Rose v. Commissioner

55 T.C. 28, 1970 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 54
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedOctober 8, 1970
DocketDocket No. 2380-69
StatusPublished
Cited by94 cases

This text of 55 T.C. 28 (Rose 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
Rose v. Commissioner, 55 T.C. 28, 1970 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 54 (tax 1970).

Opinion

Forrester, Judge-.

Respondent bas determined deficiencies in income tax for tbe calendar years 1965 and 1966 in tbe respective amounts of $1,121.38 and $826.13.

The issues involved are (1) whether tbe application of section 483 of tbe Internal Revenue Code of 19541 to an installment sale consummated before the enactment of that section violates the due process clause of tbe fifth amendment of tbe Constitution, and (2) whether, with respect to that installment sale, respondent is estopped from applying section 483 to installment payments received in 1965 and 1966 where respondent bad audited and approved petitioners’ income tax return for 1964 but had failed to timely assess any tax with respect to similar payments received by petitioners in 1964.

OPINION

All of the facts have been stipulated and are so found. The stipulation and the exhibits appended thereto are incorporated herein by reference.

David O. Rose and Marjorie P. Rose are husband and wife. For the taxable years 1965 and 1966 they filed joint Federal income tax returns with the district director of internal revenue at Richmond, Va. During 1965 and 1966 and at the time of the filing of the petition herein, they resided in Richmond, Va.

Before and during 1965 and 1966 David O. Rose (hereinafter referred to as petitioner) was engaged in the business of buying, selling, and managing investment properties. His investments were principally in motel, hotel, and apartment realty in and around Richmond, but some of his holdings were also in unimproved real estate.

On May 1,1961, petitioner acquired a property known as the Royal Motel. On January 1,1964, when that property had an adjusted basis for land, buildings, furniture, and fixtures of $95,888.61, petitioner sold it to Doris Pugh for a total price of $303,300. As the parties had had extensive negotiations in the months preceding, the sale was consummated on the basis of an oral agreement. No downpayment was made at the time of sale and petitioner’s selling expenses totaled $324.

The sales transaction involved the exchange of a deed to the property in return for a note secured by a first deed of trust on the property. The note, which was negotiable, provided for 180 consecutive monthly installment payments of $1,685 commencing on February 1,1964, but it contained no provisions for interest.

Petitioner elected to report the gain from the sale on the installment basis under section 453. For the taxable year 1964, petitioner reported $10,854.36 of the gain realized as ordinary income in accordance with the recapture provisions of section 1245. For each of the taxable years 1965 and 1966, he received $20,220 as payments on the note, none of which was returned as interest.

The statutory notice of deficiency was mailed on March 7,1969. As the statute of limitations on assessment for the taxable year 1964 had expired, only the taxable years 1965 and 1966 are in issue.

The principal question presented is whether, under section 483, a certain part of each installment payment must be reported as imputed interest income (i.e., ordinary income ineligible for capital gain treatment).

On February 26, 1964, section 4832 was added to the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 by section 224 of the Revenue Act of 1964. Pub. L. 88-272, 78 Stat. 19, 77-79. Section 224(d) of the Revenue Act of 1964 provided that section 483 would apply—

to payments made after December 31,1963, on account of sales or exchanges of property occurring after June 30, 1963, other than any sale or exchange made pursuant to a binding written contract (including an irrevocable written option) entered into before July 1,1963. * * *

Although petitioner was negotiating the sale of the motel during 1963, the sale was not consummated until January 1, 1964, and there is no evidence of any relevant binding written contract or option entered into before July 1, 1963. Cf. Consolidated Utilities Co. v. Commissioner, 84 F.2d 548 (C.A. 5, 1936). Therefore, any installment payments received under the contract of sale would fall within the purview of section 483.

However, petitioner argues that the application of section 483 to installment payments received in 1965 and 1966 under an installment sale consummated prior to the official enactment of section 483 is unconstitutional because it violates the due process clause of the fifth amendment. He relies upon Untermyer v. Anderson, 276 U.S. 440 (1928), which held that the retrospective application of a gift tax statute to a bona fide gift made less than 2 weeks before the enactment of the statute was “arbitrary and invalid under the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment.” 276 U.S. at 445. See also Nichols v. Coolidge, 274 U.S. 531 (1927).

The force of the Untermyer decision has been vitiated by a later estate tax case involving the retroactive application of a provision involving gifts in contemplation of death. There the Supreme Court stated:

But a tax is not necessarily and certainly arbitrary and therefore invalid because retroactively applied, and taxing acts having retroactive features have been upheld in view of the particular circumstances disclosed and considered by the Court.

Milliken v. United States, 283 U.S. 15, 21 (1931). The Court carefully distinguished Untermyer and Nichols v. Coolidge, sufra, and held that the retroactive levy of the disputed tax on a gift made in contemplation of death was constitutional. See also Sidney v. Commissioner, 273 F.2d 929, 932 (1960), affirming 30 T.C. 1155 (1958):

Taxpayers’ due process argument is founded upon Untermyer v. Anderson, * * * The Supreme Court has distinguished the case on six occasions 2 and has expressly followed it only once.3 If Untermyer remains authority at all, it is so only for the particular situation of a wholly new type of tax there under consideration. Mr. Justice Brandéis thought the Untermyer decision itself defied authority since “for more than half a century, it has been settled that a law of Congress imposing a tax may be retroactive in its operation,” * * * [Footnotes omitted.]

In any event neither Untermyer nor Coolidge is applicable because neither involved income tax statutes. Albert K. Miller, 40 B.T.A. 515, 516 (1939), affd. 115 F.2d 479 (C.A. 9, 1940), certiorari denied 312 U.S. 703 (1941). It is a well-established constitutional rule that Congress may provide for the retroactive operation of income tax legislation which it enacts. E.g., Lynch v. Hornby, 247 U.S. 339, 343 (1918); Brushaber v. Union Pac R.R., 240 U.S. 1, 20 (1916); Sidney v. Commissioner, supra; Southeast Equipment Corporation, 33 T.C. 702, 705 (1960), affd. 289 F.2d 493 (C.A. 6,1961); Niagara Searchlight Co., 20 T.C. 745, 746 (1953); Chester A. Souther, 39 B.T.A.

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Bluebook (online)
55 T.C. 28, 1970 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 54, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rose-v-commissioner-tax-1970.