Insuranshares & General Management Co. v. United States

38 F. Supp. 835, 93 Ct. Cl. 643, 27 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 269, 1941 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 90
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedMay 5, 1941
DocketNo. 43543
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 38 F. Supp. 835 (Insuranshares & General Management Co. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Insuranshares & General Management Co. v. United States, 38 F. Supp. 835, 93 Ct. Cl. 643, 27 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 269, 1941 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 90 (cc 1941).

Opinion

. Madden, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

Plaintiff in 1927 and 1928, then known as the Insuranshares Management Company, entered into agreements with Insur-anshares Corporation, herein called the distributor, and Farmers Loan and Trust Company, herein called the trustee. By these agreements five investment funds were set up in the hands of the trustee. The funds consisted of stocks of banks, trust companies and insurance companies designated by plaintiff, acquired by the distributor and deposited with the trustee. The two funds involved here were H-27, set up in 1927, and B-28, set up in 1928. Under the agreements, plaintiff’s function was to act as manager, selecting the securities to be acquired and placed in the fund, and directing their subsequent disposition and performing numerous other functions as manager of such a trust, as set out in finding 4. The distributor’s function was to acquire the securities designated by plaintiff, deposit them with the trustee, and receive in return certain shares in the fund, which shares it might retain, or market. The trustee’s function was to hold, as trustee, the securities deposited with it by the distributor and to issue the shares hereinafter described.

Under each agreement, the trustee was to issue two different kinds of participating shares. One kind, to be issued to the distributor, for sale to the public, if it so desired, was an inseparable combination of so-called A and B shares: Each A share had a par value of $20. B shares had no par value. Each A share was entitled to a noncumulative semiannual distribution out of the net income of the fund, at' the rate of 3% per annum. Each B share was entitled, after the rights [655]*655of the A shares had been satisfied, to a fro rata distribution of at least 20% of the remaining net income, and of so much more of it as should be determined by plaintiff and approved by the distributor. Each A share was entitled, in liquidation, to a distribution of $20, its par value, and the holder of a combination A share and B share was entitled on two specified dates per year, on seventy days’ notice, to turn in his share certificate and receive, either in cash or securities, whichever should be elected by plaintiff, the value of his shares, less a charge of two dollars for each A share, and less a further charge for redemption of one-third of one percent. In short, the A share part of the inseparable combination had the qualities of a preferred stock, and the B share part of it had the qualities of a common stock, comprising all rights to income above the noncumulative 3% per annum, and all rights to increases in the capital of the fund.

The other kind of share which each agreement called for was a separate B share, which had the same rights as the B share in the combination just described. These shares were to be issued only to plaintiff, and were to be its sole compensation for the management of the trust. It was to receive 18 B shares for every one hundred B shares issued to the distributor in the combination shares.

At the time each fund was set up, the then market value of the securities deposited with the trustee was divided by twenty, the dollar par value of the A shares, and a number of combined shares equal to the quotient was issued. An immediate liquidation would, then, have permitted no distribution on the B shares either to plaintiff, or to the holder of the combined share. When additional securities were placed in the funds, and additional certificates were issued, the price of the shares sold was adjusted to prevent dilution of the investments of earlier investors and to avoid giving-later investors a share in any increment already accrued to the fund.

Plaintiff became entitled in 1927 under the IT-27 agreement to 36,000 B shares. The shares were not actually issued to it until 1928. In its corporation income tax return for 1927, filed March 15, 1928, on the accrual basis, it returned as income on account of these B shares one dollar, having valued [656]*656them at one eent each and. having set up a reserve against even that valuation of all of it except one dollar.

In 1928, plaintiff became entitled to 10,800 B shares under the IT-27 agreement and 87,800 shares under the B-28 agreement. In its return for that year it stated a value of $41,688 for the former shares, $3.85 per share, and a value of $15,200.73' for the latter shares, 40.2 cents per share. It also included, in its 1928 return, B shares to which it had become entitled in 1927, viz, 63,450 B shares in H-27 and three other funds, of a total value of $86,395.50, deducting one dollar from that sum because of the return of one dollar made in 1927.

The total of $143,283.23, then, represented plaintiff’s valuation of the B shares to which it became entitled during the two years 1927 and 1928, and $86,394.50 of that income, accounting for $10,361.91 of its tax, was attributable to 1927. It claims therefore that that part of its tax should be refunded, since it was not obliged to pay it as a 1928 tax, and the defendant’s right to collect it as 1927 tax is barred by the statute of limitations.

Plaintiff also claims that a sum of $82,038.75 which it included in its 1928 return as “undistributed income of Xnsur-anshares Funds-B shares” which was plaintiff’s pro rata interest, by reason of its ownership of separate B shares, in the income earned by the five trust funds during 1928, as distinguished from the B shares themselves which it received as compensation during 1928, was improperly included, or should have been deducted, as corporate dividends, since the funds themselves were taxed as corporations upon their income. Since this sum of $82,038.75 accounted for $9,844.65 of the tax plaintiff paid in 1928, it asks also for a return of that amount, making a total amount of $20,206.56 claimed for return.

The defendant’s contentions are:

1. There was no sufficient claim for refund as to the asserted overassessment of $82,038.75 and overpayment of $9,844.65.

2. There was no timely claim for refund as to the asserted overassessment of $86,394.50 and overpayment of $10,361.91.

3. If either or both of the foregoing contentions are found to be without merit, still plaintiff is not entitled to recover, because the B shares to which it became entitled in 1928 [657]*657had a fair market value of more than the total income returned by plaintiff for 1928, and therefore plaintiff underpaid, rather than overpaid, its 1928 tax.

The defendant does not seriously contest plaintiff’s contention that the $82,038.75 item in the 1928 return was deductible as a dividend of a domestic corporation. Kevenue Act of 1928, sec. 23 (p). The funds were taxed on their incomes as domestic corporations within the meaning of the statute, and it follows that their distributions should be treated as those of domestic corporations, not taxable to the shareholders receiving such distributions.

As to the defendant’s first contention, that the refund claim timely filed, and quoted in finding 10, was insufficient, we think that the claim was sufficient. The claim was conditional, but the contemplated condition was that the funds should be taxed as domestic corporations, and that happened. That such taxation should be, strictly, double taxation of plaintiff was not really a part of the condition. It follows that unless plaintiff underpaid its taxes for 1928 in some other respect, it would be entitled to a refund of the $9,844.65 tax paid on the $82,038.75 item of income.

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38 F. Supp. 835, 93 Ct. Cl. 643, 27 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 269, 1941 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 90, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/insuranshares-general-management-co-v-united-states-cc-1941.