Van Heusden v. Commissioner

44 T.C. 491, 1965 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 65
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedJune 28, 1965
DocketDocket Nos. 2358-63, 2357-63
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 44 T.C. 491 (Van Heusden 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
Van Heusden v. Commissioner, 44 T.C. 491, 1965 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 65 (tax 1965).

Opinion

Train, Judge:

Respondent has asserted that petitioners are liable as transferees of West Cocoa Acres, Inc., for a deficiency in the latter’s 1958 income taxes in the amount of $65,668.01. Since petitioners have conceded that they are liable as transferees for any deficiency, the issue for our decision is whether there is any underlying deficiency. This depends upon whether or not West Cocoa Acres, Inc., was a collapsible corporation within the definition of section 341 of the 1954 Code1 so as to render inapplicable the nonrecognition provisions of section 337.

FINDINGS OP PACT

Some of the facts have been stipulated and are incorporated herein by this reference.

Guy A. Van Heusden (sometimes hereinafter referred to as petitioner) is a resident of Melbourne, Fla. E. J. Van Heusden, petitioner’s father, died a resident of Altadena, Calif., on February 17, 1961. Title Insurance & Trust Co. of California is the duly appointed executor of his estate. Petitioner and his father will sometimes hereinafter be referred to as petitioners.

On October 11,1957, West Cocoa Acres, Inc. (sometimes hereinafter referred to as the corporation), was organized in Brevard County, Fla.; its certificate of incorporation was filed with the secretary of state of Florida on October 17,1957. Petitioners were the sole owners of the stock of the corporation.

On March 12, 1959, the corporation filed with the district director of internal revenue at Jacksonville, Fla., its Federal income tax return for 1958 showing no taxable income. Schedule D of the return disclosed the acquisition by the corporation of 760 acres of land on October 11, 1957, at a cost of $231,773.09, sale thereof on May 16, 1958, for $418,000, and sales expenses with respect thereto of $56,-208.43. A long-term capital gain of $130,018.48 was claimed to be nontaxable, the claim being accompanied by the following explanation:

Corporation has been liquidated pursuant to Section 337 of the 1954 Internal Revenue Code. All assets, inclusive of proceeds of sale, have been distributed to shareholders in exchange for their stock. Transaction is reflected for informational purposes only since gain is chargeable to stockholders and not to the corporation.

Petitioner, an engineer employed by North American Aviation Co. (hereinafter sometimes referred to as Aviation), first took up residence in Brevard County, Fla., in 1952 when he was transferred by Aviation from its California office to its office at Patrick Air Force Base in Brevard County, Fla. The transfer was in connection with the establishment at Cape Canaveral (now known as Cape Kennedy) of testing facilities to flight-test the missiles which Aviation was building for the Government under the Navajo program.

Hue to the rapid advance in missile technology, the Navajo program became obsolete and the Government canceled it in July 1957. Aviation began reducing its Florida staff and finally recalled the remaining employees to California. Petitioner left the employ of Aviation at the end of August 1957 but chose to stay in Brevard County, Fla., to participate in the area’s economic growth attributable in large part to space activities at Cape Canaveral.

For several years before he left Aviation, petitioner had entered into several real estate transactions, as shown in the following table:

Property involved Date acquired Cost oí entire property Date sold Sale price of entire property Petitioner’s share of profit (loss)
Vacant lot... May 1955_ $1,000.00 June 1956 $1,000.00 ($171.62)
H Interest In 540 acres... July 1, 1955_ 176,160.05 Peb. 1,1956 422,280.00 64.428.68
410 acres_ Oot. 1956. 93,304.16 Dec. 1956 143,500.00 49.211.69
Vacant land_ Mar. 5, 1957. 31,075.75 Sept. 10,1957 45,000.00 9,261.60
fá interest in 180 acres 1 Oct. 12,1956. 66,100.00 May 17,1957 102,158.65 25,620.49
94 interest in 80 acresi1_. Nov. 12,1956._ 26,000.00 May 17,1957 45,403.85 14,764.66
Land deposit.... 1,000.00 Dec. 9,1957 None (1,000.00)

Petitioner’s biggest real estate venture during this 1955-58 period occurred soon after he left Aviation in 1957, when he contracted to purchase a 760-acre tract (sometimes hereinafter referred to as the El Pico tract) for $215,000. He then assigned the contract to the corporation. The corporation consummated the purchase of the land and then sold it in 1958 for $418,000. The instant case centers around this transaction, the details of which are more fully set forth in subsequent findings of fact.

At the time he left Aviation in August 1957, petitioner, together with his former supervisor and two former fellow employees, planned to develop a shopping center; but nothing came of it because of the complexity of the undertaking. Sometime later, at the end of 1957 or early in 1958, the four formed and operated the Continental Development Corp., which designed and built homes on single lots in established communities, and sold them to homebuyers. Prior to this venture, petitioner’s first income-producing activity after leaving Aviation was with Atlantic Construction Co. which he and another person organized, and owned equally. They engaged in the general contracting business — submitting bids for the erection of homes and, in some instances, for the erection of stores on land owned by others.

Petitioner first became interested in the 760-acre El Pico tract some months before he left Aviation when he read in the newspapers that a 20,700-acre tract owned by Hotchkiss and Kislak was being subdivided into smaller units. This 20,700-acre parcel was located almost in the center of Brevard County, and the El Pico tract was situated in the most desirable part of that parcel.

Petitioner conducted his negotiations with Hotchkiss and Kislak through John J. Kabboord (sometimes hereinafter referred to as Kabboord), a local real estate broker whom he knew for many years and with whom he had previous real estate transactions. The negotiations culminated in two contracts between petitioner and El Pico Investment Corp. (a Hotchkiss and Kislak company) for the purchase by petitioner of the El Pico tract, consisting of two contiguous parcels of 280 acres and 480 acres. The two contracts are sometimes hereinafter referred to as the El Pico contract.

The El Pico contract was signed September 8, 1957, a few days after petitioner left Aviation. It provided for a purchase price of $215,000, payable $30,000 in cash on signing of contract, and by delivery of a $185,000 promissory note, secured by a purchase money mortgage, which was to be paid in installments. Supplemental agreements with regard to the El Pico contract were executed on October 26,1957, but they did not change the substance of the transaction.

Although the custom and usage in Brevard County required the seller to pay a 10-percent brokerage commission, the El Pico contract provided that “The parties agree that Ocean Eealty, Inc.

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Thomas v. Commissioner
1981 T.C. Memo. 387 (U.S. Tax Court, 1981)
Ginsburg v. Commissioner
1974 T.C. Memo. 191 (U.S. Tax Court, 1974)
Leisure Time Enterprises, Inc. v. Commissioner
56 T.C. 1180 (U.S. Tax Court, 1971)
Van Heusden v. Commissioner
44 T.C. 491 (U.S. Tax Court, 1965)

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Bluebook (online)
44 T.C. 491, 1965 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 65, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/van-heusden-v-commissioner-tax-1965.