S.F.H., Inc. v. Commissioner

53 T.C. 28, 1969 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 45
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedOctober 8, 1969
DocketDocket No. 2352-67
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 53 T.C. 28 (S.F.H., 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
S.F.H., Inc. v. Commissioner, 53 T.C. 28, 1969 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 45 (tax 1969).

Opinions

Withey, Judge:

Respondent determined a deficiency in petitioner’s income tax for the taxable year ended June 30,1962, in the amount of $109,182.23.

After concessions by the parties on several issues, there remains for decision only the question of whether respondent properly disallowed petitioner’s net operating loss carryover from the prior taxable year purusant to section 382(a) 1 in computing petitioner’s net operating loss deduction for 1962.

FINDINGS OF FACT

All of the facts having been stipulated, they are so found.

S.F.H., Inc. (formerly Sam Fortas Housefurnishing Co., Inc.), hereinafter referred to as petitioner, filed its Federal corporate income tax return for the taxable year ended June 30, 1962, with the district director of internal revenue, Philadelphia, Pa.

Petitioner had for many years engaged in the business of selling furniture at retail in Memphis, Tenn. It filed its corporate tax returns on the basis of a taxable year ended June 30, and reported income from sales in accordance with the installment method of accounting.

For the taxable year ended June 30, 1961, petitioner incurred a net operating loss of $167,807.18, which arose from the operation of the retail furniture business. After carrybacks, there remained $159,830.76 for carryover to future years.

As of July 1, 1961, all of petitioner’s outstanding capital stock was owned by Son-Mark Industries, Inc. On August 11, 1961, Son-Mark Industries, Inc., sold, in an arm’s-length sale, all of petitioner’s capital stock to Chester Tricot Mills, Inc., whose name was later changed to Merion Securities, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as Merion).

On October 27, 1961, Merion acquired control of Mount Clemens Metal Products Co., a Michigan corporation (hereinafter referred to as Mount Clemens). On the same date, petitioner sold all of its assets, subject to all its liabilities, to Mount Clemens for cash, and then immediately purchased 85,000 shares of the stock of Mount Clemens from Merion.

After October 27, 1961, and on June 30, 1962, petitioner had no assets with which to carry on the retail furniture business, the only assets owned by the petitioner being 85,000 shares of Mount Clemens stock, cash of less than $1,000 and a claim for refund of Federal income tax in the amount of $6,480.59.

For the year ended June 30, 1963, and until its liquidation for the year ended June 30, 1964, petitioner had no gross income and only the following deductions:

Year ended June SO— ms mi
Professional fees. $100. 00 $75. 00
Insurance_ _ 20.70
Miscellaneous _ _. 41. 60_
Total deductions. 141. 60 95. 70

On its income tax return for the year ended June 30,1962, petitioner reported gross profit from sales of $349,508.67. This consisted of $131,448.11, gross profit from current year’s sales, and $218,060.56, gross profit from prior years’ sales realized in the current year, by way of either current year’s collections, or the disposition by petitioner on October 27, 1961, of all of its installment accounts receivable to Mount Clemens.

On its income tax return for the year ended June 30,1962, petitioner claimed a net operating loss deduction of $133,398.08, comprised entirely of a net operating loss carryover from the year ended June 30, 1961.

In his notice of deficiency, respondent disallowed this net operating loss deduction with the following explanation:

Within your taxable year ended June 30, 1962, all your capital stock was purchased by new owners, Chester Tricot Mill, Inc., and by the end of said taxable year ended June 30,1962, you had ceased to carry on the retail furniture business heretofore conducted by you. Accordingly, under the provisions of section 382(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, the net operating loss carryover from prior taxable years had been disallowed as a deduction in the year ended June 30,1962.

OPINION

The issue presented in this case is whether section 382(a)2 applies to disallow petitioner’s net operating loss carryover under the following circumstances: Petitioner had been actively engaged in the retail furniture business for a period of years. On August 11,1961, the stock of petitioner was sold in an arm’s-length sale to Merion. Thereafter, on October 27,1961, Merion acquired control of Mount Clemens, and had petitioner sell all its assets to Mount Clemens for cash, which cash petitioner used to immediately purchase 85,000 shares of Mount Clemens stock from Merion. Petitioner then ceased to actively operate the retail furniture business, and conducted no other trade or business until its dissolution 2 years later. However, for its taxable year ending June 30, 1962, petitioner reported approximately $350,000 in gross income arising from its operation of the retail furniture business for part of the taxable year, and from the deferred-income portion of installment accounts receivable which arose from furniture sales made in prior years, which accounts were either collected during the taxable year or transferred to Mount Clemens.3 Petitioner’s current expenses for 1962, while greater than its profits from current sales, were less than its total reported gross profit because of the recognition of the deferred-income portion of the installment accounts receivable, and it is this excess income against which petitioner seeks to offset its net operating loss carryover.

On the basis of these facts, respondent contends that all the requirements of section 382(a) are satisfied.4 Petitioner, while not disputing the existence of the requisite percentage change in stock ownership, or that a “purchase” of petitioner’s stock was made by the “persons” described in section 382 (a) (2), challenges respondent’s conclusion that it has not continued to carry on a trade or business substantially the same as that conducted before the change in ownership, as required in section 382(a)(1)(C).

Petitioner, while recognizing that the statute if taken on its face disallows the loss carryovers herein, argues that the legislative history of section 382(a) (1) (C) indicates that Congress did not intend that section to apply under the circumstances presented in this case. We disagree.

Petitioner points to S. Rept. No. 1622, to accompany H.E. 8300 (Pub. L. No. 591), 83d Cong., 2d Sess. (1954),5 as establishing two main points: First, that the abuse Congress sought to correct by the enactment of 382(a) was the situation where a loss carryover is used to offset gains from a business unrelated to that which produced the loss; and second, that it was intended that section 382(a) (1) (C) apply only where a corporation “engages in a different type of business” after a change in its stock ownership. Thus, petitioner argues, where the loss carryovers are used to offset gains of the same business, and where after the change in ownership a different type of business was not conducted,6 section 382(a) (1) (C) should not apply.

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Bluebook (online)
53 T.C. 28, 1969 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 45, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sfh-inc-v-commissioner-tax-1969.