been stipulated and are so found to the - extent deemed relevant and material.

Hudson City Savings Bank (herein called petitioner) is a mutual savings bank which was chartered under the laws of the State of Hew Jersey in 1868. It is subject to the provisions of the statutory law of New Jersey governing savings banks and banking generally. Petitioner had its principal place of business in Jersey City, N.J., at the time of filing its petition in this proceeding.

From the time of its organization until December 31, 1958, petitioner kept its books and records and prepared its Federal corporate income tax returns on a cash receipts and disbursements method of accounting. On March 5, 1959, petitioner made application to the respondent for permission to change its method of accounting from the cash receipts and disbursements method to an accrual method, beginning with the taxable year ended December 31,1959. On January 11, 1961, petitioner’s application was finally granted and approved.

Petitioner filed its Federal corporate income tax returns with the district director of internal revenue at Newark, N.J., for the taxable years 1958 through 1964. Petitioner also filed an amended Federal corporate income tax return with the district director of internal revenue at Newark for the taxable year 1959. All of these returns except for the return for the taxable year 1958 and the original return for the taxable year 1959 were prepared on an accrual method of accounting. The return for the taxable year 1958 and the original return for the taxable year 1959 were prepared on a cash receipts and disbursement method of accounting.

From 1953 through the taxable years in issue, petitioner made payments on savings depositors’ accounts on a semiannual basis — one for the 6-month period ended June 30 and one for the 6-month period ended December 31. The payments have been referred to interchangeably as dividends and interest, but for convenience we will refer to them as interest.

From 1953 until 1964, petitioner’s bylaws provided that interest would be credited to savings accounts on the last days of June and December, provided the savings had been on deposit for 6 months or more. ISTo interest would be paid on amounts withdrawn before such interest dates. However, the bylaws also provided that petitioner’s board of managers could amend the bylaws by resolutions at any time and without notice. The minutes of the meetings of the board of managers from 1953 through the first half of 1959 contained resolutions voted upon by the board which stated that the semiannual interest for the first half of each year should be credited at a certain rate on June 30 of that year and that the semiannual interest for the second half of each year should be credited at a certain rate on the last business day of that year. But on December 10, 1959, the board of managers approved a resolution that semiannual interest “for the period ending December 31,1959,” should be paid and credited to depositors’ accounts on January 4, 1960, the first business day of the new year. In subsequent years the board of managers continued to declare interest “for the second half of the year” payable on the first business day of the new year. On May 14, 1964, the published edition of the bylaws was formally amended to reflect this practice.

Despite petitioner’s stated policy of not allowing interest on amounts withdrawn prior to the interest dates, the depositors were in fact permitted to withdraw both savings and interest for the second period as much as 3 days before the interest date during the years here involved.

Petitioner kept a subsidiary ledger known as a savings ledger card for each savings depositor’s account. The savings ledger cards reflected all deposits, withdrawals, dividends, and running balances of each account, as well as the date of each transaction.

It was petitioner’s practice to compute the semiannual interest for the second half of each year and post entries for such amounts on each savings ledger card before the end of the year. Petitioner began making computations about 50 days before posting the computations on the savings ledger cards, and devoted about 5 days to posting the computations on the savings ledger cards. It was petitioner’s practice to identify each entry for the semiannual interest with a rubber-stamp mark indicating the date for crediting the interest as determined in the appropriate resolution of the board of managers.

Petitioner kept a general ledger during the years in issue. It was petitioner’s practice to take the total of the semiannual interest for the second half of each year from the savings ledger cards and make the following entries of that total in the general ledger: On the last business day of each year petitioner debited the account “Accrued Interest Expense” and credited the account “Reserve for Dividends Paid to Depositors.” On the first business day of each following year petitioner debited the account “Reserve for Dividends Paid to Depositors” and credited the account “Savings Deposits.”

Petitioner prepared “tickets” which authorized and explained all entries in the general ledger. The “tickets” relating to the entries on the first business day of each following year bore the same date and the explanation “Interest Credited to Savings Accounts.”

On its Federal corporate income tax returns prior to 1959, petitioner deducted the interest credited to its depositors on the June and December interest dates. However, the action of the board of managers at its meeting of December 10,1959, moved the interest date for the second half of 1959 to January 1960. At that time petitioner was still on a cash basis and intended by such action to postpone the deduction of interest for the last 6 months of 1959 until it filed its 1960 return.

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54 T.C. 1210 (U.S. Tax Court, 1970)
Hudson City Sav. Bank v. Commissioner
53 T.C. 70 (U.S. Tax Court, 1969)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
53 T.C. 70, 1969 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 39, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hudson-city-sav-bank-v-commissioner-tax-1969.