Mills v. Commissioner

35 B.T.A. 629, 1937 BTA LEXIS 849
CourtUnited States Board of Tax Appeals
DecidedMarch 11, 1937
DocketDocket No. 72345.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 35 B.T.A. 629 (Mills v. Commissioner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Board of Tax Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mills v. Commissioner, 35 B.T.A. 629, 1937 BTA LEXIS 849 (bta 1937).

Opinion

[635]*635OPINION.

TURNER:

The first claim made by the petitioner is that a portion of the Mills Process stock disposed of was community property and that the gain derived and the dividends received on the stock of Mills Alloys, Inc., which replaced the stock claimed to have been community stock, should be treated as community income and not as the individual income of the petitioner. It is not contended that any portion of the 5,000 shares of Mills Process stock issued to the petitioner' in exchange for patents, nor stock purchased by him [636]*636before bis marriage was community property. Further, the petitioner concedes that the shares purchased after marriage were petitioner’s separate property to the extent that they were purchased with proceeds of a loan upon his separate property. It is contended, however, that 638.3665 shares of the 1,654 shares purchased after marriage were community property, leaving the remaining 1,015.6335 shares to be classified as the separate property of the petitioner. These amounts are arrived at by applying to the 1,654 shares purchased, the same ratios that 1,154 shares, the amount of shares purchased with the first loan, all of which were deposited as collateral, and 1,836 shares deposited as collateral out of petitioner’s separate property, bear to the total 2,990 shares of collateral. Examination of the petitioner’s method of computing the number of shares belonging to the community discloses at once the weakness of his position on the facts of this case. If the number of community shares purchased is in the same ratio to the total number of shares purchased as the number of community shares deposited as collateral is to the total number of shares of collateral, then by the petitioner’s own conclusion only 638.3665 of the total collateral shares were community shares and the remaining collateral, 2,351.6335 shares, was the separate property of the petitioner. It then follows that a recomputation of the ratios would be required. The result of such a second computation would obviously disclose a correspondingly smaller portion of the total number of shares purchased as the number of community shares. On each recomputation the number of community shares would dwindle until substantially no amount would be indicated as community property.

The answer to our problem is to be found in the facts and the law, however, and not in the strength or weakness of some method of computation. As we understand the law of California, property purchased partly with the separate funds of a spouse and partly with community funds is separate property and community property in the same proportion that the purchase price is made up of separate

and community funds, In re Bauer’s Estate, 79 Cal. 304; 21 Pac. 759; Heney v. Pesoli, 109 Cal. 53; 41 Pac. 819, and property purchased with borrowed money is separate and community property to the extent that the loans are based upon the credit of the individual spouse or upon the credit of the community. Carle v. Heller, 18 Cal. Ap. 577; 123 Pac. 815; Schuyler v. Broughton, 70 Cal. 282; 11 Pac. 719; Dyment v. Nelson, 166 Cal. 38; 134 Pac. 988. In this case the facts warrant only one conclusion, and that is that the loans procured for the purchase of the stock in question were made upon the sole and individual credit of the petitioner. As a preliminary detail before the loans were made, the petitioner established his [637]*637personal credit with the California Bank by submitting an individual financial statement. No claim is made that the community owned any Mills Process stock prior to the purchases in December 1928. The only stock deposited as collateral, except the stock purchased from the proceeds of the first loam, belonged to the petitioner individually. Furthermore, each of the notes recited on its face that the petitioner, the maker of the note, was the sole owner of the stock pledged as collateral. The community risked nothing at any stage of the transaction and we find that it furnished no part of the credit upon which either loan was made. On the first issue the respondent is sustained.

In reaching the above conclusion we have not overlooked our opinion in Alanson Weeks, 31 B. T. A. 627. In that case the property in question was purchased with the proceeds of a loan made by the husband on his personal note. The- only collateral posted was the property purchased. There was nothing further to show that the funds were borrowed on the faith and credit of his separate property, nor was there any evidence that he was not in fact acting on behalf of the community. Under those facts wTe there held that the presumption that property purchased after marriage was to be treated as community property had not been overcome by extrinsic evidence. In this case, as we have pointed out, the facts do show that the loan, out of the proceeds of which the stock in question was purchased, was intended to be, and was in fact, made upon the faith and credit of the husband’s separate property, and not upon the faith and credit of the community.

Our first problem in deciding the remaining issues is to determine the exact nature of the transaction whereby the petitioner disposed of his Mills Process stock. The respondent, in determining the deficiency, treated the disposition by Mills Process of its assets for the stock of Mills Alloys, Inc., as a reorganization within the meaning of section 112 (i) (1) (A)1 of the Revenue Act of 1928. He also assumed the exchange by the stockholders of Mills Process for the stock of Mills Alloys, Inc., in accordance with the provisions of section 112 (b) (3)2 of the act and thereafter a sale by the stock[638]*638holders of a portion of the stock of Mills Alloys, Inc., so received. In connection with that sale he applied the first in, first out rule and treated the major portion of the stock sold by the petitioner as being! held in place of the 5,000 shares of Mills Process stock acquired by him in exchange for patents which had no cost basis. This stock, having been acquired at the time the patents were turned in to Mills Process in 1925, more than two years prior to the disposition of Mills Alloys, Inc., stock in 1929, was treated as capital assets. So far as the record shows, the petitioner in making his return also treated the sale of stock of Mills Alloys, Inc., as a sale by the stockholders of Mills Process rather than a sale by the corporation prior to liquidation, and no exception to the determination of the respondent in that respect was taken in the petition filed. The petitioner did allege, however, that the respondent erred in applying the first in, first out rule, claiming that the stock of Mills Alloys, Inc., was received in exchange for the entire block of his stock in Mills Process and that the cost of the latter stock should be averaged to determine the cost basis of the stock of Mills Alloys, Inc., received therefor and sold to the syndicate. Christian W. Von Gunten, 28 B. T. A. 702; affd., 76 Fed.(2d) 670; Olive Hume Oliver, 30 B. T. A. 1381; affd., 78 Fed. (2d) 561.

At the time of filing his brief the respondent also filed a motion requesting leave to file an amended answer to conform the pleadings to the proof offered at the hearing.

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Related

Mills v. Commissioner
35 B.T.A. 629 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1937)

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Bluebook (online)
35 B.T.A. 629, 1937 BTA LEXIS 849, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mills-v-commissioner-bta-1937.