Royal Ins. Co. v. Commissioner

38 B.T.A. 955, 1938 BTA LEXIS 806
CourtUnited States Board of Tax Appeals
DecidedOctober 20, 1938
DocketDocket No. 83632.
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 38 B.T.A. 955 (Royal Ins. Co. v. Commissioner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Board of Tax Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Royal Ins. Co. v. Commissioner, 38 B.T.A. 955, 1938 BTA LEXIS 806 (bta 1938).

Opinion

OPINION.

Leech:

This proceeding seeks redetermination of a deficiency in income tax of $54,551.90 for the calendar year, 1931. The petitioner denies the existence of a deficiency and asserts an overassessment of taxes for that year in the amount of $11,150.79.

There are three issues of law presented. The facts are not in dispute. For convenience, the issues will be decided in order and the facts, pertaining to each, set out thereunder.

[956]*956 Issue No. 1.

The question in this issue is the deductibility of a loss of $630,-893.26, sustained by petitioner, in 1931, on the sale of certain investment securities. The petitioner is a British corporation, its home office is in England, and it is engaged in the business of writing various types of insurance throughout the world. It operates a branch office in the United States, through which it transacts here only a fire and marine insurance business. This branch office derives income from sources within the United States from premiums on insurance, usually termed underwriting income, from the proceeds of sales of securities, from interest on bank balances and from dividends on domestic securities.

During 1928 and 1929, this branch office transferred, on its books, to the home office, certain amounts consisting of earnings from the transaction of business in this country. The funds, represented by these book transactions, were not physically transferred to the home office but were deposited with J. P. Morgan & Co. in this country, subject to the control of one E. B. Kellam, general attorney for petitioner, who was in charge, for petitioner, of its United States branch. These funds, in the amount of $1,010,000, were used for the purchase of stock in the Allied Securities Corporation, am American company. The stock, thus purchased, was held in this country and the investment recorded on the books of the American branch as a home office item. Subsequently, the Allied Securities Corporation went into receivership and was liquidated. In 1931, the petitioner received a distribution, in full, of $319,106.74, and thus sustained a loss of $630,893.26, the amount of which is not disputed by respondent.

Petitioner contends that it is entitled to deduct the full amount of this loss from its income from sources within the United States, during the taxable year, in determining net income subject to tax by this country. Respondent argues that this loss is not directly connected with income from sources within or without the United States and, accordingly, is to be apportioned under article 680 of Regulations 74. He then urges that petitioner is entitled to deduct only such portion as is allocable to United States income upon the basis of the ratio of that income to the gross income of the company from all sources.

It is respondent’s position that, since the funds used in the purchase of these securities have been segregated from those used in the operation of the American branch and have been transferred by book entry to the home office of the company, the securities purchased with such funds constituted an investment by petitioner’s home office, not connected in any way with its business in this country and is, therefore, not “connected with income from sources within the United States” [957]*957in the sense in which that term is nsed in section 232 of the Revenue Act of 1928.1

Petitioner answers that the contested loss was definitely connected with income from sources within the United States because it was an investment in a United States corporation of funds derived from the operation of petitioner’s business in this country and that the investment was made with the purpose of deriving income from United States sources through anticipated dividends therefrom or profit upon resale of such stock. It points to the fact that it can not be denied that the investment was for profit and that any profit would be taxable since it arose from sources within the United States. Consequently, it is said, any loss sustained is connected with income from such sources.

Section 204 of the Revenue Act of 1928 defines gross income of an insurance company, other than life or mutual, as the amount earned during the taxable year from investment income, from underwriting income, and from the sale or other disposition of property. It provides for the computation of net income by the deduction of ordinary and necessary expenses, taxes, losses sustained during the taxable year in the sale or the disposition of property, dividends, as provided in section 23 (p), and interest exempt from taxation under section 22 (b) (4). By subsection (d) the deductions of foreign corporations of this character are allowed to the extent provided in Supplement I, section 232 of which is quoted in footnote.

If the loss sustained by this petitioner upon its investment in stock of the Allied Securities Corporation was connected with income from sources within the United States, it is, unquestionably, allowable as a deduction, in its full amount, from income from such source in determining net taxable income.

Obviously, this investment did not produce income outside the United States. A fortiori, the loss sustained was not connected with income from outside the United States. We think the loss must be considered as connected with income “from sources within the United States.”

The investment, from which the loss occurred, was made for the purpose of deriving income from United States sources. Any income resulting from this investment, whether in dividends or in profit from resale of the securities purchased, would constitute gross income from such source. Carding Gill Ltd., 38 B. T. A. 669.

[958]*958Respondent’s theory appears to be that this petitioner must be considered as a dual character, one personality consisting of the home office and the other, the American branch; that only the activities specifically allocated to the latter, constituted business carried on in the United States; that deductions for losses were intended by Congress to be allowed only when connected with the business carried on by the American branch; that any investment transferred on the books as a home office item, irrespective of the fact that it is an investment in American securities, profits from which are taxable as arising from sources within the United States, is not to be considered as an investment in connection with income from such sources, and that a loss sustained upon such investment, is a “home office loss”, not connected with the business of the petitioner corporation in this country.

We do not agree with this theory. Cf. London & Lancashire Insurance Co., Ltd. (3d point), 34 B. T. A. 295; Texas Land & Mortgage Co., Ltd., 30 B. T. A. 861. The so-called American office of petitioner is a part of its general business. It is merely the agency through which it transacts its business of writing fire and marine insurance in this country. Such business, together with the investments made in American securities by the petitioner, constitute the aggregate of its American transactions carried out here with the purpose of deriving income from sources within this country.

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Royal Ins. Co. v. Commissioner
38 B.T.A. 955 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1938)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
38 B.T.A. 955, 1938 BTA LEXIS 806, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/royal-ins-co-v-commissioner-bta-1938.