Miami Valley Broadcasting Corp. v. Commissioner

1979 T.C. Memo. 509, 39 T.C.M. 760, 1979 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 11
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedDecember 26, 1979
DocketDocket No. 6302-71.
StatusUnpublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 1979 T.C. Memo. 509 (Miami Valley Broadcasting Corp. 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
Miami Valley Broadcasting Corp. v. Commissioner, 1979 T.C. Memo. 509, 39 T.C.M. 760, 1979 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 11 (tax 1979).

Opinion

MIAMI VALLEY BROADCASTING CORPORATION, Petitioner v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Respondent
Miami Valley Broadcasting Corp. v. Commissioner
Docket No. 6302-71.
United States Tax Court
T.C. Memo 1979-509; 1979 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 11; 39 T.C.M. (CCH) 760; T.C.M. (RIA) 79509;
December 26, 1979, Filed
Bernard J. Long,James A. Treanor, III,D. Todd Christofferson,Richard L. Braunstein, and Patrick Hays Allen, for the petitioner.
Robert T. Hollohan, for the respondent.

FEATHERSTON

SUPPLEMENTAL MEMORANDUM OPINION

FEATHERSTON, Judge: In its Memorandum Findings of Fact and Opinion (T.C. Memo. 1976-194), filed June 17, 1976, this Court found that the fair market value of a leasehold interest acquired by petitioner in a corporate liquidation on June 30, 1964, was $350,000*12 and that of a baseball television contract acquired in the same liquidation was $25,000. On appeal, the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed our finding as to the baseball television contract but remanded the case for "revaluation of the leasehold interest including an explanation of the formula used to value the lease and the factors rendering that choice of formula appropriate."

On October 31, 1963, petitioner acquired the entire outstanding stock of San Francisco-Oakland Television, Inc. (SFO), which owned and operated television station KTVU in OaklandCalifornia. Thereafter, on June 30, 1964, SFO was liquidated into petitioner pursuant to sections 332 1/ and 334(b)(2). Among the assets petitioner acquired in the liquidation was the leasehold interest in the building and land used for the office and studio facilities of KTVU.

This lease was entered into between the City of Oakland acting through its Board of Port Commissioners (the Port) and SFO on January 9, 1958. It had a term of 20 years and covered 27,000*13 square feet in a building specially constructed by the Port for SFO; 11,000 square feet consisted of office space, and 16,000 square feet consisted of production facilities. The rent was renegotiated in August 1963, and thereafter was $26,200 per year (after applying a local tax credit discussed in footnote 19, infra).

Section 334(b)(2) provides that the basis which a taxpayer obtains as a result of a liquidation distribution "shall be the adjusted basis of the stock with respect to which the distribution was made." After certain prescribed adjustments are made, that adjusted basis is fractionalized and apportioned among the assets received in the liquidation in proportion to their net "fair market value"; the apportioned amounts become the individual basis for each asset in the hands of the taxpayer. Sec. 1.334-1(c)(4) (viii), Income Tax Regs.2/

*14 The parties have agreed upon the values of all assets except the leasehold and the baseball television contract and the fair market value of the latter is now adjudicated. The only issue remaining is what part of the adjusted basis should be apportioned to the leasehold interest in the office and studio facilities of KTVU. That issue turns on the fair market value of petitioner's rights under the lease as of June 30, 1964, the date of the liquidation of SFO.

1. Formula for Valuation of Leasehold

In our Memorandum Findings of Fact and Opinion, 3/ we concluded that the lease had a fair market value as of June 30, 1964, because the rent prescribed by the lease was less than that for which comparable properties were being leased. We pointed out, however, that petitioner's experts had failed to discount the annual savings of rent to their June 30, 1964, value, and in our view such a discount was appropriate. In the light of the entire record, we found that the lease had a fair market value of $350,000 on June 30, 1964. We adhere to that view.

The parties have now agreed, *15 as the Court of Appeals has stated, 4/ that the difference between the actual rent to be paid over the remaining 14-year term of the lease and the fair market rental 5 for the same period was $957,667, 6 a difference of approximately $68,012.04 per year ($5,667.67X12 months). In view of this agreed differential and the absence of any actual market for the lease, we think the proper method for valuation of the leasehold is the income approach.

*16 Under that approach, 7/ it is necessary to ascertain or estimate the present, in this case, the June 30, 1964, value of the anticipated savings in rent over the following 14-year period of ownership of the lease. The present worth of future income or savings, such as the anticipated periodic savings in rent at issue here, is less than the face amount of that income because money not in possession is subject to the risk that it will not be received. Moreover, unlike money in possession, it cannot itself be used to earn income.

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1979 T.C. Memo. 509, 39 T.C.M. 760, 1979 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 11, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/miami-valley-broadcasting-corp-v-commissioner-tax-1979.