Plowden v. Commissioner

48 T.C. 666, 1967 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 59
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedAugust 9, 1967
DocketDocket Nos. 5080-65, 5081-65
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 48 T.C. 666 (Plowden 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
Plowden v. Commissioner, 48 T.C. 666, 1967 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 59 (tax 1967).

Opinion

OPINION

Atkins, Judge:

The respondent determined income tax deficiencies of $597.38, $2,579.60, $5,975.52, and $280.94 against the petitioners Richard Lee Plowden and Dale T. Plowden for the taxable years 1960, 1961, 1962, and 1963, respectively, and deficiencies of $1,213.82, $3,394.59, and $7,079.85 against the petitioner Edward Lee Roberts for the taxable years 1960, 1961, and 1962, respectively. The issue is whether the petitioners are entitled to deduct on their individual returns for the taxable year 1963 their share of the entire net operating loss sustained by their wholly owned subchapter S corporation in its taxable year 1963, which would result in net operating loss carryback deductions for the years 1960 through 1962.

All of the facts have been stipulated and the stipulations are incorporated herein by this reference.

The petitioners Richard Lee Plowden and Dale T. Plowden, husband and wife, and the petitioner Edward Lee Roberts are residents of Columbia, S.C., and filed Federal income tax returns (the Plow-dens filed joint Federal income tax returns) for the taxable years involved with the district director of internal revenue, Columbia, S.C. Dale T. Plowden is a party herein solely by reason of having filed joint income tax returns with her husband, and Richard Lee Plowden and Edward Lee Roberts will hereinafter be referred to as the petitioners.

During the years involved herein the petitioner Plowden was president of Plowden & Roberts, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as the corporation), a corporation chartered in 1953 under the laws of the State of South Carolina, and the petitioner Roberts was secretary-treasurer of such corporation. The petitioners each paid in $1,000 when the corporation was formed, and each received 50 percent of the outstanding stock issued by it. On January 1, 1962, the corporation elected taxable status as a small business corporation under the provisions of subchapter S of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954. Prior to such election its earned surplus was $20,598.24.

In the small business corporation return (Form 1120-S) filed by the corporation for the taxable year 1962, it reported taxable income of $30,887.32 and reported the petitioners’ undistributed taxable income to be $30,852.64. The Form 1120-S filed by the corporation for the taxable year 1963 showed a net operating loss of $109,229.80. In their individual returns for the taxable year 1963 each of the petitioners claimed as a loss deduction one-half of the corporation’s reported net operating loss for that year. The petitioner Plowden reported a net operating loss of $36,909.21 on his return for the taxable year 1963, and the petitioner Roberts reported a net operating loss of $34,078.71 on his return for the taxable year 1963. In February 1964 each of the petitioners filed with the district director of internal revenue an Application for Tenative Carryback Adjustment (Form 1045), under section 6411 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, requesting the carryback of his net operating loss for 1963 to tibe taxable years 1960, 1961, and 1962. Pursuant to sucb application, tbe district director allowed sucb adjustments for the taxable years 1960, 1961, and 1962 and made refunds in tbe respective amounts of $597.38, $2,579.60, and $5,975.52 for the petitioner Plowden, and in tbe respective amounts of $1,213.82, $3,394.59, and $7,079.85 for the petitioner Roberts.

In the notices of deficiency the respondent determined that tbe petitioners Plowden and Roberts were entitled 'to deduct for tbe taxable year 1963 only $16,426.32 and $21,426.32, respectively, of the corporation’s net operating loss for that year. The respondent calculated tbe allowable losses by limiting tbe loss in each case to the cost of the petitioner’s stock in tbe corporation and tbe petitioner’s share of undistributed taxable income from tbe corporation for tbe taxable year 1962. To this sum the respondent added, in the case of the petitioner Roberts, tbe amount of $5,000 representing the amount owned by tbe corporation to Roberts as of tbe end of the corporation’s taxable year 1963. Tbe amount of tbe corporation’s net operating loss allowed each petitioner as a deduction for 1963 and the amounts disallowed in tbe notices of deficiency are as follows:

Edward Lee Roberts Richard Lee Plowden
Loss claimed per return- - $54,614.90 $54,614.90
Original cost of stock_ $1,000.00 $1,000.00
Share of undistributed taxable income (1962) 15,426.32 15,426.32
Share of liability owed shareholder_ 5,000.00 0
Total loss allowed___ 21,426.32 16,426.32
Loss disallowed_ _ 33,188.58 38,188.58

The disallowances shown above resulted in tbe determination that tbe petitioners did not sustain net operating losses for the taxable year 1963, that, accordingly, no net operating loss carrybacks were available to them as deductions for the taxable years 1960, 1961, and 1962, and that there are deficiencies against the petitioner Plowden for each of the taxable years 1960, 1961, 1962, and 1963 and against the petitioner Roberts for each of the taxable years 1960, 1961, and 1962.1

The petitioners complain that the respondent has not given them the full benefit of the corporation’s net operating loss for its taxable year 1963. For reasons set forth hereinafter, we think that the respondent’s determinations were correct.

Since the corporation, with the consent of its stockholders, the petitioners, elected under section 1372 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954,2 i\ot to be subject to the taxes imposed by chapter 1 of the Code, its stockholders are subject to the provisions of sections 1373 through 1376 of the Code.

Section 1373 of the Code provides that the undistributed taxable income of an electing small business corporation for any taxable year shall be included in the gross income of the shareholders in the manner and to the extent set forth therein.

Section 1374(b) of the Code provides that each person who is a shareholder of an electing small business corporation during a taxable year of the corporation in which it has a net operating loss shall be allowed as a deduction from gross income, for his taxable year in which or with which the taxable year of the corporation ends, an amount equal to his portion, as determined under subsection (c), of the corporation’s net operating loss. Subsection (c) contains the following limitation:

(2) Limitation. — A shareholder's portion of the net operating loss of an electing small business corporation for any taxable year shall not exceed the sum of—

(A) the adjusted basis (determined without regard to any adjustment under section 1376 for the taxable year) of the shareholder’s stock in the electing small business corporation, determined as of the close of the taxable year of the corporation * * * and

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Perry v. Commissioner
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Plowden v. Commissioner
48 T.C. 666 (U.S. Tax Court, 1967)

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Bluebook (online)
48 T.C. 666, 1967 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 59, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/plowden-v-commissioner-tax-1967.