Peavy-Byrnes Lumber Co. v. Commissioner

25 B.T.A. 223, 1932 BTA LEXIS 1559
CourtUnited States Board of Tax Appeals
DecidedJanuary 18, 1932
DocketDocket Nos. 15822-15824, 16354-16356, 25984-25986.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 25 B.T.A. 223 (Peavy-Byrnes Lumber Co. 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
Peavy-Byrnes Lumber Co. v. Commissioner, 25 B.T.A. 223, 1932 BTA LEXIS 1559 (bta 1932).

Opinion

OPINION.

TRAmmell:

Further proceedings were had in these cases pursuant to judgment and mandate of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. (51 Fed. (2d) 163.) The issues joined at the original hearing included, among others, questions of [224]*224invested capital and depletion. See 14 B. T. A. 625, where we said, at page 648:

The Peavy--Byrnes Lumber Co. claims that either it is entitled to deduct each year, as cost of timber under the Krause & Managan Lumber Co. contract, one-half of the net profits of the Peavy-Byrnes Co., or that the 2,500 shares of capital stock issued to the Krause & Managan Lumber Co., Ltd, in 1913 were worth $562,000, and represented payment for the timber contract; and that this amount should be included in invested capital and be subject to exhaustion or depletion based upon the quantity of timber included in the contract.

Upon the evidence adduced, we reached the conclusion that the Peavy-Byrnes Lumber Co. acquired the timber rights under the contract in question from the Krause & Managan Lumber Co. in 1909, for which stock was issued in July, 1913. (14 B. T. A. 631, 648, 650.) Accordingly, we held that the cash value of the timber rights in 1909 when paid in for stock should be included in invested capital, and that the basis for computing deductions for depletion was the value of the timber rights at March 1, 1913.

The United States Circuit Court of Appeals, in its opinion above cited, held that the contract referred to “ did not effect an immediate sale of the timber that “ the Board erred in failing to accept July 28, 1913, as the date for ascertaining the value of the timber received by the Peavy-Byrnes Company in exchange for its capital stock ”; and remanded the cases for further proceedings not inconsistent with its opinion.

Agreeably with the mandate of the court another hearing was held, at which the parties were afforded an opportunity to present such additional evidence as they desired respecting the value of the timber at July 28, 1913, and the evidence so presented will be referred to herein.

The assets paid in for stock, with which we are here concerned, constituted tangible property, and, under the Revenue Acts of 1918 and 1921, may be included in invested capital at their actual cash value at the time when so paid in, i. e., July 28, 1913. Also, since the timber was acquired by the Peavy-Byrnes Company on July 28, 1913, which was subsequent to March 1, 1913, cost is the basis for computing depletion allowances. There is no controversy respecting the correctness of these propositions of law. It follows that the problem now presented is to find from the evidence before us the actual cash value of the timber in question as of July 28, 1913, for purposes of invested capital, and the cost thereof to the Peavy-Byrnes Company for purposes of depletion, if cost was not the same as the actual cash value.

The parties to the contract involved were dealing at arm’s length, and hence evidence respecting the actual cash value of the assets exchanged for the stock may be considered in arriving at the value [225]*225of the stock. Conversely, evidence tending to establish the value of the stock may be considered in determining the value of the assets exchanged therefor. William Ziegler, Jr., 1 B. T. A. 186; Napoleon B. Burge et al., 4 B. T. A. 732; Rose C. Pickering et al., 5 B. T. A. 670, and decisions cited. At the original hearing, these cases were presented on the theory that the value of the stock represented the value of the assets for which exchanged.

Based on the record of the first hearing, the petitioners contended that the fair market value of the 2,500 shares of stock of the Peavy-Byrnes Company which were issued to the Krause & Managan Company on July 28, 1913, was $245.50 per share, or a total market value of $613,750 as of July 28, 1913; and that the fair market value of the timber as of the same date, when the stock was issued therefor, was $613,750, which amount should be included in invested capital.

The petitioners now contend that the property exchanged for stock had a value at the basic date of $1,250,000, which amount should be included in invested capital, and that the same amount, in addition to the annual stumpage payments at the stipulated rates, also represents the cost to the Peavy-Byrnes Company of the timber acquired on July 28, 1913, which amount likewise should be the basis for computing depletion allowances.

These latter contentions are predicated upon the testimony adduced at the supplemental proceedings hereinabove referred to. At that hearing A. J. Peavy, president of the petitioning corporations, testified that in his opinion the aggregate value of the assets of the Peavy-Byrnes Company at July 28, 1913, was about $3,000,000 and that the timber at that date was worth $10 per thousand feet. Rudolph Krause, president of the Krause & Managan Company, testified that in his opinion the assets of the Peavy-Byrnes Company a,t July 28, 1913, were worth $2,500,000 to $3,000,000, and that the timber at said date was worth between $10 and $12 per thousand feet.

On the basis of this testimony, the petitioners argue that the stock of the corporation had a fair value of $500 per share at July 28,1913, or a total value of $1,250,000 for the 2,500 shares exchanged on said date, as the petitioners claim, for a one-half interest in the aggregate assets, including the timber and half of the future profits, of the Peavy-Byrnes Company.

The Circuit Court of Appeals declined to accept the theory of the petitioners in respect of the assets exchanged for the stock, saying:

Prior to July 28, 1913, the Peavy-Byrnes company had only the right to cut the timber, * * * The Peavy-Byrnes company did not become the owner of the timber until July 28, 1913 when it paid for it in stock. The Krause & Managan company upon the exercise of its option to take the stock surrendered its interest in the contract, and thereafter became only a stock[226]*226holder. It therefore cannot be held, as argued on behalf of the Peavy-Byrnes company and the other two petitioning corporations, that the stock was issued to the Krause & Managan company only for the purpose of evidencing its right to continue to receive half of the future net profits.

The present contention of the petitioners, and the testimony offered in support thereof, that the stock of the Peavy-Byrnes Company had a value of $500 per share at July 28,1913, a value in excess of twice the amount originally claimed, is in sharp conflict with the other evidence of record bearing on the question of value of the stock and of the assets.

Peavy testified at the original hearing that he purchased 45 shares of this stock from his brother-in-law, Byrnes, on November 21, 1913, at $225 per share; that the purchase was a business transaction, and that he then considered the stock was worth what he paid for it.

The petitioners’ witness Johnson, at the same hearing, testified that in 1913, at about the basic date, or shortly prior thereto, he sold stock in the Peavy-Byrnes Company for approximately $230 per share. He further testified that, considering the factors then known affecting the value of the stock, it had in his opinion a fair value at July 28, 1913, of $266 per share.

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Peavy-Byrnes Lumber Co. v. Commissioner
25 B.T.A. 223 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1932)

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Bluebook (online)
25 B.T.A. 223, 1932 BTA LEXIS 1559, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/peavy-byrnes-lumber-co-v-commissioner-bta-1932.