United States v. Barter Systems, Inc.

574 F. Supp. 1, 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17923
CourtDistrict Court, D. Nebraska
DecidedSeptember 16, 1981
DocketNo. Civ. 81-0-191
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 574 F. Supp. 1 (United States v. Barter Systems, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Nebraska primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Barter Systems, Inc., 574 F. Supp. 1, 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17923 (D. Neb. 1981).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

SCHATZ, District Judge.

This action is before the Court to enforce an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) summons pursuant to 26 U.S.C. §§ 7402(b) and 7604(a). The summons was served on the respondents, Barter Systems, Inc. (BSI) and Harry Hayter, president of BSI, on September 9, 1980. On April 8, 1981, an order was issued directing respondents to show cause why they should not be compelled to comply with the summons. A hearing was held on this matter on May 4, 1981, and based on the evidence presented and the briefs of counsel, the Court enters the following memorandum opinion.

The facts developed at the hearing are these. Respondent BSI is a barter exchange. A barter exchange acts as a clearing house or middle man for the purchase of goods and services by exchange members. When a member sells goods or provides services to another member, he is credited with barter units based on the retail dollar value of the product or service he provides. After he has earned barter units, a member may purchase goods and services from other members with barter units serving as the medium of exchange. In addition, members may make credit purchases within certain limits.

BSI coordinates and keeps records of the barter unit purchases. It assigns an authorization number to each transaction and it furnishes account statements on a monthly basis to its members. In return for the services it renders, BSI charges a fee of ten per cent of each purchase. This fee is payable in barter exchange units and is credited to BSI’s own account. BSI also [2]*2charges its members a one-time membership fee and annual dues, both paid in cash.

Respondent Harry Hayter was the president of BSI at the time the summons was served, but has since sold his entire interest in the company and is no longer involved with it in any capacity.

In September, 1979, the Director of the IRS Examination Division instructed District Officers to “initiate an Information Gathering Project to identify organized bartering exchanges * * * and to secure the identities of participants and details of their barter transactions.” Exhibit No. 5. Once the exchanges and their members were identified, the returns of both were to be examined to determine compliance with the tax laws. The directive further provided that if an exchange declined to furnish information concerning its members, a “John Doe” summons was to be issued as prescribed in 26 U.S.C. § 7609(f). Section 7609(f) sets forth special procedures to be followed when a summons does not identify the person whose liability is being investigated.1 The procedures outlined in the directive were formally incorporated into the IRS Manual on March 11, 1980.

Pursuant to the above directive, the Omaha, Nebraska, District of the IRS selected for examination several barter exchanges, including BSI, from the telephone directory. The examination of the tax returns of BSI was assigned initially to Revenue Agent Thomas Hosier, and subsequently to Revenue Agent Joseph Bilunas, one of the petitioners herein. In furtherance of his investigation of BSI, Mr. Bilunas issued the summons in question, specifying for production the following records for the periods from June 1, 1978, through December 31, 1979:

1. Books, papers, account cards or other records upon which the following information is recorded:
(A) All members’ names and account numbers;
(B) Exchange member transactions including the price and/or trade units assigned to goods or services rendered or received;
(C) All initiation or membership fees, and other income, including commissions on members’ transactions.
2. The disbursements journal and trade credit ledger.
3. All monthly account statements for each exchange member.

BSI indicates that it is willing to produce all of the summoned records with the exception of a list of members of the exchange.

The summons in question was issued pursuant to 26 U.S.C. § 7602. That provision permits the IRS to issue a summons “[f]or the purpose of ascertaining the correctness of any return, making the return where none has been made, determining the liability of any person for any internal revenue tax * * * or correcting any such liability.” As noted in United States v. LaSalle National Bank, 437 U.S. 298, 317-18 n. 19, 98 S.Ct. 2357, 2368 n. 19, 57 L.Ed.2d 221 (1978), the dispositive question in an action brought to enforce a Section 7602 summons is whether the summons was issued in good faith pursuit of the congressionally authorized purposes. In United States v. Powell, 379 U.S. 48, 57-58, 85 S.Ct. 248, 254-255, 13 L.Ed.2d 112 (1964), the Supreme Court announced sev[3]*3eral elements of a good faith exercise of the summons authority under Section 7602:

[The Service] must show that the investigation will be conducted pursuant to a legitimate purpose, that the inquiry may be relevant to the purpose, that the information sought is not already within the Commissioner’s possession, and that the administrative steps required by the Code have been followed____ [A] court may not permit its process to be abused. Such an abuse would take place if the summons had been issued for an improper purpose, such as to harass the taxpayer or to put pressure on him to settle a collateral dispute, or for any other purpose reflecting on the good faith of the particular investigation.

Petitioners, through the declaration of Mr. Bilunas, have made a prima facie showing that the four Powell requirements have been met. Specifically, petitioners declare that the summons was issued for the purpose of determining the correctness of the income tax returns filed by BSI, that the records sought by the summons were necessary to properly investigate the returns, that the records were not already in the possession of the IRS, and that all administrative steps necessary for the issuance of a summons have been followed. As already mentioned, respondents have agreed to comply with the summons in all respects with the exception of producing a list of the members of the exchange. With regard to the names of the members, respondents seek to show that a membership list is not relevant to the examination of BSI’s returns, that the IRS has not followed the administrative steps required by the Code, and that the summons was not issued for a legitimate purpose. Respondents do not dispute that the records requested were not already in the possession of the IRS.

Concerning the relevancy of the identity of the members of the exchange, the Court has no difficulty in concluding that the names of the members are relevant to an investigation of the tax liability of the exchange itself. According to the testimony of Mr.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
574 F. Supp. 1, 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17923, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-barter-systems-inc-ned-1981.