Old Nat'l Bank v. Commissioner

28 T.C. 1075, 1957 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 108
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedAugust 28, 1957
DocketDocket No. 61517
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 28 T.C. 1075 (Old Nat'l Bank 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
Old Nat'l Bank v. Commissioner, 28 T.C. 1075, 1957 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 108 (tax 1957).

Opinion

Mulroney, Judge:

Respondent determined deficiencies in tbe income and excess profits tax of tbe petitioner, as follows:

Year Deficiency
1951_$9,079.40
1952_ 2,391.96

Tbe issues are (1) whether tbe petitioner, in computing its excess profits tax, can apply tbe unused excess profits credit of a bank which was consolidated with petitioner; (2) whether tbe petitioner, in computing tbe net capital addition for tbe taxable year by showing a decrease in inadmissible assets, can include cash and loans as operating assets within tbe meaning of section 435 (g) (10) (B) of the 1939 Code,1 and, in tbe alternative, whether the limitations of section 435 (g) (10) are applicable to section 435 (g) (9) (B); and (3) whether the petitioner, in computing its excess profits credit by the average income method, can use the base period capital additions of a corporation with which it was consolidated in a part II transaction (secs. 461-465), when that other corporation used the growth formula in computing its own average base period net income.

BINDINGS OB BACT.

Most of the facts were stipulated and the stipulated facts are found accordingly.

Old National Bank in Evansville filed its Federal income and excess profits tax returns for the year 1951 with the then collector of internal revenue and for the year 1952 with the district director of internal revenue at Indianapolis, Indiana.

Old National Bank in Evansville was organized August 16, 1923, under the laws of the United States. By an agreement, effective August 16, 1950, with the North Side Bank in the same city, the latter bank was consolidated with, and under the charter of, the Old National Bank in Evansville. By an agreement, effective May 1, 1951, with the Franklin Bank and Trust Company in the same city, the latter bank was consolidated with, and under the charter of, the Old National Bank in Evansville.

On the date of the latter consolidation, the Franklin Bank and Trust Company, after applying its unused excess profits credit to the year 1950, had an unused excess profits credit amounting to $9,286.72. Petitioner, in computing its excess profits tax for the year 1951, claimed $7,348.24 as an unused excess profits credit, representing the unused excess profits credit of the Franklin Bank and Trust Company.

The North Side Bank, prior to the consolidation, computed its excess profits tax credit under the provisions of sections 435 (e) and 462 (c) (1) (C). In 1951 and 1952, the petitioner, in computing its base period capital additions, used the base period capital additions of the North Side Bank.

In computing its excess profits tax credit for the years 1951 and 1952, the petitioner did not apply the limitation contained in section 435 (g) (10) to the capital additions resulting from decreases in inadmissible assets.

OPINION.

The first question is whether petitioner succeeds to the pre-consolidation unused excess profits credit of the Franklin Bank and Trust Company. Section 432 (c) (2) provides, in part:

If for any taxable year ending after June 30, 1950, the taxpayer has an unused excess profits credit, such unused excess profits credit shall be an unused excess profits credit carry-over for each of the five succeeding taxable years, * * *

Petitioner argues there was a statutory2 merger of the Franklin Bank and Trust Company with petitioner which extinguished the former bank and left petitioner the continuing corporation and after such a merger the continuing corporation is the “taxpayer” within the above statute and can use the credit of its constituent which is an integral part of the continuing corporation. Some of the authorities cited by petitioner give color to its claim. See E. & J. Gallo Winery v. Commissioner, 227 F. 2d 699, reversing a Memorandum Opinion of this Court, and Stanton Brewery, Inc. v. Commissioner, 176 F. 2d 573, reversing 11 T. C. 310. However, the recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Libson Shops, Inc. v. Koehler, 353 U. S. 382, is, we feel, conclusive authority against petitioner’s position.

The Libson case presented a situation of a net operating loss deduction carryover under the provisions of section 122 (b) (2) (C) providing, in part, as follows:

If for any taxable year beginning after December 31, 1947, and before January 1, 1950, tbe taxpayer bas a net operating loss, such net operating loss shall be a net operating loss carry-over for each of the three succeeding taxable years * * *

In the Libson case, there were 17 separate corporations, with the stock owned directly or indirectly by the -same individuals in the same proportion. They all merged into one and the question was whether the continuing corporation could deduct the premerger net operating losses of 3 of the corporations from the postmerger income through the use of the net operating loss carryover provisions.

It must be admitted (and the parties here do not argue otherwise) that the evident statutory purpose of the two quoted statutes, dealing with the carryover of an unused excess profits credit and the carryover of a net operating loss, is identical. They are both designed to give the taxpayer some relief from what would otherwise be harsh consequences of fluctuating profits in a continuing enterprise.

In the Libson case, the Supreme Court held the petitioner was “not entitled to a carry-over since the income against which the offset is claimed was not produced by substantially the same businesses which incurred the losses.”

The same must be said of the instant case. The income against which the offset is claimed was not produced substantially by the same business which had the excess profits credit. The opinion in the Libson case pointed out that there was no indication in the legislative history of the carryover and carryback provisions that “these provisions were designed to permit the averaging of the pre-merger losses of one business with the post-merger income of some other business which had been operated and taxed separately before the merger. What history there is suggests that Congress primarily was concerned with the fluctuating income of a single business.”

The legislative history with respect to the provisions for carryover and carryback of unused excess profits credit is similar to the legislative history for provisions for carryover and carryback of net operating loss. In fact, the Eeport of the Ways and Means Committee on section 432 (81st Cong., 2d Sess., H. Rept. No. 3142) points out the law produces the same “averaging period used under the net operating loss carry-over for both income and excess profits tax purposes.”

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Related

Clarksdale Rubber Co. v. Commissioner
45 T.C. 234 (U.S. Tax Court, 1965)
Morris Trust v. Commissioner
42 T.C. 779 (U.S. Tax Court, 1964)
Old Nat'l Bank v. Commissioner
28 T.C. 1075 (U.S. Tax Court, 1957)

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Bluebook (online)
28 T.C. 1075, 1957 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 108, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/old-natl-bank-v-commissioner-tax-1957.