Permanent Savings & Loan Ass'n v. United States

439 F. Supp. 917, 40 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5751, 1977 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14447
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Ohio
DecidedAugust 17, 1977
DocketNo. C-1-75-213
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 439 F. Supp. 917 (Permanent Savings & Loan Ass'n v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Permanent Savings & Loan Ass'n v. United States, 439 F. Supp. 917, 40 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5751, 1977 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14447 (S.D. Ohio 1977).

Opinion

MEMO DECISION

HOGAN, Chief Judge.

This case involves a claim by the plaintiff that it is entitled to compute deductions for additions to its bad debt reserve by the preferential method set forth in Section 593 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954.

The plaintiff is a domestic building and loan association. Until 1952 such associations were exempt from federal income tax. In 1951 this complete exemption was repealed and building and loans were brought under and subject to the regular corporate income tax; however, they were allowed a special deduction for additions to bad debt reserves. This special deduction proved to be so large, however, that the change from exempt status was hardly felt and, for all practical purposes, the institutions retained exemption. This led to a tightening and narrowing of the bad debt provisions in the Revenue Act of 1962.

Section 166(c) of the 1954 Revenue Code provides:

“In lieu of any deduction under subsection (a), there shall be allowed (in the discretion of the Secretary or his delegate) a deduction for a reasonable addition to a reserve for bad debts.”

Subsection (a) of Section 166 provides for a deduction for a bad debt which in fact becomes worthless within the taxable year. The section overally provides two methods under which a taxpayer may elect to take a bad debt deduction: one is based on debts which in fact become worthless, and the other is based merely on mechanical additions to reserve accounts. The reserve method of- Section 166(e), as stated on its face, is taken instead of the method provided in subsection (a) and it allows the electing taxpayer to take a bad debt deduction in a certain year notwithstanding the fact that in that year the taxpayer incurred no bad debts. Consequently, the reserve method of deducting for bad debts is, by its very nature, founded upon fiction and not reality-

While Section 166(c) provides the general statutory authority for the deduction of additions to a bad debt reserve, Section 593 of the Internal Revenue Code prescribed both limitations on the amount of the deductions and also the rules of reserve [919]*919accounting which had to be adhered to by an electing building and loan in order to be entitled to a deduction for an addition to the reserve account. The Revenue Act of 1962 extensively revised Section 593 and provided for a more complex and strict method of making deductible additions to bad debt reserve accounts than was in use before 1963. The amended section which applies to the years in issue in this case specifically required the electing taxpayer to establish and maintain three specific reserve accounts. There is attached hereto an appendix which contains copies of the statutes and regulations involved in this case as they existed at the relevant times — 1969 and 1970.

This is an income tax refund case involving calendar years 1969 and 1970 and generally two questions.

1) Whether plaintiff’s failure to maintain on its permanent books and records the accounts required by Section 593(c) precluded the use of that section in determining its bad debt deductions; and
2) Whether the plaintiff failed to qualify as a “domestic building and loan association,” within the meaning of Sections 593 and 7701(a)(19) during its 1970 taxable year.

Findings of Fact

The plaintiff is an Ohio corporation for profit which did business in Ohio during 1969 and 1970 under the provisions of Ohio law applicable to building and loan associations. For those years plaintiff computed an addition to its reserve for bad debts pursuant to the percentage of income method set forth in Section 593. These computations resulted in plaintiff’s claiming deductions in the amounts of $4,731.74 and $58,-899.92 for additions to its bad debt reserve for the years 1969 and 1970 respectively. At no time during those years, however, did plaintiff establish and maintain the three separate reserves required by Section 593(c). The amounts claimed as deductions were not added to any reserve.

During 1969 only $2,000.00 was credited to a bad debt reserve and the full amount claimed as a deduction for that year was not in fact credited on the plaintiff’s permanent records until 1972.

Similarly, at no time during 1970 did plaintiff add the claimed deduction for that year to a reserve for bad debts. By the time the tax return for that year was filed, amounts totaling approximately $15,000.00 were so credited.

The amounts deducted for the alleged additions to the reserve but not in fact credited remained in plaintiff’s undivided profits accounts or the retained earnings accounts and such amounts were available for the declaration of dividends.

In July, 1969 the plaintiff received a letter from the Arthur Young accounting firm, listing various reserves as of December 31, 1968 and indicating the level of the non-qualifying reserve, the qualifying reserve, and the supplemental reserve. The Arthur Young letter rendered advice on setting up the three reserves and the amounts involved. The advice was not actually followed and the reserves were not actually set up as suggested on the permanent books of the plaintiff. A schedule attached to the 1969 tax return reflected an addition to the qualifying reserve equivalent to the bad debt deduction. The plaintiff’s accountants prepared the 1969 tax return using permanent books and accounts and also the Arthur Young letter. That letter was not maintained as part of the permanent books and accounts. In fact, it was not made available to the government examiner when he requested the pertinent records at the time the income tax examination was made. The accountant’s computations were recorded on a series of reconciliation sheets or work papers which were used to prepare the 1969 return, and the reconciliation sheets reflected each of the reserve accounts set forth in the Arthur Young letter and reflected the addition of that year’s bad debt deductions to the qualifying reserve. The reconciliation sheets were made available to the Internal Revenue Agent in the conduct of his examination in 1972; however, these reconciliation sheets had never been surrendered by the [920]*920accountant to the plaintiff and were not a part of the permanent records of the plaintiff. If the Arthur Young letter had been a part of the permanent records of the plaintiff and had been shown to the agent, he would not have raised the issue described as the first issue in this case with respect to either 1969 or 1970.

Similarly with respect to the 1970 tax return, an addition of $58,899.92 to the qualifying reserve was indicated on the return and that was the amount of the deductions taken. Copies of the 1969 and 1970 tax returns were maintained with the general ledger by the plaintiff; however, the balance in “qualified reserve” set forth on plaintiffs tax returns for the respective tax years could not be reconciled with the reserve account or any other control account in the plaintiffs general ledger, at least not without reference to other documents not a part of the plaintiffs books and records.

Neither the Arthur Young & Company letter, nor the work papers of the accountant prepared in connection with the income tax returns was kept and maintained as a permanent record of the bad debt reserves by the plaintiff.

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Related

Home Sav. & Loan Asso. v. Commissioner
80 T.C. No. 28 (U.S. Tax Court, 1983)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
439 F. Supp. 917, 40 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5751, 1977 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14447, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/permanent-savings-loan-assn-v-united-states-ohsd-1977.