Sundstrand Corp. v. Commissioner

96 T.C. No. 12, 96 T.C. 226, 1991 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 12
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedFebruary 19, 1991
DocketDocket No. 26230-83
StatusPublished
Cited by130 cases

This text of 96 T.C. No. 12 (Sundstrand Corp. 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
Sundstrand Corp. v. Commissioner, 96 T.C. No. 12, 96 T.C. 226, 1991 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 12 (tax 1991).

Opinion

HAMBLEN, Judge:

Respondent determined deficiencies of $1,569,156 and $5,931,159 in petitioner’s1 Federal income tax for taxable years ending December 31, 1977, and December 31, 1978, respectively (hereinafter sometimes referred to as the years in issue).

STATEMENT OF ISSUES

The issues involved in this case are as follows:

1. Whether respondent’s allocations of gross income under section 4822 for the years in issue were arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable.

2. Whether royalties paid to petitioner by Sundstrand Pacific (Pte) Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as SunPac), petitioner’s wholly owned foreign subsidiary located in the Republic of Singapore, for the years in issue for certain intangible property rights SunPac acquired from petitioner were paid at an arm’s-length consideration under section 482.

3. Whether the prices paid by petitioner to SunPac for certain spare parts sold to petitioner by SunPac during the years in issue were paid at an arm’s-length consideration under section 482.

4. Whether petitioner is entitled to foreign tax credits under section 901 for the years in issue for Singapore income taxes imposed on royalties paid to petitioner by SunPac for those years.

5. Whether petitioner, a publicly held manufacturing corporation, is subject to the increased interest of section 6621(c);3 more specifically, whether there has been a “valuation overstatement” in each year as described in section 6621(c)(3)(A)(i).

FINDINGS OF FACT

Some of the facts have been stipulated and are found accordingly. The stipulation of facts, the supplemental stipulation of facts, and the attached exhibits are incorporated herein by this reference.

I. BACKGROUND

A. In General

Sundstrand Corp. is a Delaware corporation with its principal offices in Rockford, Illinois. During the taxable years in issue, petitioner was a public corporation whose stock was traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the Midwest Stock Exchange, and the Pacific Stock Exchange. During taxable years 1977 and 1978, petitioner and its consolidated subsidiaries maintained their books and filed their Federal income tax returns on the accrual method of accounting, using a calendar year.

Petitioner was incorporated in 1910 as an amalgamation of two Rockford-based machine tool companies. Petitioner’s two original product lines were machine tools and hydraulic equipment.

During 1977 and 1978, petitioner manufactured and sold products in three broad product areas: (1) Power transmission, (2) heat and fluid handling, and (3) advanced technology. The power transmission line includes transmissions and fuel pumps for nonaviation vehicular and industrial applications. The heat and fluid handling line includes refrigeration units, compressors, and pumps for various industrial applications. The advanced technology line includes aviation and nuclear power components and machine tools.4

Petitioner’s advanced technology group is responsible for the aviation division. Petitioner’s advanced technology group manufactures a number of aviation products, including, among other things, constant speed drives (hereinafter referred to as CSD’s), see infra, generators, and controls; electric motors to drive pumps, fans, compressors, and actuators; pumps; engine start systems; air turbine motors; primary and secondary flight controls consisting of power drive units, gearboxes, linear and rotary actuators, and asymmetric and torque-limiting brakes for commercial and military aircraft and the space shuttle; auxiliary power units; missile and space vehicle power systems to supply hydraulic, electrical, or pneumatic power; digital flight data recorders; cockpit voice recorders; digital avionic systems; ground proximity warning systems; stall warning systems; anti-ice systems; environmental control systems; movie and stereo music entertainment systems; and refrigeration systems for galleys and water coolers.

In 1977 and 1978, petitioner’s aviation division consisted of four product groups: (a) Electric power, (b) mechanical, (c) energy, and (d) nonproprietary products. The electric power division’s principal product line for those years was the CSD. This case involves intercompany transfers of aviation parts which are component elements of the CSD.

. Internal reports prepared by petitioner for 1977 and 1978 show the following financial information for the aviation division:

1977 1978 (rounded) (rounded)
Net sales
Aviation division $197,459,299 $202,697,381
Electric power 95,602,807 100,024,291
CSD’s 94,079,416
CSD’s-commercial 54,768,192
CSD’s-military 38,024,583
Gross profit
Aviation division 63,134,426 52,547,719
Electric power 46,749,110 37,467,642
CSD’s 46,104,306
CSD’s-commercial 18,443,813
CSD’s-military 15,967,530
Net earnings before taxes
Aviation division 7,276,206 (791,151)
Electric power5 31,469,801 19,234,513
CSD’s 32,090,582
CSD’ s-commercial 7,878,933
CSD’s-military 9,519,823

B. The CSD

During World War II, the General Electric Co. (hereinafter referred to as General Electric) was the system manager and did the system testing for the U.S. Air Force’s B-36 aircraft program: The B-36 program began production in 1946. Petitioner,- as a subcontractor of General Electric, was the hydraulics manufacturer for the B-36. The B-36 was a large bomber which needed a great deal of electric power. This power had to come from the shaft of the aircraft engine. Since the engine runs at different speeds, such as at takeoff and landing, to get a constant frequency out of the generator6 a device had to be interposed between the aircraft engine and generator to drive the generator at a constant speed regardless of the speed of the engine. Petitioner designed and developed the CSD for this purpose. General Electric designed the generator and its controls as well as the governor for the CSD.

Petitioner has manufactured the CSD since 1946. The first commercial applications of petitioner’s CSD’s were in the Douglas DC-8 and the Boeing 707 aircraft programs which began production in 1956. Petitioner does not hold any patents on the design of the CSD or CSD parts but does hold some patents on the manufacturing process for CSD parts.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
96 T.C. No. 12, 96 T.C. 226, 1991 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 12, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sundstrand-corp-v-commissioner-tax-1991.