Miami Valley Coated Paper Co. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

211 F.2d 422, 45 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 808, 1954 U.S. App. LEXIS 4467
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedApril 9, 1954
Docket11919
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 211 F.2d 422 (Miami Valley Coated Paper Co. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Miami Valley Coated Paper Co. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 211 F.2d 422, 45 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 808, 1954 U.S. App. LEXIS 4467 (6th Cir. 1954).

Opinion

SIMONS, Chief Judge.

The question presented by this appeal is whether a taxpayer who, after the Commissioner has determined deficiencies in excess profit taxes declared value excess profits taxes and income taxes, filed a timely petition for redetermination only of the excess profits tax, may, after the statutory period for filing a petition to the Tax Court has run, amend its original petition for the purpose of seeking a redetermination of deficiencies in taxes not originally sought. The Tax Court, following its previous adjudications in analogous cases, answered the question in the negative, and this appeal followed.

*423 On June 9, 1950, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, pursuant to §§ 272 and 732 of the Internal Revenue Code, 26 U.S.C.A. §§ 272, 732, mailed to the petitioner a combined notice of deficiencies in income tax in declared value excess profit tax and excess profit taxes and also disallowed a claim for refund of excess profits taxes. Within the 90-day period allowed by §§ 272 and 732, the petitioner, on August 28, 1950, filed with the Tax Court a petition seeking redetermination of the Commissioner’s disallowances of claims for relief applied for under § 722. The petition stated: “The taxes in controversy are excess profits taxes for the fiscal years ended April 30, 1944, April 30, 1945, and April 30, 1946. * * * ” Within the 60 days allowed by Rule 14 of the Tax Court Rules of Practice, the Commissioner filed his answer. The proceeding was then placed upon the calendar for hearing. Two years later, on October 24, 1952, before the case had been set for trial, the petitioner filed an amended petition, raising new issues with respect to the excess profits taxes challenged by the original petition but also alleging errors by the Commissioner in his assertion of deficiencies in income tax and declared value excess profits taxes. The Tax Court granted the Commissioner’s motion to dismiss but only insofar as it related to deficiencies in income taxes and declared value excess profits taxes. It declined to dismiss insofar as it related to new issues in respect to the excess profits tax. The dismissal was summary for lack of jurisdiction, without argument or citation of applicable law.

The so-called 90-day letter is based upon § 272(a) (1) of the Code which provides that if the Commissioner determines there is a deficiency in respect to the tax imposed by “this chapter” he is authorized to send notice of it to the taxpayer by registered mail and the taxpayer, within 90 days after such notice is mailed, may file a petition with the Board of Tax Appeals (now the Tax Court) for a redetermination of the deficiency. It is agreed that the judicial powers of the Tax Court are limited by the statute. The court is empowered to review the Commissioner’s determination in respect to deficiencies in enumerated taxes which include those upon income, excess profits and declared value excess profits, and when the Commissioner has sent notice to the taxpayer, as provided, and the taxpayer properly appeals from the determination, the court may assume jurisdiction. The timely filing of a petition is jurisdictional, and this the present petitioner does not deny. Its contention is that since its original petition was in time, and since the taxes involved are interrelated, and the deficiencies asserted by the Commissioner were the subject-matter of a combined notice, § 732 gives the Tax Court jurisdiction of all three asserted deficiencies. It leans heavily upon H. Fendrich, Inc., v. Commissioner, 7 Cir., 192 F.2d 916, a case which holds that an amendment is timely which raises new issues in respect to a petition for redetermination of an excess profits tax after the running of the 90-day period. It relies also upon the wording of § 732 (a) wherein occurs the sentence, in reference to a petition for refund, “If such petition is so filed, such notice of dis-allowance shall be deemed to be a notice of deficiency for all purposes relating to the assessment and collection of taxes or the refund or credit of overpay-ments.” Significance is attached to the italicized plurals.

The Commissioner, however, argues that the income tax, the declared value excess profits tax and the excess profits tax are to be treated separately for jurisdictional purposes and that a petition challenging only the deficiency in excess profits taxes does not constitute a petition for redetermination of the deficiency in income tax or the deficiency in declared value excess profits tax. It urges that the three taxes here involved are of different types and points to the fact that the Fendrich case dealt with but a single tax classification and in- *424 Solved no other kind of tax. The Tax Court decision is not in conflict with it for it has retained jurisdiction of the petitioner’s challenge to the deficiency-in the excess profits tax.

The Tax Court rulings, in differentiating for jurisdictional purposes the differing types of taxes, have been consistent. Where a proceeding involved a deficiency in excess profits tax, and the same notice advised of an overassessment in income tax and in declared value excess profits tax, the proceeding was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction of the overassessment. Pioneer Parachute Company, 4 T.C. 27. A determination of deficiency in excess profits tax does not give jurisdiction of a determination in income tax. Emeloid Company, Inc., 14 T.C. 1295. Where the Commissioner determined a deficiency in income tax for 1934 and an overassessment of excess profits tax greater than the deficiency in income tax, the Tax Court held that it had jurisdiction only with respect to the deficiency in income tax. Will County Title Company, 38 B.T.A. 1396. These results are based in part on the fact that the income tax and the excess profits tax are separately imposed. Difco Laboratories, Inc., 10 T.C. 660. The excess profits taxes imposed prior to the Excess Profits Tax" Act of 1950, 26 U.S.C.A. § 430 et seq., were held to have been separate from the income tax because “imposed by entirely separate provisions of the statute,” and a determination of a deficiency in one tax will not support jurisdiction over a determination of overpayment in the other. Scaife Company, 47 B.T.A. 964. A deficiency in income tax is one matter and a deficiency in excess profits tax is another. Martin Weiner Corporation, 21 T.C. 59. In that case, it was pointed out that one. tax can be appealed from by the taxpayer while, at the same time, he may accept the determination of the Commissioner as to the other and, where the taxpayer does not appeal from the deficiency in income tax, there is nothing to dismiss. It is also to be observed that prior to the enactment of Excess Profits Tax Act of 1950, that tax and the income tax were reported upon different forms and that all deficiencies here involved relate to taxes prior to its enactment.

As long ago as 1933, the Supreme Court of the United States declared the principles by which amendments to petitions which seek only to amplify an original claim for redetermination or refund are to be distinguished from those petitions which raise new causes of action out of time. United States v. Memphis Cotton Oil Company, 288 U.S. 62, 53 S. Ct. 278, 77 L.Ed. 619; United States v. Henry Prentiss & Co.,

Related

Butz v. Commissioner
1989 T.C. Memo. 229 (U.S. Tax Court, 1989)
Bruno v. Commissioner
72 T.C. 443 (U.S. Tax Court, 1979)
O'Neil v. Commissioner
66 T.C. 105 (U.S. Tax Court, 1976)
Fletcher Plastics, Inc. v. Commissioner
64 T.C. 35 (U.S. Tax Court, 1975)
Brooks v. Commissioner
63 T.C. 709 (U.S. Tax Court, 1975)
St. Joseph Lead Company v. United States
299 F.2d 348 (Second Circuit, 1962)
Ciba Pharmaceutical Products, Inc. v. Commissioner
35 T.C. 337 (U.S. Tax Court, 1960)
Southern Acid & Sulphur Co. v. Commissioner
30 T.C. 1098 (U.S. Tax Court, 1958)
H. Fendrich, Inc. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue
242 F.2d 803 (Seventh Circuit, 1957)
Ryan v. Harrison
146 F. Supp. 671 (N.D. Illinois, 1956)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
211 F.2d 422, 45 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 808, 1954 U.S. App. LEXIS 4467, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/miami-valley-coated-paper-co-v-commissioner-of-internal-revenue-ca6-1954.