Spalding v. Commissioner

66 T.C. 1017, 1976 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 50
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedSeptember 9, 1976
DocketDocket No. 8064-73
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 66 T.C. 1017 (Spalding 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
Spalding v. Commissioner, 66 T.C. 1017, 1976 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 50 (tax 1976).

Opinion

Hall, Judge:

Respondent determined a deficiency of $691.78 in petitioners’ 1971 Federal income tax.

The sole issue is whether a fence erected by petitioners in 1971 to enclose a portion of their auto wrecking business qualifies as “section 381 property” for purposes of the investment credit.

FINDINGS OF FACT

Spme of the facts have been stipulated and are so found.

Petitioners resided in Spokane, Wash., at the time they filed their petition.

Petitioners have been owners and operators of Spalding Auto & Truck Wrecking, a vehicle wrecking yard, for more than 40 years. They handle primarily automobiles and trucks, and, on occasion, airplanes and earthmoving equipment. Originally petitioners were located nearer the center of Spokane. In 1939 they moved to their present location in order to obtain more space and to lessen their losses from theft.

Petitioners’ current location occupies an open, flat tractv of land, approximately 20 acres in size. Except for fencing erected by the State of Washington to isolate a freeway from petitioners’ property, the 20-acre tract is enclosed by a barbed wire fence. Approximately 5 acres are used as a dismantling area. The remaining 15 acres are used for storing the bodies of autos and trucks after they have been stripped of their salvageable parts.

Inside the dismantling area are several warehouses. After petitioners have purchased a vehicle, employees of the petitioners bring it inside one of the warehouses, use a hoist to lift it, and then disassemble the vehicle, including motor, carburetor, and transmission. The employees inspect the various parts to see if they are still serviceable; they then clean, identify, and store the useable parts for resale. Petitioners have no separate sales outlet. They use a portion of the yard as their sales area.

On occasion petitioners store vehicles in the dismantling area. For example, insurance companies have vehicles involved in accidents towed from the scene of the accident to petitioners’ yard. If the insurance company decides the vehicle is worth repairing, then petitioners return it to the insurer. Sometimes a party to an accident stores a car with petitioners for use in litigation.

Prior to 1971, petitioners had frequently suffered theft losses. The two largest losses were the theft of three motors on one night and the theft of over a thousand dollars’ worth of transmissions on another night. Petitioners experimented with a watchman but were dissatisfied with his performance.

In 1971 petitioners erected a fence around the dismantling area to attempt to curtail thievery. The fence was metal chain link, 8 feet high, surmounted by three strands of barbed wire, and extending 3 feet into the ground. It was depreciable property with a useful life of 8 or more years. At night petitioners let out trained, patrol dogs within the dismantling area to provide further protection. The patrol dogs proved to be cheaper and more efficient than a watchman.

Although petitioners still suffer some theft losses during the day, they have suffered no nighttime losses since the erection of the fence and the use of patrol dogs.

On their 1971 income tax return, petitioners claimed an investment credit in relation to the chain link fence. Respondent disallowed this sum in its entirety.

OPINION

In 1971 petitioners constructed an 8-foot chain link fence around that portion of their auto wrecking yard in which their employees dismantled autos and stored salvaged parts. The sole issue before us is whether this fence qualifies for the investment credit.

Petitioners contend that the fence qualifies because they are engaged in manufacturing or production and the fence is an integral part of this operation. Respondent denies both these assertions. We hold for petitioner on both points.

Section 38 entitles a taxpayer to claim a credit for investment in certain types of depreciable property defined in section 48.2 In addition to tangible personal property, section 48 defines “section 38 property” to mean:

(B) other tangible property (not including a building and its structural components) but only if such property—
(i) is used as an integral part of manufacturing, production, or extraction or of furnishing transportation, communications, electrical energy, gas, water, or sewage disposal services, * * *

The parties have stipulated that the fence is depreciable property with a useful life greater than the minimum required by section 48(a). Furthermore, petitioners do not argue that the fence is “tangible personal property” within the meaning of section 48(a)(1)(A). Nor does the respondent argue that the fence is a building or its structural component, excluded under section 48(a)(1)(B). Neither party has questioned the validity of any regulations. They are at odds only over the question of whether petitioners come within section 48(a)(l)(B)(i) quoted above.

This Court and other courts have employed a liberal'standard in construing the investment credit. E.g., Lykes Bros. Steamship Co. v. United States, 513 F.2d 1342, 1353 (Ct. Cl. 1975); Sydney Mandler, 65 T.C. 586, 591 (1975); United Telecommunications, Inc., 65 T.C. 278, 289 (1975); Schuyler Grain Co., 50 T.C. 265, 272 (1968), affd. 411 F.2d 649 (7th Cir. 1969).

To determine whether petitioners meet section 48(a)(l)(B)(i), we must answer two questions: (1) Are petitioners engaged in “manufacturing” or “production,” and (2) is the fence “an integral part” of such activity?

“Manufacturing” or “production” seems to have various meanings in different contexts in the Code. For example, under section 954 (defining foreign base company income), foreign base company sales income includes certain income of a controlled foreign corporation derived from the sale of personal property “manufactured, produced, grown, or extracted outside the country under the laws of which the controlled foreign corporation is created or organized.” Sec. 954(d)(1)(A). The regulations define “manufactured, produced, or constructed” as (1) substantially transforming the property, or (2) where the operations conducted by the company are substantial in nature and generally considered to constitute manufacturing, production, or construction, or (3) where conversion costs are 20 percent or more of the total cost of goods sold. Packaging, repackaging, labeling, or minor assembling operations do not constitute manufacturing, production, or construction. Sec. 1.954-3(a)(4), Income Tax Regs. If the section 954 test were applied, petitioners would apparently not meet it. See sec. 1.954-3(a)(4)(iii), example (2), Income Tax Regs.

On the other hand, under section 341 (collapsible corporations), a collapsible corporation is one “formed or availed of principally for the manufacture, construction, or production of property,” among other things.

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Spalding v. Commissioner
66 T.C. 1017 (U.S. Tax Court, 1976)

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Bluebook (online)
66 T.C. 1017, 1976 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 50, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/spalding-v-commissioner-tax-1976.