Mt. Mansfield Co. v. Commissioner

50 T.C. 798, 1968 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 78
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedAugust 29, 1968
DocketDocket No. 1438-67
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 50 T.C. 798 (Mt. Mansfield Co. 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
Mt. Mansfield Co. v. Commissioner, 50 T.C. 798, 1968 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 78 (tax 1968).

Opinion

IRWIN, Judge:

Respondent determined deficiencies in petitoner’s income tax of $3,675.89 for the taxable year ending October 31, 1962, and $15,095.33 for the taxable year ending October 31, 1963.

Since the parties have settled the issue relating to petitioner’s deduction for depreciation and since petitioner did not assign error in its petition or at trial to the other deductions disallowed by the respondent, the sole issue remaining for decision is whether or not petitioner’s ski slopes and trails qualify as “section 38 property.”1

FINDINGS OF FACT

Some of the facts have been stipulated. The stipulation of facts and the exhibits attached thereto are incorporated herein by reference.

Mt. Mansfield Co., Inc. (hereinafter “petitioner”), is a Vermont corporation with its principal office at Stowe, Vt. Petitioner’s primary business is the operation of skiing facilities in the Stowe area, including lifts, trails, and slopes. Petitioner filed its Federal income tax returns for the taxable years at issue with the district director of internal revenue for the district of Vermont.

The existence and operation of petitioner’s lifts, slopes, and trails generate significant employment and income for the entire Stowe area. Petitioner’s operation attracts about 320,000 visitors in an average winter season, and to service them petitioner directly employs 350 to 400 people during the winter. There are approximately 90 motels, hotels and lodges in the Stowe area, employing about 750 additional people in the winter, which exist primarily to service visitors to petitioner’s skiing operation.

Petitioner’s area is set in heavily wooded, steep terrain. In order to cut suitable slopes and trails, and to erect lifts for carrying passengers uphill, petitioner expended and continues to expend large amounts of money for removing timber and other natural obstacles and for grading.

During the years at issue, petitioner expended a total of $172,648.37 on capital investments in slopes and trails for which it claimed a 7-percent investment credit on its corporate income tax returns for these years. These credits, which totaled $12,085.38, were disallowed by the respondent.

ULTIMATE FINDING OF FACT

Petitioner was in the business of operating skiing facilities and was not in the transportation business.

OPINION

Petitioner claims herein that it is entitled to a 7-percent investment credit under section 38 2 for capital investments on its slopes and trails. Respondent contends that petitioner does not qualify for this credit because the property on which the credit is claimed does not qualify as “section 38 property.” We agree with the respondent.

Section 38 property is defined by section 48(a) (1) which provides in pertinent part as follows:

SBC. 48. DEFINITIONS; SPECIAL HULES.
(a) Section 38 Property—
(1) In generar. — Except as provided in this subsection, the term “section 38 property” means—
(A) tangible personal property, or
(B) other tangible property (not including a building and its structural components) but only if such property—
(i) is used as an integral part of manufacturing, production, or extraction, or of furnishing transportation, communications, electrical energy, gas, water, or sewage disposal services, * * *

Petitioner contends that the ski slopes and trails, while not tangible personal property, are “other tangible property” and, therefore, qualify as “section 38 property” because they were “used as an integral part of * * * furnishing transportation.” While we might agree with petitioner that, viewed in its broadest sense, the slopes and trails served to transport the skiers, we do not agree that the slopes and trails were “used as an integral part of * * * furnishing transportation” within the meaning of these words in section 48(a) (1) (B) (i).

Due to the recent (1962) enactment of the investment credit provisions, there have been few judicial interpretations of section 48. That which is available is of little value in this case. Perhaps for this reason, the parties’ briefs herein offer little guidance. However, section 38(b) gives the respondent broad authority to carry out the purpose of the investment credit provisions by promulgating necessary regulations, which are, therefore, entitled to great weight in interpreting the statutory definition of section 38 property. Robert E. Catron, 50 T.C. 306 (1968).

Pursuant to this authority respondent has promulgated section 1.48-1(d) (1),3 Income Tax Kegs., which requires, inter alia, that in order for property to fall within the definition of section 38 property by virtue of section 48(a) (1) (B) (i), which petitioner recognizes as the sole category under which the slopes and trails could be eligible, the property must not only be “used as an integral part of manufacturing, production, or extraction, or as an integral part of furnishing transportation, communications, electrical energy, gas, water, or sewage disposal services” but that it must also be so used “by a person engaged in a trade or business of furnishing any such service.” (Emphasis supplied.) Petitioner does not challenge this regulation which in fact has been upheld as valid. Frank J. Evans, 48 T.C. 704, 708 (1967), on appeal (C.A. 9, 1967).

We do not believe that this regulation encompasses petitioner’s business. Assuming arguendo that petitioner furnished transportation services in his business, it does not follow that petitioner was in the business of furnishing transportation. Any such services that petitioner provided are purely incidental to its trade or business of providing recreational facilities. While we recognize that some ventures are difficult to classify as to the type of business they may constitute and that a taxpayer may engage in several different businesses, we think it equally valid to hold, as we do here, that a service which is incidental to and only a part of a taxpayer’s primary business does not and should not constitute a separate trade or business for purposes of this section of respondent’s regulations. See Frank J. Evans, supra at 708-709. Petitioner has failed to carry his burden of proving otherwise.

Furthermore, it is apparent that Congress did not intend such a service to be considered a separate trade or business. This is quite clearly evident from a reading of the technical explanations to the committee reports. The phraseology of these technical explanations, is quite similar to respondent’s regulations but is slightly more detailed:

Property is to be considered as being used as an integral part of a system of furnishing transportation, communications, electrical energy, gas, water, or sewage disposal services only if such property is used by one engaged in the trade or business of furnishing such services.

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Mt. Mansfield Co. v. Commissioner
50 T.C. 798 (U.S. Tax Court, 1968)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
50 T.C. 798, 1968 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 78, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mt-mansfield-co-v-commissioner-tax-1968.