Mercantile Bank & Trust Co. v. United States

312 F. Supp. 1164, 25 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 1410, 1970 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11608
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Missouri
DecidedMay 21, 1970
DocketNos. 17206-1, 17207-1
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 312 F. Supp. 1164 (Mercantile Bank & Trust Co. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mercantile Bank & Trust Co. v. United States, 312 F. Supp. 1164, 25 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 1410, 1970 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11608 (W.D. Mo. 1970).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

JOHN W. OLIVER, District Judge.

I

The plaintiffs in this consolidated action are the trustees of two perpetual care funds dedicated to providing care for two respective mausoleums at the Troost Avenue Cemetery. Plaintiff Commerce Trust Company seeks to recover $11,432.69 and plaintiff Mercantile Bank and Trust Company seeks to recover $34,114.40, which the respective trusts had paid for capital gains taxes for the year 1967. Plaintiffs contend that the trusts are tax exempt pursuant to Title 26, United States Code, § 501(c) (13), and § 501(c) (3), or, in the alternative, are entitled to a deduction of all the reportable capital gains under Title 26, United States Code, § 642(c).

The basic facts are not in dispute. The parties disagree in some regard as to what inferences should be drawn therefrom. The stipulation of uncontroverted facts is incorporated by this reference as part of our findings of facts. We further adopt all of the defendant's suggested findings of fact which we find are supported by the evidence. Those findings are attached as Appendix A.1

[1166]*1166We shall briefly state the controlling facts. The Troost Avenue Cemetery Company (hereinafter referred to as the “Cemetery Company”), pursuant to two separate trust agreements established trusts to provide for the perpetual care of mausoleum facilities for mausoleum compartments which have been sold. The corpus of the trust comes from a percentage of the sales price of the mausoleum space. In the case of the Abbey Trust, five (5) percent of the sales price is paid to the trustee. With respect to the Chapel Trust, ten (10) percent is paid to the trustee. The income derived from the trust investments is to be paid to the Cemetery Company to perform maintenance services.

II

The first question presented is whether Title 26, United States Code, § 501(c) (13) exempts perpetual care trusts whose funds are paid to maintain cemetery property held by a cemetery company organized as a corporation for profit.

Section 501(c) (13) reads:

Cemetery companies owned and operated exclusively for the benefit of their members or which are not operated for profit; and any corporation chartered solely for burial purposes as a cemetery corporation and not permitted by its charter to engage in any business not necessarily incident to that purpose, no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual.

Although plaintiff trusts assert that they are entitled to an exemption under each of three independent categories of the statute, they concede that their strongest argument is that they are within the “cemetery company * * * not operated for profit” exemption within the meaning of Section 501(c) (13). It is obvious that each plaintiff must in fact be a cemetery company “not operated for profit” within the meaning of Section 501(c) (13) in order to qualify for that exemption. We conclude that both trusts involved fail to qualify for that exemption under Section 501(c) (13) for reasons we now state.

The only support for plaintiffs’ contention that the trusts are “cemetery companies” within the meaning of § 501 (c) (13) is Revenue Ruling 58-190. That ruling held that a perpetual care trust fund connected to a non-profit cemetery company is exempt from taxation. Revenue rulings, of course, are not law and are not binding on courts. Therefore, even if plaintiffs’ interpretation of Revenue Ruling 58-190 is correct (and we do not believe it is) it still is not binding on the Court. The Court must determine Congress’ intent, not the intent of the Internal Revenue Service. Compare Helvering v. New York Trust Co., 292 U.S. 455, 54 S.Ct. 806, 78 L.Ed. 1361 (1934).

We agree with the interpretation of Revenue Rulings 58-190 and 64-217 in Rosehill Cemetery Company v. United States, 285 F.Supp. 21, 23 (N.D.Ill., 1968):

First, the Government has not, in the plaintiff’s phrase, “recognized in its rulings that a perpetual care trust is a company.” In Rev.Rul. 58-190, C.B. 1958-1, 15, the Treasury did state that an organization whose structure resembled that of these Trusts performed a service essential to the maintenance of a cemetery and was considered to be organized and operated for burial purposes within the contemplation of § 501(c) (13). However, that statement was made in the context of a situation involving a nonprofit cemetery association, and it cannot be removed from that context and given a broader reading than was there intended. The holding of that ruling is clearly qualified, viz.: “The instant organization whose funds are irrevocably dedicated to the pepetual care of a nonprofit cemetery, as a whole, none of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual, may qualify for exemption from the Federal income tax as an or[1167]*1167ganization described in section 501(c) (13) of the Code.” (Emphasis supplied). The nonprofit character of the cemetery is a substantial part of that holding and may not be ignored. Rev. Rul. 64-217, C.B. 1964-2, 153, specifically addressed itself to a virtually identical situation which had one significant difference: the income from the perpetual care fund in that instance was turned over to a profit-making cemetery company. The Treasury was entirely consistent with its 1958 ruling when it ruled in 1964 that “where the company actually operating the cemetery is itself a profit-making enterprise, the perpetual care fund operated in connection with it would also partake of this character and would not be entitled to exemption from Federal income tax.” That ruling acknowledged the earlier (1958) ruling, finding implicit in it a recognition that perpetual care funds are so closely connected with the actual cemetery companies that they partake of the character of the cemetery companies for exemption purposes. Accordingly, it was held “that the perpetual care fund in the instant case, which is operated in connection with a profit-making cemetery company, is not entitled to exemption from Federal income taxation as an organization described in section 501(c) (13) of the Code.”

The plaintiffs’ proposed construction of the statute and the revenue ruling ignores the basic consideration that for-profit corporations cannot create subsidiaries or trusts or other organizations to carry out the important functions of the for-profit corporation and expect them to be not taxed. The corollary is that nonprofit corporations which have auxiliary corporations or trusts should not be subject to indirect taxation because of their auxiliary organizations.

Section 501(c) (2) is evidence of this Congressional intent to preserve the benefit of a valid exemption created by other sections of Section 501:

(2) Corporations organized for the exclusive purpose of holding title to property, collecting income therefrom, and turning over the entire amount thereof, less expenses, to an organization which itself is exempt under this section.

Revenue Ruling 58-190 merely reflects an application of the principle established and recognized in Section 501(c) (2).

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312 F. Supp. 1164, 25 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 1410, 1970 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11608, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mercantile-bank-trust-co-v-united-states-mowd-1970.