Lansing Broadcasting Co. v. Commissioner

52 T.C. 299, 1969 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 127
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedMay 20, 1969
DocketDocket No. 3711-67
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 52 T.C. 299 (Lansing Broadcasting Co. 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
Lansing Broadcasting Co. v. Commissioner, 52 T.C. 299, 1969 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 127 (tax 1969).

Opinion

OPINION

Featherston, Judge:

Respondent determined deficiencies in petitioner’s income taxes as follows:

Tear Amount
1962 -$129,104.09
1963 - 95,196.52
1964 - 55,449.66

The sole question is whether more than 20 percent of petitioner’s gross receipts in 1962 constituted “personal holding company income” within the meaning of section 1372(6) (5),1 with the result that petitioner’s status as a “subchapter S corporation” terminated in that year. The answer depends primarily upon whether, under that section, the receipt by petitioner in 1962 of one of a series of distributions in complete liquidation of another corporation constituted “gross receipts * * * derived from * * * sales or exchanges of stock or securities.”

All the facts have been stipulated.

Petitioner, a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Michigan, had its principal place of business at 601 Townsend Avenue, Lansing, Mich., at the time the petition was filed. It is engaged in the business of operating a commercial radio-broadcasting station under the call letters WILS. Petitioner filed its income tax return for 1962 on the basis of a calendar year, using the accrual method of accounting.

On December 1, 1958, petitioner elected, in accordance with the provisions of section 1372(a), not to be subject to the corporate income tax for the year 1958,2 and met all the requirements of that section. From January 1, 1958, through December 31, 1964, this election was not terminated by formal revocation or through the addition of new shareholders who failed to consent to the election. For each of the years 1958 through 1964, petitioner filed a Form 1120-S, U.S. Small Business Corporation Beturn of Income, with the district director in Detroit, Mich.

During 1962 petitioner owned 53.625 percent, 21,450 shares, of the stock of Chief Pontiac Broadcasting Co. (hereinafter Chief Pontiac), with a cost basis of $21,450. Pursuant to a plan of complete liquidation adopted in accordance with the provisions of section 337, Chief Pontiac sold substantially all of its assets for cash on October 15, 1962, and thereafter distributed its cash and remaining assets to its shareholders in complete liquidation. Petitioner received cash liquidating distributions of $187,687.50 on October 19, 1962, $32,175 on April 10, 1963, and $13,541.72 on May 28, 1963. At the time of the final liquidating distribution petitioner surrendered its Chief Pontiac stock, and, on May 10,1963, Chief Pontiac filed a certificate of dissolution with the Michigan Corporation and Securities Commission.

The return filed by petitioner for 1962 reported gross receipts and other income as follows:

Gross receipts_$569, 048.19
Interest on U.S. obligations_ 5, 552. 59
Rent_ 1,689.10
Net long-term capital gain_ 166,237. 50
Other income_ 8,971.04
Total income_ 751, 498.42

The net long-term capital gain of $166,237.50 represented the liquidating distribution received from Chief Pontiac adjusted for the stock’s cost basis of $21,450.

Paragraph (5) of section 1372 (e), as it stood in 1962,3 provided that an election under section 1372(a) would be terminated if the electing corporation bad gross receipts of wbicb more than 20 percent was derived “from royalties, rents, dividends, interest, annuities, and sales or exchanges of stock or securities (gross receipts from such sales or exchanges being taken into account for purposes of this paragraph only to the extent of gains therefrom)Petitioner’s gain from the liquidation of Chief Pontiac plus its interest and rental income constituted over 20 percent of its gross receipts in 1962. Therefore, if such gain was derived from the sale or exchange of stock, within the meaning of section 1372(6) (5), petitioner’s subchapter S status terminated as of January 1, 1962. If not, respondent erred in determining the disputed deficiencies.

To support his determination that petitioner’s election terminated as of January 1,1962, respondent relies upon section 331 (a) (1), which provides that “Amounts distributed in complete liquidation of a corporation shall be treated as in full payment in exchange for the stock.” Respondent argues that this section requires that petitioner’s gain from the liquidation of Chief Pontiac be included, as gain derived from an exchange of stock, in making the computation of gross receipts under section 1372(e) (5). Alternatively, respondent contends that if the Chief Pontiac transaction is not an exchange, the liquidating distribution is a dividend, which is also “personal holding company income.”

Petitioner urges us to interpret section 1372(e)(5) literally — . without regard to section 331(a)(1) — to limit it to pure sales and pure exchanges, and thus to hold that petitioner’s receipts from the liquidation of Chief Pontiac were not gains from the sale or exchange of stock. Petitioner contends that these receipts also were not dividends, since section 331 (b)4 expressly provides that section 301, relating to the effect of corporate distributions on the taxable income of shareholders, shall not apply to distributions in partial or complete liquidation of a corporation. Thus, petitioner would have us hold that the Chief Pontiac distributions were neither gains from the sale or exchange of stock nor dividends, but rather were payments in satisfaction of petitioner’s right, possessed through ownership of stock, to participate in Chief Pontiac’s assets remaining after corporate debts were satisfied. Cf. C. M. Menzies, Inc., 31 B.T.A. 163, 168 (1936).

Quite apart from petitioner’s inconsistency in contending that section 331(b), but not section 331(a) (1), should be referred to in construing section 1372(e) (5), the argument that the last section’s use of the phrase “sales or exchanges of stock” does not encompass corporate liquidating distributions to shareholders cannot be sustained.

Recognizing that the phrase “sales or exchanges of stock” should be construed in harmony with the legislative purpose, cf. Helvering v. Hammel, 811 U.S. 504 (1941), we direct our attention to subchapter S. Although, section 1372(a) permits a corporation to elect “not to be subject to the taxes imposed” by chapter 1 of the Code, an electing corporation’s taxable income, capital gain or loss, earnings and profits, and net operating losses must, nevertheless, be computed in order to determine the tax liability of the shareholders. Secs. 1372, 1373, 1374, 1375, and 1877. Subject to certain exceptions not material here, the taxable income of an electing corporation “is computed in the same manner that it would have been had no election been made.” Secs. 1.1372-1 (c) (1) and 1.1373-1 (c), Income Tax Regs.

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

Related

Bradshaw v. United States
683 F.2d 365 (Court of Claims, 1982)
Fisher v. Commissioner
62 T.C. No. 9 (U.S. Tax Court, 1974)
Paula Constr. Co. v. Commissioner
58 T.C. 1055 (U.S. Tax Court, 1972)
CONSTRUCTION AGGREGATES CORPORATION v. United States
350 F. Supp. 726 (N.D. Illinois, 1972)
Osborne v. Commissioner
55 T.C. 329 (U.S. Tax Court, 1970)
Lansing Broadcasting Co. v. Commissioner
52 T.C. 299 (U.S. Tax Court, 1969)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
52 T.C. 299, 1969 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 127, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lansing-broadcasting-co-v-commissioner-tax-1969.