United States v. Westley

7 F. App'x 393
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedMarch 21, 2001
DocketNo. 98-6054
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 7 F. App'x 393 (United States v. Westley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Westley, 7 F. App'x 393 (6th Cir. 2001).

Opinions

BATCHELDER, Circuit Judge.

This case presents the question of the extent of transferee liability for a corporation’s unpaid federal income taxes when the shareholders received a distribution of corporate assets that liquidated the corporation. Such a question is usually straightforward, but this case has been unnecessarily complicated by the Government’s dilatory collection efforts to recover the unpaid corporate income tax liability of Supreme Mortgage and Realty Company, Inc. (“Supreme Inc.”) from its corporate shareholders.

I.

Mr. and Mrs. Westley, along with a Mr. Willis, were the sole shareholders in Supreme Inc.1 On May 9, 1983, the three shareholders approved a plan to liquidate Supreme Ine.’s assets and terminate the corporation. Supreme Inc. filed its Notice of Corporate Dissolution with the I.R.S. on June 2,1983. The Westleys claim that the sole purpose for this liquidation was to avoid a substantial amount of income tax that would have accrued from the sale of Supreme Inc.’s mortgage servicing contracts. See 26 U.S.C. § 337. This tax-saving effort was unrelated to the assessed tax deficiencies resulting from Supreme Inc.’s earlier tax returns.

In order to comply with section 337, the shareholders were required to liquidate Supreme Inc. within 12 months of the vote to authorize the liquidation. Therefore, on May 4, 1984, the assets were distributed to the shareholders in proportion to their stock holdings, and Supreme Inc. was liquidated. Mr. Westley received a distribution of $284,263.48; Mrs. Westley, $263,958.95; and Mr. Willis, $1,635,339. The three shareholders then directly invested their distributions to form Supreme Mortgage and Realty Company, a Tennessee partnership (“Supreme Partnership”). The Supreme Partnership continued to operate as the corporation had operated-out of the same location, doing essentially the same business, and with the same employees.

At the time that the shareholders were liquidating Supreme Inc., they were aware that the Government was auditing Supreme Inc.’s tax returns for the years 1979, 1980, and 1981. Supreme Partnership’s financial statements indicate that, while the partners were disputing the legitimacy of the proposed deficiencies, a contingency for the payment of $517,549 for Supreme Inc.’s back taxes was allocated. Specifically, Note 10 to the Supreme Partnership’s financial statement explains the tax situation as of December 31, 1984:

[396]*396The Federal income tax returns of Supreme Mortgage and Realty Company, Incorporated have been examined for the three fiscal years ended September 30, 1981 and the Internal Revenue Service has proposed additional assessment plus penalty of approximately $517,549 for which provision has been made. The Corporation has been liquidated on May 4, 1984 and the assets were distributed and the liabilities assigned to the “former stockholders” who are the general partners of Supreme Mortgage and Realty Company, Partnership. The “former stockholders” do not agree with the proposed adjustments and are protesting a major portion of the adjustment. The “former stockholders” (Supreme, Incorporated), on advice of legal counsel have filed a protest contesting the tax liability. At this time, it is impossible to predict the ultimate outcome of these matters. Any additional liabilities resulting from an unfavorable ruling by the Tax Courts or from settlement with the Internal Revenue Service would result in a charge to the partners’ capital accounts related to their initial capital injection into the partnership.

It is unclear exactly when the Government finalized its determination of deficiencies against Supreme Inc. and what steps Supreme Inc., through its former shareholders, took to protest the deficiencies. It is undisputed, however, that the deficiencies were not paid, and a petition for redetermination of the tax deficiencies was filed with the United States Tax Court. The Government moved to dismiss Supreme Inc.’s petition in the Tax Court on the ground that it was untimely. The Tax Court agreed and dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction on May 10, 1988. Thereafter, on September 7,1988, the Government entered a formal assessment against Supreme Inc. in excess of $880,000. However, the Government took no immediate steps to collect on the outstanding assessment.

Apparently, sometime prior to July 25, 1991, the Government proposed to collect from the Westleys the unpaid federal income taxes owed by the liquidated Supreme Inc. In response to this proposition, the Westleys’ lawyer sent a letter on July 25, 1991, to the IRS agent assigned to the case. That letter challenged the Government’s ability to collect Supreme Inc.’s corporate tax liability directly from the Westleys. Again, the record shows the Government did not respond to the attorney’s letter, and from 1991 to 1997, the Government apparently took no action to collect Supreme Inc.’s taxes from the Westleys. In 1997, the Government filed the suit that is the subject of this appeal, claiming that Supreme Inc.’s distribution of assets to its shareholders in 1984 was a fraudulent conveyance making the Westleys liable as transferees for the unpaid taxes.

There is one additional wrinkle. During the time that the Government was not actively pursuing the collection of Supreme Inc.’s taxes, the Westleys became insolvent. In 1994, they filed a bankruptcy petition under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code. The case was treated as a no-asset case, and the Westleys’ debts were discharged on May 2,1994.

II.

Initially, the Westleys moved the district court to dismiss the Government’s complaint on the grounds that (1) the statute of limitations under the Tennessee Uniform Fraudulent Conveyance Act had run out, and, alternatively, (2) that the district court did not have jurisdiction because the proper forum was the bankruptcy court. The district court denied their motion. In response, the Government moved the district court for an order that the discharge [397]*397in bankruptcy did not preclude prosecution of the complaint in the district court, and that motion was granted.

The parties then each filed a motion for summary judgment. The district court entered an order granting the Government’s motion and denying the Westleys’ motion. See United States v. Westley, No. 97-2030, 1998 WL 427375 (WD.Tenn. June 18, 1998). In that order, the district court held that the distribution of assets to the three shareholders of Supreme, Inc. (the Westleys and Mr. Willis) was a fraudulent conveyance of the assets of the corporation; the court ordered that the conveyance of the assets to the Westleys be set aside. The district court entered a final judgment on June 24, 1998, dismissing the case.

Apparently unaware of the final judgment entered on June 24, 1998, the Government moved the district court for an entry of final judgment seeking an order for the recovery of specific dollar amounts from the Westleys. The district court denied this motion as moot on July 22, 1998, and that same day, the Government moved for reconsideration because the district court had not addressed its request for a specific money judgment. On July 23, 1998, the Westleys filed their notice of appeal from the final order of June 24, 1998, dismissing the case. Later that day, the district court granted the Government’s motion for reconsideration and entered an amended judgment against Mr. Westley for $412,904.52 and against Mrs.

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