National Water Well Ass'n v. Commissioner

92 T.C. No. 7, 92 T.C. 75, 1989 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 8
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedJanuary 24, 1989
DocketDocket No. 22420-83
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 92 T.C. No. 7 (National Water Well Ass'n 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
National Water Well Ass'n v. Commissioner, 92 T.C. No. 7, 92 T.C. 75, 1989 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 8 (tax 1989).

Opinion

OPINION

Parker, Judge:

Respondent determined a deficiency in petitioner’s Federal income tax for its fiscal year ended October 31, 1980 in the amount of $21,082. The issues for decision are:

(1) Whether insurance dividends received by petitioner, a business league exempt from taxation under section 501(c)(6),1 as the group policyholder of an insurance program that the business league endorsed constitute unrelated business taxable income under section 512; and

(2) If so, whether the income is excludable from the unrelated business tax as royalties under section 512(b)(2).

This case was submitted fully stipulated under Rule 122. The stipulation of facts and the exhibits attached thereto are incorporated herein by this reference.

Petitioner, National Water Well Association, Inc., is a corporation with its principal place of business in Worthington, Ohio, at the time the petition was filed in this case. Petitioner is a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Ohio.2

After incorporating in the State of Ohio, petitioner filed an Application for Recognition of Exemption, Form 1024, with the Office of the Internal Revenue Service in Cincinnati, Ohio, on June 7, 1979. This exemption was granted and petitioner is now a business league exempt from Federal income tax under section 50.1(c)(6). Petitioner filed a Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax, Form 990, for the taxable year ending October 31, 1980, with the Internal Revenue Service Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Petitioner is an association composed of persons engaged in the water well industry. In 1980, petitioner had approximately 8,000 members grouped into five divisions, which included (1) the contractors division composed of individuals and companies engaged in the business of water well drilling, (2) the manufacturers division composed of individuals and companies engaged in manufacturing equipment, materials, or supplies used in the water well industry, (3) the suppliers division composed of individuals and companies that supply equipment (on a wholesale or retail basis) to the water well industry, (4) the ground water technology division composed of colleges and universities studying or teaching subjects related to the water well industry, and geologists and other professionals involved in the evaluation, development, or investigation of ground water, and (5) the pump installation contractors division composed of individuals and companies engaged in the business of water systems or pump installation, maintenance, or repair. The governing document of petitioner is its bylaws. The bylaws specify:

The objectives of this association shall be: to assist, promote, encourage, and support the interests and welfare of the water well industry in all of its phases; to foster, aid and promote scientific education, standards, redevelopment, and to advance the science of ground water hydrology; to promote harmony and cooperation between well contractors and scientific agencies relative to the proper development and protection of underground water supplies; to encourage cooperation of all interested groups relative to the improvement of drilling and pumping equipment; to encourage, serve, assist and promote closer cooperation among the existing state water well contractors’ associations and to foster the development of such associations in states where they do not exist; to collect, analyze, and disseminate to the public facts about the role of the water well industry in the economy of the nation; and to advance generally the mutual interests of all those engaged in the water well industry, in their own and the public interest.

The management and control of petitioner is vested in its board of directors, which consists of nine members of the contractors division, the immediate past president, and two members of each of the other four divisions. Petitioner maintains a staff that manages and operates the organization. This staffs duties include membership administration and relations, production of related publications, presentation of educational programs for the water well industry, research in the water well and ground water fields, and promotion of safety programs.

Petitioner sponsors various insurance programs for its members. During the year in issue, the programs petitioner sponsored included life insurance, accident and disability insurance, industry casualty insurance, errors and omissions insurance, and health insurance.

At one time, water well drillers were classified, for insurance purposes, in the same category as oil well drillers. Several years before the year in issue, petitioner conducted a study that showed that the safety experience record for water well drillers was better than the safety record of oil well drillers and justified a separate classification for water well drillers. As a result of petitioner’s study, Maryland Casualty Insurance Co. (hereinafter referred to as Maryland Casualty) agreed to classify water well drillers as a less risk-prone industry than previously classified. Based on this classification, Maryland Casualty developed a comprehensive industry casualty insurance program for the water well industry, which included coverage for workers’ compensation, general liability, business equipment liability, and automobile liability insurance. This insurance program will be referred to hereinafter as either the “industry casualty insurance program” or the “safety dividend casualty program.” Maryland Casualty was the insurer, and the insurance brokerage company that managed and monitored the program was the “Planning Corporation,” located in Vienna, Virginia.

Petitioner agreed to endorse and sponsor Maryland Casualty’s comprehensive industry casualty program, known as the safety dividend casualty program. Petitioner became the group policyholder of this insurance policy. Petitioner entered into a written agreement with Maryland Casualty in which petitioner agreed to: (1) Provide assistance to Maryland Casualty in endorsing, promoting, and sponsoring the insurance program, (2) give Maryland Casualty cooperation and advice in presenting the insurance program to potential participants, (3) make known the availability of the insurance program to its members, (4) not sponsor or endorse any other property or casualty insurance program nor allow its list of property or casualty insured risks to be disseminated to other parties for purposes of direct or indirect solicitation for any other property or casualty insurance program, (5) cooperate with and assist Maryland Casualty, upon its request, in the collection of any premiums that are payable to Maryland Casualty under the insurance program by providing it with available pertinent information that may facilitate collection of the premiums, and (6) obtain the written approval of Maryland Casualty for any promotional literature referring to the insurance program before distributing it to its members.

In fulfilling these contractual obligations, petitioner provided Maryland Casualty and/or the Planning Corporation with its membership lists, wrote articles on safety and its effects on insurance, provided exhibit space for Maryland Casualty at its conventions and meetings, and answered inquiries from present and potential policyholders regarding the insurance.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
92 T.C. No. 7, 92 T.C. 75, 1989 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 8, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/national-water-well-assn-v-commissioner-tax-1989.