Joseph S. Wells Ass'n v. Helvering

71 F.2d 977, 63 App. D.C. 254, 14 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 355, 1934 U.S. App. LEXIS 3275, 1934 U.S. Tax Cas. (CCH) 9311
CourtDistrict Court, District of Columbia
DecidedMay 28, 1934
DocketNo. 6121
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 71 F.2d 977 (Joseph S. Wells Ass'n v. Helvering) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, District of Columbia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Joseph S. Wells Ass'n v. Helvering, 71 F.2d 977, 63 App. D.C. 254, 14 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 355, 1934 U.S. App. LEXIS 3275, 1934 U.S. Tax Cas. (CCH) 9311 (D.D.C. 1934).

Opinion

VAN ORSDEL, Associate Justice.

Appellant company is seeking to set aside a determination of a deficiency of $177.54 found against it by the respondent, Commissioner of Internal Revenue, in income tax for the year 1928; and in addition thereto to recover an alleged overpayment of tax for that year in the amount of $2,475.27.

Appellant is a Utah corporation, organized by the heirs of one Joseph S. Wells, for the purpose of holding and administering certain'securities owned by him at the time of his death, with the principal office and place of, business in Salt Lake City, Utah. Appellant company owned stoek in the Bennett Glass & Paint Company, in the Ogden Gasoline & Oil Company, in the Bennett Gasoline & Oil Company, and in the Ogden Glass & Paint Company. The Bennett Glass & Paint Company and the Bennett Gasoline & Oil Company were operated from Salt Lake; the Ogden Gasoline & Oil Company and Ogden Glass & Paint Company were operated from Ogden.

John Bennett and W. R. Wallace were the two largest stockholders in these four companies. The Bennett Glass & Paint Company engaged in a gasoline and oil business, which the Bennett Gasoline & Oil Company was organized to take over. John Bennett was president and manager of the paint company; and Will Bennett was the manager of the gasoline and oil company. Will Bennett died in 1927, and John Bennett suffered a nervous breakdown. W. R. Wallace owned stoek in each of these companies, and his son took over active operation of the gasoline business. Both the Bennett and Wallace families were interested in the Ogden companies. In 1928 it was agreed that appellant company and the Bennett family would take over all the stock of the Bennett Glass & Paint Company ; and the Wallace family would take all the stoek of the other three companies.

During the period from 1916 to 1924, appellant company acquired stoek in the two Ogden companies, and the Bennett Gasoline & Oil Company, at a total cost of $10,500. In the year 1928, it exchanged the stoek it had acquired in the three companies, and $53.10 in cash, for 288 shares of stock in the Bennett Glass & Paint Company, and $1,-479.53 in cash.. In 1928 appellant company, in its tax return, reported a profit on this exchange of $23,142.90, and in its schedule noted: “Received in exchange Bennett Glass & Paint Company stock at trading price of $117.00 per share.”

The Commissioner accepted the return of the valuation of 288 shares of Bennett Glass & Paint Company stock at $1.17 per share, and determined a deficiency of $177.54 as the tax on the $1,479.54, which had been received in addition to the 288 shares of stock, and which appellant company had failed to include in its return. As no return seems to have been made of the $1,479.53, received in cash in the trade, the item of $177.54, found as a deficiency, may be regarded as properly disposed of in the decision of the Board.

The sole question left for consideration, therefore, relates to the fair market value of the 288 shares of Bennett Glass & Paint Company stoek which the appellant company received in the exchange made in 1928.

Section 111 (a) of the Revenue Act of [979]*9791928 (26 USCA § 2-111 (a) provides: “The gain from the sale or other disposition of property shall be the excess of the amount realized therefrom over the basis provided in section 113 [section 2113].” Section 111 (c) of the samo act (26 USCA § 2111 (e) provides: “The amount realized from the sale or other disposition of property shall he the sum of any money received plus the fair market value of the property (other than money) received.” Section 113 (26 USCA § 2,113) provides that the basis for determining gain from the sale or other disposition of property acquired after February 28, 1913,-shall be tho cost.

It appears from the testimony that the Bennett Glass & Paint Company had 6,000 shares of stock of the par value of $100 each, or a total capitalization of $600,000 ; that the earnings of the corporation for the period from 1923 to 1928, inclusive, had been approximately $7 per share, or $42,000 a year; that the corporation had paid dividends of 6 per cent, or $36,000 per annum upon the capital stock from the year 1923 to 1928, inclusive; that when appellant company received the stock of the Bennett Glass & Paint Company, the corporation lost or surrendered its business connection with the Bennett Gasoline & Oil Company, which had produced a gross profit of between $40,000 and $50,000 per year; that it saved by reason of the loss of this business, in salaries and expenses, between $14,000 and $15,000 per year; that there never had boon any sales of the stock of the Bennett Glass & Paint Company from the year 1900 to the year 1928, inclusive; and that the stock of the corporation had been held during all of that time in the hands oí! a very few people, almost exclusively by the Bennett and Wallace families. On this statement of facts appellant company produced two witnesses, who testified that tho market value of the 288 shares would not be over $25.00 or $30.00 per share.

It is contended by counsel for appellant that the Board erred in refusing to accept the uneontradicted evidence of these witnesses as conclusive of the issues involved in this case. We agree with the Board, however, that the testimony of these witnesses is not uneontradicted. On tho contrary, it is met by the tax return of appellant company in 1928, placing a trading value on this stock of $117 per share; met by the earning capacity of this stock during the years immediately prior to and including 1928; met by the fact that none of this stock had been sold in 28 years; and also met by the fact that no evidence was adduced showing the value of tho assets and good will of the corporation as bearing upon the value of the stock. These were proper facts and elements to be considered by the Board in determining the fair market value of the stock.

The burden rested upon appellant company to overcome by competent and sufficient evidence the valuation fixed by the Commissioner. Botany Worsted Mills v. United States, 278 U. S. 283, 49 S. Ct. 129, 73 L. Ed. 379. The valuation of $117 per share, as fixed by the Commissioner and approved by the Board, must be regarded as prima facie correct until overcome by substantial evidence. Wickwire v. Reinecke, 275 U. S. 101, 48 S. Ct. 43, 72 L. Ed. 184; United States v. Mitchell, 271 U. S. 91, 46 S. Ct. 418, 70 It. Ed. 799; United States v. Anderson, 269 U. S. 422, 48 S. Ct. 131, 70 L. Ed. 347.

There are two recognized methods of ascertaining “market value.” The price may be established in the ease of corporate stocks by showing the standardized price which it has in a market whore it is dealt in by many persons, and in a large number of transactions. A different rule, however, must he applied where, as in the present case, no stock had been sold for a period of twenty-eight year’s, and there is no method afforded of establishing its standardized price in any market where the stock has been sold. In these circumstances it is competent to treat the subject in a figurative sense to determine the fair or reasonable value the stock would have if it were placed upon the general market.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Ambassador Apartments, Inc. v. Commissioner
50 T.C. 236 (U.S. Tax Court, 1968)
Herder v. Helvering
106 F.2d 153 (D.C. Circuit, 1939)
Brooks v. Willcuts
9 F. Supp. 19 (D. Minnesota, 1934)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
71 F.2d 977, 63 App. D.C. 254, 14 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 355, 1934 U.S. App. LEXIS 3275, 1934 U.S. Tax Cas. (CCH) 9311, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/joseph-s-wells-assn-v-helvering-dcd-1934.