R. W. Eldridge Co. v. Commissioner

19 T.C. 792, 1953 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 248
United States Tax Court·Decided January 28, 1953·No. Docket No. 10443·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

OPINION.

Turner, Judge:

The petitioner, a domestic corporation, was organized prior to January 1, 1940, and under section 712 of the Internal Revenue Code, was privileged to have its excess profits credit computed under whichever of sections 713 or 714 would result in the lesser tax. Admittedly, a computation of the petitioner’s excess profits credit under section 714, on the basis of invested capital, would result in the lesser tax, and it was on that basis that the said credit was computed by the petitioner in filing its returns, and on the same basis that the respondent made his determination. There is no suggestion or contention that, absent the applicability of section 722 of the Code, the excess profits credit should have been computed on the basis of base period net income.

It is the claim of the petitioner that it is entitled to the benefits of section 722 of the Internal Revenue Code,5 in that otherwise its excess profits tax for the years before us was excessive and discriminatory, by reason of the occurrence of events within the meaning of subsections (b) (1) and (2). To bring the case within subsection (b) (1), it is argued that the death of E. W. Eldridge was an event unusual and peculiar in the experience of the petitioner; that it occurred immediately prior to the base period and that, by reason thereof, petitioner’s base period normal output or operation was diminished. With respect to subsection (b) (2), it is claimed that the business of both the petitioner and the handkerchief industry was depressed in the base period by temporary circumstances and events unusual to them, the unusual temporary economic circumstances in the case of the petitioner being its credit difficulties following the death of E. W. Eldridge and in the case of the industry, Japanese competition.

Under the statute, a taxpayer is entitled to the benefit of section 722, provided it establishes that its tax, computed without the benefit of that section, “results in an excessive and discriminatory tax,” and by subsection (b), it is provided that the tax computed without the benefit of section 722 “shall be considered to be excessive and discriminatory,” if its actual average base period net income is an inadequate standard of normal earnings because of the happening of certain described events, including those set forth in subsections (b) (1) and (2). It must also prove or establish “what would be a fair and just amount representing normal earnings to be used as a constructive average base period net income for the purposes of an excess profits tax based upon a comparison of normal earnings,” and the taxpayer’s earnings during the particular excess profits tax period or periods. Inasmuch, however, as the comparison to be made of normal earnings for the base period with the earnings for the excess profits tax period is made through the use or application of the excess profits credit computed on the basis of the “constructive average base period net income,” it actually profits the taxpayer not at all to show events and circumstances, under section 722, whereby the tax computed without the benefit of section 722 “shall be considered to- be excessive and discriminatory,” unless it proves or establishes a “constructive average base period net income” sufficient to produce an excess profits credit greater than that already computed without the benefit of section 722.

Whether or not the events upon which the petitioner relies were such as to qualify it for relief under section 722 (b) (1) and (2), we find it unnecessary to decide, since, in our opinion, the petitioner has failed to establish “what would be a fair and just amount representing normal earnings to be used as [its] constructive average base period net income,” or that such “fair and just amount,” if established, would result in an excess profits credit any larger, if as large, than that already allowed under section 714, without the benefit of section 722.

For the purpose of showing the “amount representing normal earnings to be used as constructive average base period net income,” under section 722, the petitioner rests its case entirely on the proposition that a comparison of the 1927 to 1933 sales and profits experience of taxpayers covered under “Textiles, not elsewhere classified,” in the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s Statistics of Income, with the 1936 to 1939 experience of such taxpayers, will produce a factor which, when applied to its own sales and profits experience for 1927 to 1933, will reflect what would have been normal sales and profits for the base period, absent the events which it claims bring it within the scope of section 722 (b) (1) and (2).

A major difficulty with the proposition stated is that it is supported of record by very little, if anything, more than the statement of the proposition .itself. There is no indication or showing that the grouping under the heading “Textiles, not elsewhere classified” in the Statistics of Income of the Bureau of Internal Revenue was occasioned by any substantial resemblance of the various finished products or the markets or uses therefor. Rather, it appears that the grouping was a “catch-all” for the summing up of the income and facts relating thereto of the producers of a “hodge-podge” of items involving textiles, to greater or lesser degrees, in their composition and manufacture. And, in the main, the information appearing of record as to items in the classification is not by way of proof or evidence, but such as may be gathered by statements of counsel in colloquy between themselves and between them and the Court, and, in a few instances, from recitations of matter preliminary to questions asked a witness, which witness was the petitioner’s accountant, who, rather obviously, was not too well informed in the matter himself.

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R. W. Eldridge Co. v. Commissioner, 19 T.C. 792, 1953 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 248 (tax 1953).

19 T.C. 792 (R. W. Eldridge Co. v. Commissioner) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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R. W. Eldridge Co. v. Commissioner
19 T.C. 792 (U.S. Tax Court, 1953)