PPG Industries, Inc. v. Commissioner

1970 T.C. Memo. 354, 29 T.C.M. 1710, 1970 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 1
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedDecember 31, 1970
DocketDocket No. 5842-66.
StatusUnpublished

This text of 1970 T.C. Memo. 354 (PPG Industries, Inc. 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
PPG Industries, Inc. v. Commissioner, 1970 T.C. Memo. 354, 29 T.C.M. 1710, 1970 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 1 (tax 1970).

Opinion

PPG Industries, Inc. v. Commissioner.
PPG Industries, Inc. v. Commissioner
Docket No. 5842-66.
United States Tax Court
T.C. Memo 1970-354; 1970 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 1; 29 T.C.M. (CCH) 1710; T.C.M. (RIA) 70354;
December 31, 1970, Filed
Ira T. Wender, Peter L. Briger, Carl E. Glock, Jr., Charles R. Pascoe and Kenneth P. Simon, for the petitioner. Donald W. Howser and Gary L. Stansbery, for the respondent.

MULRONEY

Memorandum Findings of Fact and Opinion

MULRONEY, *3 Judge: This case involves income tax deficiencies determined by respondent for the years 1960 and 1961 in the respective amounts of $2,811,000.86 and $2,684,387.67 and additional deficiencies in income tax claimed by respondent by amendments to his answer in the amounts of $300,564 and $324,194 for the years 1960 and 1961, respectively. Concessions involving several issues have been made by both parties.

The remaining issues before this Court are (1) whether respondent correctly allocated income in 1960 and 1961 to petitioner from Pittsburgh Plate Glass International S.A. (petitioner's wholly-owned Swiss subsidiary) in 1960 and 1961 under section 482 of the 1954 Internal Revenue Code; (2) whether gains realized by petitioner in 1960 and 1961 from the transfer by petitioner to Pittsburgh Plate Glass International S.A. of patents and technology are taxable as capital gains or as ordinary income; (3) whether the transfer of certain stock by petitioner's Brazilian subsidiary to Pittsburgh Plate Glass International S.A. in 1961 resulted in a constructive dividend to petitioner in the amount of $455,959; (4) whether respondent correctly allocated income in the amount of $27,304 in 1960*4 to petitioner from its Brazilian subsidiary under section 482 of the 1954 Internal Revenue Code as a result of an interest-free loan made by petitioner to the subsidiary; and (5) whether the transfer of certain assets in 1960 by Distribuidora Quimica S.A. (an Argentine corporation which was a second-tier subsidiary of petitioner) to Pittsburgh Plate Glass Argentina, S.A. resulted in a constructive dividend to petitioner.

Findings of Fact

PPG Industries, Inc. (hereinafter called petitioner), a manufacturer of glass, fiber glass and paint products, was incorporated under the laws of Pennsylvania in 1883. Its principal office and place of business at the time the petition in this case was 1711 filed was Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Petitioner filed its Federal tax returns for the years here involved with the district director of internal revenue at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At all times here relevant petitioner kept its books and prepared its Federal income tax returns on a calendar year basis and on an accrual method of accounting.

Petitioner is successor in interest to Columbia-Southern Chemical Corporation (hereinafter called Columbia-Southern), a wholly-owned subsidiary that*5 was merged into petitioner on December 31, 1960.

Petitioner's operating divisions during the years here involved included a glass division, a chemical division, a paint and brush division, and a fiber glass division.

After World War II there was a great shortage of glass in the United States. In the years 1955 and 1956 petitioner bought more glass from foreign suppliers than it sold to foreign customers. In 1957 petitioner's productive facilities caught up with demand. Prior to 1957, petitioner's physical facilities and the domestic demand for glass limited the amount of glass products it could export.

Prior to 1958 petitioner had investments in approximately 37 foreign corporations. Among these the principal operating companies in which petitioner had a controlling interest were Duplate Canada, Limited, a Canadian corporation hereinafter called Duplate (glass), Canadian Pittsburgh Industries, Ltd., a Canadian corporation hereinafter called CPI (glass), Societe Anonyme des Glaces de Courcelles, a Belgian corporation hereinafter called Courcelles (glass) and Standard Chemical Limited, a Canadian corporation hereinafter called Standard Chemical. Petitioner's foreign investments*6 included a minority interest in Cristalerias de Chile, S.A., a Chilean corporation (glass), Cia Comercial de Vidros do Brasil, a Brazilian corporation hereinafter called CVB (glass), Cia Anonima Industrias Miller de Venezuela, a Venezuelan corporation hereinafter called Miller de Venezuela (glass), Cristalerias Rigolleau, S.A., an Argentine corporation (glass), Cia Vidraria Santa Marina, a Brazilian corporation hereinafter called Santa Marina (glass), Industrias Reunidas Vidrobras Limitada, a Brazilian corporation hereinafter called Vidrobras (paint), Pinturas Pittsburgh de Mexico, S.A., a Mexican corporation hereinafter called Pinturas Pittsburgh (paint) and Pinturas Tucan, S.A., a Venezuelan corporation hereinafter called Pinturas Tucan (paint).

Prior to 1958 petitioner had been relatively inactive in licensing foreign rights to its technology and in expanding manufacturing activities abroad.

For at least 30 years prior to 1958 petitioner had an export department to handle its export sales of glass, paint and fiber glass products outside the Western Hemisphere. The export department did not handle chemical sales.

Prior to 1959 petitioner operated a Western Hemisphere trade*7 corporation, Pittsburgh Plate Glass Export Corporation (hereinafter called PPGE) which was organized in 1955. For all practical purposes PPGE was integrated with the export department. Petitioner's export chemical sales in the Western Hemisphere were included among the products handled by PPGE. Columbia-Southern did not actively seek export markets for its chemical products. Generally, it accepted orders only when approached by foreign customers.

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1970 T.C. Memo. 354, 29 T.C.M. 1710, 1970 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 1, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ppg-industries-inc-v-commissioner-tax-1970.