Murfam Farms, LLC ex rel. Murphy v. United States

88 Fed. Cl. 516, 104 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5700, 2009 U.S. Claims LEXIS 289, 2009 WL 2595892
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedJuly 30, 2009
DocketNos. 06-245T, 06-246T, 06-247T
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 88 Fed. Cl. 516 (Murfam Farms, LLC ex rel. Murphy v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Federal Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Murfam Farms, LLC ex rel. Murphy v. United States, 88 Fed. Cl. 516, 104 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5700, 2009 U.S. Claims LEXIS 289, 2009 WL 2595892 (uscfc 2009).

Opinion

OPINION

DAMICH, Judge.

These are tax partnership eases. In this consolidated proceeding, Plaintiffs MUR-FAM Farms, LLC, PSM Farms, LLC, and Murphy Pork Partners, LLC (collectively “Plaintiffs” or “the partnership[s]”), by and through partners other than their tax matters partners, have petitioned this Court, under section 6226 of the Internal Revenue Code1 (“I.R.C.”), for a redetermination of administrative adjustments of partnership items and the imposition of accuracy-related penalties contained in the Notices of Final Partnership Administrative Adjustment (“FPAA”) issued to them by the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) for tax year ended December 27, 2000. In those FPAAs, the IRS determined, inter alia, that certain contingent obligations contributed to the partnerships during that tax year constituted liabilities for purposes of Treasury Regulation (“Treas. Reg.”) § 1.752-6 (“the Regulation”),2 the assumption of which by the partnerships mandated a reduction in each partner’s basis in a partnership interest (termed “outside basis” or, in this Opinion, “basis”). Plaintiffs are challenging those determinations.

Pending before the Court is Plaintiffs’ Motion for Partial Summary Judgment, filed on March 7, 2008, as to the validity of the Regulation. The Regulation purportedly disallows the sought-after tax treatment of the contingent liabilities assumed by Plaintiffs. More specifically, at the time the transactions at the heart of this case were entered into, in accordance with a line of cases of the United States Tax Court beginning with Helmer v. Commissioner, 34 T.C.M. (CCH) 727 (1975), contingent obligations assumed by partnerships were not always treated as liabilities for federal income tax purposes, within the meaning of section 752 of the Code3 [519]*519However, the Regulation purportedly encompassed contingent obligations within the meaning of section 752 and retroactively applied this definition to partnership transactions going back to October 18, 1999. The Regulation was purportedly issued under the authority of section 309(c)(1) and (d)(2) of the Community Renewal Tax Relief Act of 2000, Pub.L. No. 106-554, § 309, 114 Stat. 2763A-638 (“2000 Tax Act”). Section 309(c)(1) of the 2000 Tax Act authorized Treasury to enact regulations providing for “appropriate adjustments ... to prevent the acceleration or duplication of losses through the assumption of (or transfer of assets subject to) liabilities described in section 358(h)(3) of [the Code] in transactions involving partnerships.” Section 358(h)(3) of the Code defined liability as encompassing both fixed and contingent liabilities.

Plaintiffs argue that Treas. Reg. § 1.752-6 is invalid because (1) the Regulation’s retroactive date fails to comply with the statutory limitation on the issuance of retroactive regulations set forth in section 7805(b); (2) the Regulation prescribes rules that fail to carry out Congressional intent in accordance with the two-step test under Chevron, U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984); and (3) the Regulation was issued, without good cause, in violation of the notice and comment requirements under the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 553 (2006).

For the reasons discussed below, the Court finds that the Regulation is invalid because its retroactive date fails to comply with the statutory bar on retroactive regulations relating to the internal revenue laws of the United States, as provided in section 7805(b). Accordingly, the Regulation is not a legisla-five regulation entitled to deference under Chevron. Further, because section 7805(b) is an express statutory limitation on Treasury’s general rulemaking authority relating to the internal revenue laws of the United States, the Regulation also is not a valid interpretive regulation pursuant to its general authority to prescribe regulations. Accordingly, the Court GRANTS Plaintiffs’ Motion.

I. Background4

The transactions that are at the heart of this proceeding are complicated. For the purpose of resolving this motion, a simplified summary is provided here. The taxpayers in this case are eight members of the Murphy family. According to Defendant, these transactions purportedly involve a tax shelter product known as “Currency Options Bring Reward Alternatives” (“COBRA”). See, e.g., Joint Prelim. Status Report 10, Sept. 21, 2006. The COBRA transactions took place in tax year ending December 27, 2000. The COBRA transactions required the formation of a number of different entities by or through the Murphy family. These entities included multi-member LLCs, single-member LLCs, and Subehapter S corporations. The multimember LLCs were classified as partnerships for purposes of federal income tax law. Stip. ¶¶ 14, 17, 18, 21, 22, 25. The members of the partnerships are individual members of the Murphy family. Stip. ¶¶ 15, 19, 23. The single-member LLCs are owned by individual members of the Murphy family and are the vehicles through which they made contributions of capital to the partnerships. Stip. ¶¶ 26, 27, 30, 31, 34, 35, 38, 39, 42, 43, 46, 47, 50, 51, 54, 55. Each of the single member LLCs was, for federal income tax purposes, “disregarded as an entity sepa[520]*520rate from its owner” under Treas. Reg. § 301.7701 — 3(b)(l)(ii). Stip. ¶¶ 29, 33, 37, 41, 45, 49, 53, 57. Accordingly, both the individual members of the Murphy family and then’ corresponding single-member LLCs have been characterized as “partners” in the partnerships. The shareholders of the Subchap-ter S corporations are the same individual members of the Murphy family who are members of the partnerships to which the Subchapter S corporations correspond. Stip. ¶¶ 9,11,13.

Each member of the Murphy family, through his single-member LLCs, purchased and sold long and short “put” options, respectively. Stip. ¶¶ 58-71. More specifically, they obtained European-style foreign currency option positions on the Euro or Swiss Franc. These option positions were subsequently transferred as contributions of capital to the partnerships. Stip. ¶¶ 72, 75, 78. The members of the Murphy family took the position that, as a result of the contribution of the option positions, their outside bases in the partnerships were increased by the cost basis of their purchased long options without any reduction for any obligation underlying the sold short options. Stip. ¶¶ 73, 76, 79. Consequently, the partnerships did not reduce the bases of the purchased options contributed by the amount of any obligation underlying the sold options contributed. Stip. ¶¶ 74, 77, 80.

The options then expired in accordance with their terms. Stip. ¶ 81. After the expiration of the options, the partnerships acquired additional assets. Stip. ¶¶ 82-84. Two partnerships received additional contributions of capital from then’ partners in the form of North Carolina municipal bonds. One partnership invested in Euros. Subsequently, all of the members of the Murphy family contributed all of their interests in the partnerships to the corresponding Subchap-ter S corporations. Stip. ¶¶ 85, 87, 89. As a result of these contributions, the partnerships liquidated for federal income tax purposes, distributing all of the remaining assets to the Subchapter S corporations. Stip. ¶¶ 86, 88, 90.

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88 Fed. Cl. 516, 104 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5700, 2009 U.S. Claims LEXIS 289, 2009 WL 2595892, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/murfam-farms-llc-ex-rel-murphy-v-united-states-uscfc-2009.