Pan American Eutectic Welding Alloys Co. v. Commissioner

36 T.C. 284, 1961 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 150
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedMay 17, 1961
DocketDocket Nos. 72544, 74765
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 36 T.C. 284 (Pan American Eutectic Welding Alloys 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
Pan American Eutectic Welding Alloys Co. v. Commissioner, 36 T.C. 284, 1961 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 150 (tax 1961).

Opinion

Atkins, Judge:

The respondent determined deficiencies in income and excess profits taxes for the years and in the amounts as follows:

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The only issue is whether the petitioner qualifies as a Western Hemisphere trade corporation within the meaning of section 109 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1939 and section 921 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 and is therefore entitled to the credit provided by section 26 (i) of the 1939 Code and the special deduction provided by section 922 of the 1954 Code.

The respondent by stipulation concedes that there are no deficiencies in excess profits tax for the taxable years ended October 31,1952, and October 31,1954.

FINDINGS OF FACT.

Some of the facts are stipulated and are incorporated herein by this reference.

The petitioner is a corporation organized on April 30, 1947, under the laws of the State of New York, with its principal place of business in the city of New York. It is engaged in the business of buying and selling welding rods and related materials. It keeps its books and prepares its income tax returns on the basis of a fiscal year ending October 31, and employs an accrual method of accounting. Its Federal income tax returns for the taxable years ended October 31, 1952, through October 31, 1956, were filed with the director of internal revenue for the second New York district.

The petitioner is, and during each of the years in controversy was, a wholly owned subsidiary of Eutectic Welding Alloys Corp., hereinafter referred to as EWAC, a corporation organized on January 15, 1946, under the laws of the State of New York. During the fiscal year ended October 31, 1952, the capitalization of the parent was represented entirely by common stock which was owned 55 percent by Eene D. Wasserman and 45 percent by his then wife, Marie Eose Wasserman. On November 1, 1952, the parent was recapitalized and thereafter the entire amount of common stock was owned by Wasserman and the preferred stock was owned by trustees of a trust created by his then wife, the trustees being Sigmund Wasserman and Jose Hassid. Eene D. Wasserman was and is president of both the petitioner and EWAC.

Eene Wasserman emigrated to the United States from Switzerland in 1940 and organized a business for the purpose of manufacturing specialty welding rods, which are materials used for the purpose of welding breaks and cracks in metal. This organization and its successor, Alpine Metals Manufacturing Co., were sole proprietorships. The sole proprietorship was discontinued in October 1955, when its functions were assumed by EWAC.

The petitioner was formed on the advice of counsel for the purpose of selling the specialty welding products manufactured by Alpine Metals Manufacturing Co., for ultimate consumption in Canada, Central America, and South America. During each of the years in controversy all of petitioner’s business was done in North, Central, and South America and hi the Wést Indies. It purchased the products from Alpine Metals Manufacturing Co. until that individual proprietorship discontinued business and thereafter from EWAC.

EWAC also set up a corporation called Low Temperature Welding Alloys Corp. for the purpose of selling these products for consumption in coimtries outside the Western Hemisphere, and a corporation called American Eutectic Welding Sales Co. to sell such products for consumption in the United States.

The petitioner, EWAC, and Alpine Metals Manufacturing Co. were all located at 40-40 ll2d Street, Flushing, New York, which property consisted of sizable factory and office buildings. Overhead service charges, such as bookkeeping and office rent, telephone and postage expense, and insurance on goods in transit, were paid by EWAC and allocated to the petitioner, to the sole proprietorship, and to EWAC’s other wholly owned subsidiaries. Other expenses were paid directly by petitioner. The products purchased by the petitioner and the other subsidiaries from EWAC and from Alpine Metals Manufacturing Co. were sold to them at 7 percent above cost.

The petitioner made the following sales during the taxable years involved:

Eutectic International S.A. (E.I.S.A.), was a corporation organized under the laws of the Republic of Panama in 1947. It was dissolved on June 1, 1953, and a corporation known as Metallica International S.A. (M.I.S.A.), a corporation also organized under the laws of the Republic of Panama in 1953 by the same interests, continued the same activities in the same manner. These two corporations are sometimes hereinafter referred to collectively as MISA. MISA was owned 22 percent by Eene Wasserman’s father and 78 percent by other Swiss interests.

EWAC and the petitioner entered into contracts with MISA and its predecessor authorizing and licensing those two corporations to purchase the products in question and to sell them anywhere in the world other than in the United States, the Dominion of Canada, British Columbia, Newfoundland, the Hawaiian Islands, the Canal Zone, and the Eepublic of Panama, for use outside of those countries. Therein it was agreed:

that the title to all merchandise sold shall remain in EUTECTIC and/or PAN-AMERICAN EUTECTIC, whichever is the seller, until delivery at destination; and by the same token risk of loss until arrival at destination shall remain in the seller.

In a typical transaction between the petitioner and MISA, an order was first placed with MISA by one of its customers for certain specified products to be shipped to a port outside the United States, and requesting as terms of payment a 60-day sight draft on a bank in a Central American country.

MISA by letter then confirmed the order and the terms, enclosing its invoice showing a “Value F.A.S. [free alongside ship] New York,” and stating that the goods were to be sent by maritime freight and that insurance was covered “by our New York plant for your account.” Copies of this letter and of the production invoice, together with shipping instructions and instructions as to handling of documents, were sent by MISA to petitioner. The instructions typewritten on the letter were in part as follows:

NEW YORK:
We enclose 6 copies of our production invoice. Please put goods immediately into production and apply for U.S. E/L. Once the goods have become ready, please effect shipment by ocean freight. Haras are to draw documentary draft at 60 days’ sight through the Banco Hipotecario de El Salvador, San Salvador. Insurance is to be covered under your open policy for account of customers. * * *

The petitioner then filled the order in New York and turned the goods over to a freight forwarder, Haras & Company, international shipping specialists, and gave the freight forwarder the instructions as to shipping which petitioner had received from MISA. The freight forwarder was instructed to make the bill of lading in the name of petitioner. Petitioner also delivered a commercial invoice and insurance certificate, showing the petitioner as the insured, and requesting that the freight forwarder draw the sight draft.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
36 T.C. 284, 1961 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 150, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pan-american-eutectic-welding-alloys-co-v-commissioner-tax-1961.