In re the Appeal of Federal Deposit Insurance

822 P.2d 627, 249 Kan. 752, 1991 Kan. LEXIS 190
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedDecember 6, 1991
DocketNo. 66,097
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 822 P.2d 627 (In re the Appeal of Federal Deposit Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re the Appeal of Federal Deposit Insurance, 822 P.2d 627, 249 Kan. 752, 1991 Kan. LEXIS 190 (kan 1991).

Opinions

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Allegrucci, J.:

This is an appeal by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) from an order of the Board of Tax Appeals (BOTA) affirming the decision of the Director of Taxation (Director) of the Kansas Department of Revenue (Department) denying FDIC’s claim for a refund of privilege taxes based upon a redetermination of the Farmers and Merchants State Bank’s (Bank) taxable income for the years 1975 through 1984 by carrying back its 1985 net operating loss (NOL). The Department denied [753]*753the refund because FDIC’s appointment as receiver for the Bank terminated the Bank’s obligation to file a privilege tax return in 1986. This case was transferred from the Court of Appeals pursuant to K.S.A. 20-3017.

The issue raised in this appeal is whether the Kansas privilege tax statutes, K.S.A. 79-1106 et seq. (Ensley 1984), allow a loss that was incurred the year the Bank ceased operation to be carried back and taken into account in determining the taxable income of prior years.

The facts were stipulated to by the parties. The Bank was organized and chartered under the laws of Kansas in 1898. It operated as a commercial bank until November 21, 1985, when the banking commission appointed FDIC as the Bank’s receiver. From 1975 through 1984, the Bank reported taxable income, which was the basis for its payment of privilege taxes in an aggregate amount of $204,203. Each year, the privilege tax is based on the taxable income of the previous year in conformity with federal taxable income adjusted in accordance with the provisions of K.S.A. 79-1109 (Ensley 1984).

In 1985, the Bank had a NOL in the amount of $5,015,524, incurring $4,284,151 prior to FDIC’s appointment as receiver on November 21, 1985, and while the Bank continued to conduct full-scale commercial banking operations. All losses arose from Kansas activity. After the receiver was appointed, the Bank and its receiver could not receive deposits, K.S.A. 9-2010 and K.S.A. 17-6106(a), or do business, K.S.A. 9-702. FDIC conducted only liquidation activities, maintaining an office at the Bank’s former location in LaCrosse, Kansas, until August 15, 1986, when the office was moved to Wichita. FDIC did not receive any deposits or make new loans.

Under federal income tax law, FDIC was entitled to carry back the loss incurred by the Bank in 1985 to the years 1975 through 1984 by redetermining its taxable income for those years in obtaining a refund of income taxes paid. I.R.C. § 172(b)(1)(F) (1984). The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) paid those refunds to FDIC, which deposited them in the Bank’s receivership account. After the IRS’s redetermination of the Bank’s taxable income for 1975 through 1984, FDIC, as receiver for the Bank, made a timely claim for refund of the Kansas privilege taxes.

[754]*754On other occasions, the Department has recognized the right of banks and other taxpayers to redetermine taxable income for privilege tax purposes based on carryback of NOL in conformity with federal income tax laws. In a similar case, the Department in 1981 refunded privilege taxes to FDIC as receiver for Mission State Bank, based on a carryback of losses sustained by operations in the year FDIC was appointed as receiver. But here, the Department denied FDIC’s privilege tax refund, holding:

“Taxpayer ceased its business operation on November 21, 1985,- and hence did not exercise the privilege of doing business in 1986 for which the subject tax is levied. State law effectively prevented the Taxpayer from conducting its business activities after November 21, 1985 (See K.S.A. 9-2010, 17-6106[a], and 9-702).”

The Department denied FDIC’s privilege tax refund because no privilege tax return was required for any year that began after the appointment of the receiver, and therefore the loss sustained by the Bank in 1985 could not be carried' back to redetermine its privilege tax liability for earlier years. The Director and BOTA upheld this decision.

FDIC argues that Kansas statutes entitle it to distribute the enormous financial loss the Bank experienced in 1985 by deducting its 1985 NOL through redetermination of income on the tax returns for the years 1975 through 1984. As support, FDIC notes that K.S.A. 79-1107 (Ensley 1984) required the Bank to “pay to the state for the privilege of doing business within the state a tax according to or measured by its net income for the next preceding calendar . . . year to be computed as provided in this act.” In K.S.A. 79-1109 (Ensley 1984), the term “net income” is defined as “the Kansas taxable income of corporations as defined in K.S.A. 79-32,138” with additions and subtractions as listed in that section. K.S.A. 79-32,138(a) (Ensley 1984) states: “Kansas taxable income of a corporation taxable under this act shall be the corporation’s federal taxable income for the taxable year with the modifications specified in this section.” This section then lists certain items that must be added or subtracted to the federal taxable income to determine the Kansas taxable income.

During the years at issue here, K.S.A. 79-32,143(a) (Ensley 1984) allowed a NOL deduction in the same manner as the Internal Revenue Code, and provided as follows:

[755]*755“A net operating loss deduction shall be allowed in the same manner that it is allowed under the internal revenue code except as otherwise provided in this section. The amount of the net operating loss that may be carried forward and carried back for Kansas income tax purposes shall be that portion of the federal net operating loss allocated to Kansas under this act in the taxable year that the net operating loss is sustained.”

Therefore, FDIC argues that the Bank’s net income for privilege tax purposes is equal to its federal taxable income.

FDIC points out that in calculating taxable income, I.R.C. § 172 explicitly allows a taxpayer to carry back a loss incurred in one year to offset income earned in another year. For the years applicable in this case, I.R.C. § 172(b)(1)(F) allowed the Bank to carry back a NOL to each of the 10 years preceding the year of the loss. FDIC, as receiver, applied for and received a refund of federal taxes paid for the years 1975 through 1984 based on carrying back to these years the Bank’s 1985 NOL.

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822 P.2d 627, 249 Kan. 752, 1991 Kan. LEXIS 190, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-the-appeal-of-federal-deposit-insurance-kan-1991.