McDonald v. United States

209 F. Supp. 741, 11 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 1934, 1962 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5263
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Kentucky
DecidedAugust 28, 1962
DocketCiv. A. No. 4080
StatusPublished

This text of 209 F. Supp. 741 (McDonald v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McDonald v. United States, 209 F. Supp. 741, 11 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 1934, 1962 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5263 (W.D. Ky. 1962).

Opinion

SHELBOURNE, District Judge.

This is the second action instituted by .the plaintiffs in this Court for the recovery of allegedly illegally assessed federal excise taxes. The first suit, Iroquois Gardens, Inc. v. United States, D.C., 197 F.Supp. 94, was filed June 23, 1960, and' involved assessments made for the period January 1, 1956, to March 31, 1959. The instant action is based on assessments made for the period January 1, 1951, to December 31, 1953.

The original complaint filed herein December 9, 1960, seeks to recover $12,700.-00, the amount remitted to the District Director of Internal Revenue during the period January 1959 to October 1960 in payment of a portion of an alleged illegal and erroneous assessment of cabaret taxes. September 22, 1961, plaintiffs filed an amended and supplemental complaint seeking to recover an additional amount of $2,696.07 for cabaret taxes paid under a deficiency assessment during the period from December 1955 to August 1956.

Subsequent to this Court’s decision in Iroquois Gardens Inc. v. United States, supra, it was stipulated that, for the purposes of this action only, no presumption of correctness attaches to the deficiency assessment made by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue against the plaintiffs on December 27, 1955. It was further stipulated that the only issue to be tided here, other than the jurisdictional question arising from the amended and supplemental complaint, is the amount of receipts derived by the plaintiffs during the period of entertainment and the correct amount of cabaret taxes due thereon for the years 1951, 1952, and 1953.

From the stipulation filed, the testimony heard at the trial on January 22, 1962, and briefs of counsel, the Court makes the following findings of fact and conclusions of law.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. At all times involved in this proceeding, plaintiffs were engaged in the operation of a supper club known as Club Iroquois at 5306 New Cut Road, Louisville, Kentucky, where they maintained a dining room, a cocktail lounge known as Forest Lounge, and a room for private parties on a separate floor.

[742]*7422. In the operation of Club Iroquois at all times mentioned herein, plaintiffs furnished music for dancing in the dining room from approximately 9:00 P.M., until shortly before closing each evening except Sunday and an occasional Monday.

3. During the period January 1, 1951, to December 31, 1953, plaintiffs charged, collected and remitted to the District Director of Internal Revenue at Louisville, Kentucky, at the times required by law, the 20% excise tax imposed by Section 1700(e) of the 1939 Internal Revenue Code, 26 U.S.C.A. § 1700(e) on all charges for food, refreshments, and services provided to customers in the Club’s dining room paid to plaintiffs by said customers while music for dancing or other entertainment was being furnished.

4. From January 1, 1951 to December 31, 1953, the plaintiffs did not charge, collect or pay over to the District Director any excise taxes on charges for food, refreshments, or services provided to customers in the Club’s dining room on-checks presented to said customers and paid prior to the time the entertainment commenced. Plaintiffs’ procedure for handling guest checks during this period is found to be the same as set forth in detail in the Court’s findings of fact No. 10 in Iroquois Gardens, Inc. v. United States, D.C., 197 F.Supp. 94, 96, and, therefore, it need not be recited here.

5. The federal excise tax returns filed by plaintiffs at the times required by law reported cabaret tax due and payment for same was remitted in a total amount of $28,177.83 for the period January 1, 1951 to December 31, 1953.

6. On or about December 9, 1955, the District Director notified plaintiffs that they owed $107,597.49 additional cabaret taxes for the period January 1, 1951, to December 31, 1953, and demanded payment of the alleged deficiency with interest at the rate of 6% per annum. The deficiency assessment made December 27, 1955, was based on the determination of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue that 90% of the Club’s total receipts were taxable.

7. From December 1955 to August 1956, portions of the alleged deficiency in cabaret taxes totaling $2,696.07 were paid by plaintiffs. There is no allegation or any proof that plaintiffs filed a claim for refund of these payments.

8. February 16, 1956, claims for abatement of the alleged deficiency for the years 1951-1953 were filed and each and all of these claims were disallowed on October 6, 1959.

9. From January 1959 to October 1960, plaintiffs paid portions of the alleged cabaret tax deficiencies totaling $12,700.00 and filed their claim for refund of said amount with the District Director on November 2, 1960. The claim for refund was disallowed in its entirety on December 7, 1960, and this suit followed.

10. The books and records which reflect the taxable and non-taxable receipts of Club Iroquois during the pieriod involved herein were prepared from figures presented to its bookkeeper and accountant, Earl W. Hemingway, by plaintiff Stanley C. McDonald. Hemingway came to the Club once a week to prepare the payroll and at such times McDonald furnished him a breakdown of the daily receipts. The taxable receipts consisted solely of dining room checks paid after the entertainment began, which receipts were totaled by the cashiers and reported to McDonald at the close of each day’s business.

11. In the Club’s records for 1951, Hemingway reported the taxable receipts in a column headed “Dining Room” which contained a figure for each day and monthly totals on same. The recapitulation sheet for 1951 listed dining room receipts at $39,417.34 and other receipts from the business at $184,130.16 for a total amount of $223,547.50. Although the column was headed “Dining Room”, the uncontradicted evidence is that the figures in that column represented only taxable dining room receipt and the state and federal cabaret taxes collected thereon.

12. During the years 1952 and 1953, Hemingway employed a method of keep[743]*743ing the Club’s books different from that used in 1951. The receipts were reported in various columns without regard to taxability and taxable receipts were handled through “contra” or memo columns headed “Club”. Recapitulation sheets listed total receipts of $295,018.11 for 1952 and $294,999.48 for 1953, and carried a column headed “Club” which was not a recapitulation of the memo “Club” columns. The memo “Club” contained a figure for each day and monthly totals of same, and the evidence is that the figures in these columns represented only taxable dining room receipts. The sum of the monthly totals of the memo columns for 1952 was $50,426.23 and $71,816.08 for 1953.

13. Patrick H. Mitchell, certified public accountant, testified that he performed certain audit functions to determine the correct excise tax liability of the plaintiffs for the period in question. He testified that he examined the records prepared by Hemingway and traced gross receipts from the business to the bank account and reconciled the two. Based upon his examination, Mitchell stated that plaintiffs’ federal excise tax was overpaid $676.78 in 1951, underpaid $513.06 in 1952, and underpaid $2,870.-52 in 1953.

14. Plaintiffs’ taxable receipts for 1951, including 2%% state excise tax and 20%.

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Related

Iroquois Gardens, Inc. v. United States
197 F. Supp. 94 (W.D. Kentucky, 1961)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
209 F. Supp. 741, 11 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 1934, 1962 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5263, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcdonald-v-united-states-kywd-1962.