Prosperity Co. v. Commissioner

17 T.C. 171, 1951 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 113
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedAugust 6, 1951
DocketDocket No. 17446
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 17 T.C. 171 (Prosperity 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
Prosperity Co. v. Commissioner, 17 T.C. 171, 1951 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 113 (tax 1951).

Opinion

OPINION.

TukneR, Judge:

Briefly stated, the issue is as to the amount to be included in equity invested capital, under section 718 (a) (2) of the Internal Bevenue Code,1 for the property paid in for stock in the 1926 recapitalization. It is there provided that property paid in for stock, as paid-in surplus, or as a contribution to capital, shall be included in equity invested capital “in an amount equal to its basis (unadjusted) for determining loss upon sale or exchange.” The parties are in accord to the effect that the unadjusted basis for the property paid in is to be determined under the provisions of section 113 (a) (7) of the Code,2 and is the cost of the property to the petitioner, unless the property was acquired by it “in connection with a reorganization, and immediately after the transfer an interest or control in such property of 50 per centum or more remained in the same persons or any of them,” in which case the basis for the property is the same as it was in the hands of the transferors. They are also in accord that the 1926 recapitalization was a reorganization within the meaning of the statute, wherein a reorganization is defined to mean “a recapitalization.”

In its return the petitioner, in reporting equity invested capital, included $2,800,000 “as representing the cash, old stock and land.” The patents, applications for patents, and rights therein were included in an item of $1,000,000 “as representing tlie intangibles and good will.” The respondent did not disturb the item of $2,800,000, but disallowed or eliminated the $1,000,000 item in its entirety. Abandoning the method by which it determined and reported equity invested capital in making its return, the petitioner now claims that the 40,000 shares of Class A stock and the 80,000 shares of Class B stock issued to the Brauns, National Chemical, Beeps, and Davis, or their nominees, were in their entirety issued for property paid in as of the date of issue; that the fair market value of those shares at the date of issue was $30 per share, or a total of $2,100,000; that such fair market value represented the cost of the property paid in for the stock so issued; that on the facts and under section 113 (a), such cost is the unadjusted basis of the property paid in, the amount of which is includible therefor in equity invested capital, under section 718 (a) (2) ; and that the $2,100,000, plus the $1,400,000 in cash paid in for stock by Ford, Bacon & Davis, Inc., and its associates, or $3,500,000, instead of the $3,800,000 claimed on its return, represents the amount includible in equity invested capital as capital and property paid in for stock. There is, of course, no question here as to the inclusion in equity invested capital of the $1,400,000 in cash paid in for stock by Ford, Bacon & Davis, Inc., and its associates.3

The short answer to the petitioner’s present claim is that the only property paid in in the 1926 recapitalization as capital or added capital which had any basis to it, under section 113 (a) (7), supra, or any other section of the Code, was the real estate and the patents, applications for patents .and rights comparable in character. While the old shares did constitute property in the hands of the Brauns and National Chemical, by whom they were paid in, so to speak, for new shares, the petitioner in so far as the old shares were concerned had no newly received or acquired property whatever in its assets after the exchange. The old shares ceased to exist and the only change was that after their surrender and the new shares were issued, the petitioner’s capital stock liability was represented by the 40,000 shares of Class A stock and the 30,000 shares of Class B stock, rather than the old shares of common and preferred stock. In short, after the exchange the petitioner in so far as the old shares were concerned had added to its assets zero property and there could not therefore be any amount to represent the unadjusted basis of zero property, as would have to have been the case if any additions were to be made to equity invested capital, under section 718 (a) (2), supra. See and comisare Crean Brothers, Inc., 15 T. C. 889.

Approaching the problem from another angle, it is evident that but for the land, patents, applications for patents and rights, the property of the petitioner having a basis for gain or loss was exactly the same after the recapitalization as it was before. Such being the case, there is no way, so far as we can see, and the petitioner has not undertaken to demonstrate a way, by which such a claim of some amount to represent a basis for the old stock paid in could rest upon anything other than the property and assets which it already had. That such a theory is without merit is at once apparent. The petitioner was not a new or different corporation, and we know of no provision of the Code nor any plausible theory, in the case of the recapitalization of a corporation, which would in any way require an adjustment or change in the basis to the petitioner of properties which it already owned at the time of such recapitalization. Most obvious, however, is the fact that the assets already owned were not paid in for the new shares issued in the recapitalization.

As to the real estate formerly belonging to S. J. Braun, we have no problem. So far as appears, that real estate was included in the equity invested capital item of $2,800,000 reported by the petitioner “as representing the cash, old stock and land,” and as to that item the respondent in his determination of deficiency made no change. Accordingly, our problem is narrowed to that of determining the amount equal to the petitioner’s unadjusted basis for determining loss upon sale or exchange of the patents, applications for patents and rights. As stated above, the parties are agreed that the unadjusted basis is to be determined under section 113 (a) (7), supra, and was their cost to petitioner, unless it be found that immediately after their transfer to the petitioner “an interest or control in such property of 50 per centum or more remained in the same persons or any of them,” in which case, their unadjusted basis was the same as it was in the hands of the transferors.

The facts being as they are, it is our conclusion that an interest or control in such property of 50 per centum did remain in the same persons or any of them. Except as to voting rights, the Class A shares and Class B shares were in all respects equal and the beneficial ownership of the corporation and its properties after the issue of the new stock was actually the same for a share of Class B stock as it was for a share of Class A stock. Lumping the two classes of stock together, the beneficial interest immediately after the transfer of the property and the payment of the $1,400,000 was 50 per centum in Ford, Bacon & Davis, Inc., and its associates, and 50 per centum in the Brauns, National Chemical Company, Beeps, and Davis. The petitioner would have us say, however, that as to the patent rights of Keeps and Davis the transactions in which they participated looking to the transfer thereof to the petitioner were separate and apart from the reorganization, to the end that though the said patents and patent rights were acquired by the petitioner “in connection with” the reorganization, it be held that the Brauns, and not Keeps and Davis, were the trans-ferors.

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Related

Prosperity Co. v. Commissioner
17 T.C. 171 (U.S. Tax Court, 1951)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
17 T.C. 171, 1951 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 113, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/prosperity-co-v-commissioner-tax-1951.