Joell Co. v. Commissioner

41 B.T.A. 825, 1940 BTA LEXIS 1137
CourtUnited States Board of Tax Appeals
DecidedApril 12, 1940
DocketDocket No. 96535.
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 41 B.T.A. 825 (Joell Co. v. Commissioner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Board of Tax Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Joell Co. v. Commissioner, 41 B.T.A. 825, 1940 BTA LEXIS 1137 (bta 1940).

Opinion

OPINION.

Disney:

In this proceeding income and excess profits taxes are involved, deficiencies having been determined as follows:

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The questions presented are as to propriety of certain deductions under section 23 (b) and (c), Revenue Act of 1934, and a credit for dividend payments within the meaning of section 26 (c) (2) of the Revenue Act of 1936.

All facts were stipulated, are found as stipulated, and may be summarized as follows:

Petitioner, a Pennsylvania corporation engaged in the business of owning and operating real estate, was organized in 1926. It filed its income tax returns for the years here involved with the collector for the first district of Pennsylvania. It reported income in the taxable years on an accrual basis. In 1926 the total outstanding common stock of the petitioner was held as follows: Joseph E. [826]*826Cohen held two shares, and his daughters, Sarah Cohen, Reba Cohen, and Yetta Schweriner each held 66 shares.

On or about September 15, 1926, Joseph E. Cohen conveyed to the petitioner his residence in Philadelphia, subject to a mortgage of $4,000 bearing interest at 6 percent, on condition that the petitioner lease same to Joseph E. Cohen and/or Sarah Cohen, his daughter, at a yearly rental of $1 and assume payment of the mortgage and of all taxes, water rents, interest payments, repairs, etc. The lease was to continue during the life and until six months after the death of the survivor of the two lessees. At the date of conveyance Joseph E. Cohen was 47 years of age and Sarah Cohen was 21 years of age. During 1935 and 1936 the petitioner owned the property, and, interest having accrued at the rate of $240 per year, it claimed deduction thereof and depreciation of $140 per year. That amount is agreed to be the proper amount, if petitioner is entitled to any depreciation. The property was set up at the date of acquisition at $7,000 on petitioner’s books, and in 1931 improvements in the amount of $2,000 were made on the property. City and school taxes accrued against the property on January 1, 1935, in the amount of $195.22, and on January 1, 1936, in the amount of $186.03, and were claimed as deductions.

In 1926 petitioner acquired certain other real estate in Philadelphia, subject to first and second mortgages of $200,000 and $100,000, respectively. The deed, inter alia, recited:

Under and subject, nevertheless, to the aforesaid restrictions against offensive occupation and to payment of the aforesaid mortgage debt or principal sum of Two Hundred Thousand Dollars, and also the payment of certain mortgage debt or principal sum of One Hundred Thousand Dollars with interest.

On November 7, 1931, the petitioner entered into a written agreement with the second mortgagee and Joseph Cohen, the mortgagor. The agreement was amended in writing on December 24, 1931, and again on September 8, 1936. In effect, the agreement as amended provided for the assignment to the second mortgagee of leases upon the premises, the collection by the mortgagee of the rents and their application to payment of taxes, water rents, interest, fire insurance premiums, and payments upon the first and second mortgages. In accordance with the agreement the second mortgagee during the taxable years collected the rents, paid $2,700 principal on the first mortgage,- and retained $6,448.58 in reduction of the second mortgage. No credit was allowed the petitioner for said sums in computing undistributed net income.

The respondent determined that the interest and taxes paid upon the residence acquired from Cohen, and pursuant to the agreement [827]*827of conveyance, are capital expenditures and not ordinary deductions, as contended by petitioner, who relies upon the text of section 23 (b) and (c), respectively, of the Revenue Act of 1934. The agreement of purchase expressly provides for assumption of taxes and interest, and so far as taxes and interest had accrued at the date of acquisition and formed a part of the original consideration, it is clear that they constituted capital expenditures. John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Co., 10 B. T. A. 736; Lifson v. Commissioner, 98 Fed. (2d) 508; Norman Cooledge, 40 B. T. A. 1325 (1328). But the interest and taxes here involved were accrued for the years 1935 and 1936, whereas the property was acquired in 1926, so that the interest and taxes for the taxable years were not accrued at the date of acquisition of the property, and a different question must be answered. The cases cited by the respondent do not answer it. In MacDonald v. Commissioner, 76 Fed. (2d) 513 (C. C. A., 2d Cir.), affirming 30 B. T. A. 884, it was held that deferred payments were capital expenditures where interest was not provided for. Here provision was made in the mortgage for interest. In Commissioner v. John C. Moore Corporation, 42 Fed. (2d) 186, the court affirmed the Board in apportioning yearly payments between capital and interest, and allowing deduction of the latter. In Hudson-Duncan & Co., 36 B. T. A. 554, we held that a portion of monthly payments upon sale of realty represented interest and was therefore deductible as such. The same logic applies to taxes. Only so far as accrued at the date of acquisition do they form part of the purchase price and constitute capital expenditures. In taxes thereafter arising the vendor is not interested, and can not reasonably be considered as including them in the'sale price. The cases confine the capital expenditure to interest and taxes which have accrued. We, therefore, conclude and hold that the taxes and interest for 1935 and 1936 are properly to be allowed as deductions in the amounts set forth above.

Petitioner claimed depreciation of $140 per year. Respondent contends that it is not deductible for the reason that the property, being leased to the president of the corporation and the secretary, his daughter, for their lives, for $1 per year, was not “used in the trade or business” within the language of section 23 (c) (1) of the Revenue Act of 1934. In our opinion, under the circumstances here involved the respondent’s position should be sustained. The property was the residence of the grantor. By the terms of acquisition of the property it was retained, at a nominal rental, by the grantor for his life and/or that of his daughter, and six months thereafter. We think it was not during such period property used in trade or business, but was, in effect, retained for the life of grantor and [828]*828daughter. In Gertrude D. Walker, 20 B. T. A. 937, 942; affd., 63 Fed. (2d) 351; certiorari denied, 289 U. S. 746, we denied deduction for depreciation upon the residence of petitioner’s father, which had been purchased by her with hopes of sale and after seven years was sold, but during the interim was used for no purpose except as residence by the petitioner for three months and by her stepmother for a short time without payment of rent. In Elsie A. Drexler, 25 B. T. A. 79, petitioner’s property was used during the taxable years by relatives without payment of rent. Depreciation was disallowed. See also Des Moines Title Co., 39 B. T. A. 729, 733. The respondent’s action in denying deduction of the depreciation is approved.

The remaining question is whether, under section 26 (c) (2) of the Revenue Act of 1936,1

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Joell Co. v. Commissioner
41 B.T.A. 825 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1940)

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Bluebook (online)
41 B.T.A. 825, 1940 BTA LEXIS 1137, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/joell-co-v-commissioner-bta-1940.