O'Meara v. Commissioner

11 B.T.A. 101, 1928 BTA LEXIS 3865
CourtUnited States Board of Tax Appeals
DecidedMarch 21, 1928
DocketDocket Nos. 9822, 20399, 22557.
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 11 B.T.A. 101 (O'Meara 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
O'Meara v. Commissioner, 11 B.T.A. 101, 1928 BTA LEXIS 3865 (bta 1928).

Opinion

[108]*108opinion.

Littleton :

At the hearing, the Orlando Petroleum Co. presented a motion asking that the Board rule that it has no jurisdiction in its appeal for the following reasons:

First, because in the stipulation it appears that the total income and excess profits taxes of this petitioner for the period covered by the deficiency tetter, copy of which is attached to the petition, amount to $146,3S3.76; and said stipulation further shows that for the period covered by the deficiency letter, the petitioner filed its return on April 14, 1920, showing the amount of its tax at $218,203.81, and that this petitioner paid $218,203.81 as and for its income and excess profits taxes for the period covered by the letter, and therefore there was not and could not have been a deficiency, but was an overpayment.
[109]*109Second, for the reason that before this appeal was filed, this petitioner brought its action in the United States District Court for the district of Kansas, First Division, to recover the amount of its overpayment for the same taxes for the same period covered by the deficiency letter attached to the petition, and that that action in the United States District Court is pending undetermined.

The first reason overlooks the statutory provision that jurisdiction is conferred on the Board in any case in which the Commissioner determines a deficiency and an appeal is duly filed with the Board (section 274, Revenue Act of 1926). Whether or not the deficiency as determined is correct, it is the function of the Board to determine, but the fact that upon examination by the Board it is determined that the deficiency which the Commissioner determined was erroneous to the extent that no deficiency in fact exists, will not oust the Board of its jurisdiction. In this proceeding tfie Commissioner determined that this petitioner’s total tax liability was $154,767.19; that no tax had previously been assessed and that accordingly a deficiency existed of $154,767.19. This petitioner duly filed an appeal, asking the Board to find that no deficiency exists on the ground that there had already been assessed on its original return, and it had paid, an amount in excess of the deficiency now shown. The establishing of the facts contended for by this petitioner would serve to extinguish the deficiency and show an overpayment, but it would not alter the fact that in the first instance the Commissioner had determined a deficiency.

The second ground for this motion is the pendency of a suit in a Federal District Court for the year on appeal before the Board. The deficiency notice which forms the basis of this appeal was mailed to this petitioner on August 6, 1926, and on September 14, 1926, an action was brought by this petitioner in a Federal District Court for the recovery of an alleged overpayment of income and profits tax for the period covered by the deficiency notice. A similar situation was before the Circuit Court of Appeals, Third Circuit, in the case of Suhr v. United States, 18 Fed. (2d) 81, wherein it was held that a suit to recover as a refund an amount allowed by the Commissioner as a credit against a proposed additional assessment may not be maintained where an appeal from such assessment is pending before the Board of Tax Appeals. In its opinion, the court said:

Any taxpayer may appeal to the Board of Tax Appeals, but he must do so before his tax is assessed or collected. Section 274 (a), Bevenue Act of 1926 (44 Stat. 9, 55). If appeal has thus been made to the Board, the tax not having been paid, the appellant may not also proceed in the courts, until the Board has determined the question of deficiency. If that question is decided against him, he may then pay the deficiency and sue in the District Court to recover, or he may appeal to. the Circuit Court of Appeals.

[110]*110The Board is ox the opinion that the foregoing constitutes a sufficient answer to this petitioner’s motion, and the motion for the dismissal of the appeal on account of lack of jurisdiction is accordingly overruled.

The next question raised in the petition of the Orlando Petroleum Co. relates to the credit to which it is entitled on account of taxes assessed and paid at the time of filing its original return. The material facts with which we are here concerned are as follows: The Orlando Petroleum Co. and the Elmhurst Investment Co. filed a consolidated return for 1919 in which was shown a consolidated tax liability of $297,748.91. At the same time, the Orlando Petroleum Co. filed an information return as a subsidiary on which it was stated that the amount of tax apportioned to it was $218,203.81. The parties have stipulated that in the payment of the total tax liability for the group of $297,748.91, the Orlando Petroleum Co. furnished $218,203.81 and the Elmhurst Investment Co. $79,545.10. The entire amount of $297,748.91 was assessed against the Elmhurst Investment Co., which company made payment of same with its own checks on which appeared notations of the amount applicable to each company, the notation with respect to each company being in agreement with the amount which the parties have stipulated as being furnished by each. In the deficiencj^ notice which forms the basis of this appeal, and which was submitted in evidence, the respondent showed the amount previously assessed against the Orlando Petroleum Co. as “ None ” and accordingly found a deficiency of $154,-767.19, the total tax liability of this petitioner. In the deficiency notice to the Elmhurst Investment Co. which was prepared some months later than the deficiency notice to the Orlando Petroleum Co., and which was likewise submitted in evidence, the respondent gave the Elmhurst Investment Co. credit of $79,545.10, and stated that the remainder of the $297,748.91, or $218,203.81 which had been assessed against the Elmhurst Investment Co. was properly applicable to the Orlando Petroleum Co.

The question is the effect to be given in determining a deficiency in the case of the Orlando Petroleum Co. to the assessments and payments made on account of its tax liability at the time the consolidated return was filed. Under the provisions of section 273, Revenue Act of 1926, it is the duty of the Commissioner to determine the deficiency upon the basis of the correct amount of tax, less the amount of tax shown by the taxpayer upon his return with other adjustments not here in issue. Section 240 (a) of the Revenue Act of 1918 provides in part as follows:

In any case in which a tax is assessed upon the basis of a consolidated return, the total tax shall be computed in the first instance as a unit and shall then be assessed upon the respective affiliated corporations in such propor-[111]*111tious as may be agreed upon among them, or, in the absence. of any such agreement, then on the basis of the net income properly assignable co each.

The deficiency was determined without allowing any credit to the Orlando Petroleum Co. for taxes assessed on the consolidated return in which its income was included. While there is insufficient evidence before us to substantiate a finding that there was an agreement which would control as to all apportionments of taxes as between the two companies, or the basis of the agreement which existed between them, we are of the opinion that the record before us justifies the conclusion that of the taxes assessed and paid on account of the tax liability shown on the consolidated return of the Elmhurst Investment Co.

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O'Meara v. Commissioner
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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
11 B.T.A. 101, 1928 BTA LEXIS 3865, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/omeara-v-commissioner-bta-1928.