Spaulding Bakeries, Inc. v. Commissioner

27 T.C. 684, 1957 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 282
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedJanuary 18, 1957
DocketDocket No. 55543
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 27 T.C. 684 (Spaulding Bakeries, 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
Spaulding Bakeries, Inc. v. Commissioner, 27 T.C. 684, 1957 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 282 (tax 1957).

Opinions

OPINION.

Mulroney, Judge:

Respondent determined deficiencies in income tax of the petitioner for the calendar years 1949 and 1950 in the amounts of $59,920.06 and $65,888.33, respectively.

All of the facts were stipulated. The only question in the case is whether petitioner was entitled to a claimed worthless stock deduction for the year 1950 in the amount of $320,919.07 with respect to the common capital stock in Hazleton Bakeries, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary. The year 1949 is involved insofar as petitioner claimed a net operating loss carryback of $152,582.80 resulted from the alleged loss of $320,919.07 in 1950.

Petitioner is a New York corporation with its principal office in Binghamton, New York. It filed its income tax returns for the years here involved with the then collector of internal revenue for the twenty-first district of New York at Syracuse, New York.

Hazleton Bakeries, Inc., was incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware in 1927. The certificate of incorporation provided, in part, as follows:

IV. The corporation is authorized to issue Ten Thousand (10,000) Shares of capital stock of the following classifications, to-wit:
(a) Three Thousand (3,000) Shares of common stock of no nominal or par value; and
(b) Seven Thousand (7,000) Shares of preferred stock of the par value of One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) each, amounting in the aggregate to Seven Hundred Thousand Dollars ($700,000.00).
The preferred stock may be issued as and when the Board of Directors shall determine and shall entitle the holder thereof to receive out of the net earnings, and the corporation shall be bound to pay, quarter-annual dividends, cumulative from May 1st, 1927, at the rate of 8% per annum, and payable before any dividend shall be set apart or declared on the common stock.
*******
Unless authorized by the votes given in person or by proxy, by the holders of at least a majority of the preferred capital stock of the company, issued and outstanding and represented and voted in person, or by proxy, at a meeting specially called for that purpose, the Board of Directors shall not mortgage or pledge any property of the Company or any shares of the capital stock of any corporation owned by it; but this prohibition shall not be construed to apply to the execution of any purchase-money mortgage, or any other purchase-money lien.
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On dissolution or liquidation of the corporation the holders of the preferred stock shall be entitled to receive the full par value of their said stock and all unpaid dividends accrued thereon before any payment whatever is made upon the common stock of the corporation.
The voting power of the corporation shall be vested in the common stock exclusively except only insofar as the vote of preferred stock may be herein specifically required in the event of mortgage or pledge of the assets, property and franchises of this corporation.

The 7,000 preferred shares were issued to G. Stewart Engle, Hazel-ton Cake Company, and Hazelton Bakery Company in exchange for securities of other companies acquired at the time of Hazelton Bakeries, Inc.’s incorporation and were stated on the books of Hazelton Bakeries, Inc., at their aggregate par value of $700,000. The 3,000 common shares were all originally issued for cash to C. J. Layfield and were carried on the books of Hazelton Bakeries, Inc., at a stated value of $100,000, being the amount received therefor.

On April 15, 1930, petitioner purchased 1,650 common shares of Hazelton Bakeries, Inc., and acquired the balance of the outstanding common shares of that company by subsequent purchases of 1,053 shares in January 1931 and of 297 shares in January 1933. The aggregate cost to petitioner of the 3,000 common shares was $335,592.69. The stipulation is that the cost basis to petitioner of these 3,000 common shares, adjusted for losses of Hazelton Bakeries, Inc., availed of in consolidated returns, was $320,919.07.

In transactions during the years 1933 through 1946 petitioner acquired 5,977 shares of the preferred stock of Hazelton Bakeries, Inc., constituting all the then outstanding shares of this class, at an aggregate cost of $293,651.82. The par value of such shares was $597,700. The stipulation is that the cost basis to petitioner of these 5,977 preferred shares, adjusted for losses of Hazelton Bakeries, Inc., availed of in consolidated returns, was $280,812.01.

On December 1,1950, Hazelton Bakeries, Inc., was dissolved under the laws of the State of Delaware, under a plan of dissolution and liquidation adopted September 18,1950.

On dissolution all the assets (taken at book value) of Hazelton Bakeries, Inc., were transferred to petitioner as follows:

Current assets _ $83, 726. 98
Fixed assets (net) - 232, 874. 50
Other assets_ 11, 865.36
$328,466. 84
Less liabilities_ 60,789. 53
$267, 677.31

The fair market value of the assets so received was not greater than the said book value.

Thirteen of the 15 certificates representing the 5,977 shares of preferred stock of Hazelton Bakeries, Inc., bear the notation written across their face in ink “Cancelled — December 1, 1950 — Corporation Dissolved — W. W. Schmitt.” Two of the certificates place the date just before the name W. W. Schmitt and one of these two omits the word “Cancelled.” These notations were made subsequent to December 1,1950.

Each of the common stock certificates bears the notation written across its face in ink “Corporation Dissolved — December 1, 1950— W. W. Schmitt.” These notations were made subsequent to December 1,1950.

Petitioner took a deduction from gross income for the calendar year 1950 of $320,919.07 due to the worthlessness of its common stock in Hazelton Bakeries, Inc. Kespondent disallowed the deduction on the ground that under the facts such loss is not to be recognized under the provisions of section 112 (b) (6). That statute provides, in part, that no gain or loss shall be recognized upon the receipt by a corporation of property distributed in complete liquidation of another corporation but only if—

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Spaulding Bakeries, Inc. v. Commissioner
27 T.C. 684 (U.S. Tax Court, 1957)

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Bluebook (online)
27 T.C. 684, 1957 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 282, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/spaulding-bakeries-inc-v-commissioner-tax-1957.