Vim Sec. Corp. v. Commissioner

43 B.T.A. 759, 1941 BTA LEXIS 1448
CourtUnited States Board of Tax Appeals
DecidedFebruary 28, 1941
DocketDocket No. 99693.
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 43 B.T.A. 759 (Vim Sec. Corp. v. Commissioner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Board of Tax Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Vim Sec. Corp. v. Commissioner, 43 B.T.A. 759, 1941 BTA LEXIS 1448 (bta 1941).

Opinion

OPINION.

Disney :

This proceeding involves the income and excess profits tax liability of the petitioner, the Yim Securities Corporation, for the calendar year 1936. The petitioner requests the redetermination of proposed deficiencies asserted by the Commissioner of $9,405.42 in income tax and $3,820.10 in excess profits tax. The proposed deficiencies are due to the Commissioner’s determination that the profit realized by the petitioner upon the condemnation by the city of New York of certain property, alleged to have been theretofore owned by petitioner, is not exempt from taxation under the provisions of section 112 (f) of the Revenue Act of 1936.

The errors assigned are as follows: “(a) Inclusion in the year 1936 [the year in controversy] of an alleged profit of $36,350.00 [the amount is not in dispute] as a taxable gain from condemnation of realty and the fixtures of its tenant, Yim Electric Co., Inc.; the Commissioner alleging that the proceeds of condemnation were .not forthwith invested in similar realty, (b) The taxing of the alleged gain in 1936; if taxable at all it appears to be gain in 1935.”

By motion to amend to conform to proof and in brief and argument petitioner makes issues of the following:

(1) That tbe tax was barred by the statute of limitations.
(2) That the amount of the gain relied upon by the Commissioner in computation of the tax was subject to diminution by the value of the personalty owned by one other than the petitioner.
(3) That the petitioner was not “doing business” within the purview of the Revenue Act, and was not amenable to the capital stock tax. Hence not subject to an excess profits tax.

[760]*760The motion to amend to conform to proof is granted. The matters raised by the motion are in a sense largely preliminary, and will therefore be first considered.

(1) With respect to the first question, as to bar of the three-year statute of limitations, the record shows and we find as facts: That the Commissioner’s deficiency notice is dated May 11,1939, and is for taxes for the year ended December 31, 1936, in the aggregate amount of $13,225.52; that the petitioner keeps its books and makes its tax returns on the accrual basis; that title to the property involved herein was taken by the city of New York June 28, 1935; that the matter proceeded in court during 1935 and the early part of 1936, the tentative decree as to awards being signed April 21, 1936, and filed April 22, 1936, and objections being heard on May 20, 1936; that the final decree, awarding damages or compensation to petitioner for the property taken, was rendered July 14, 1936, and that the petitioner, on October 9,1936, received the amount of the award from the city of New York, which resulted in the alleged gain to petitioner of $36,350.

The petition merely alleges that “if the gain is taxable, it is for property taken in 1935, not in 1936, hence taxable in 1935”, and “now outlawed.” Whether there is any proper plea of the statute of limitations in the petition is questionable. However, be that as it may, on the facts found and above stated, there is no merit in the petitioner’s contention on this issue, since the Board and the courts, in circumstances substantially identical to those involved in the instant case, have held that the profit or gain is taxable as income, to one on the accrual basis, in the year when the condemnation proceedings are completed, the award made, and compensation is received, and not in the year when title to the property is taken prior to completion of the condemnation proceedings and payment. McGuirl, Inc. v. Commissioner, 74 Fed. (2d) 729; certiorari denied, 295 U. S. 748, involving a condemnation in New York, as herein. We hold that the taxes proposed are not barred by the statute of limitations.

(2) The position of, the petitioner upon the second question presented in the motion and urged in brief for petitioner, that the gain, $36,350, relied upon by the Commissioner in computing the tax was subject to diminution by the value of the personalty owned by one other than the petitioner, i. e., the Yim Electric Co., is not borne out by the record. The facts proven, in our opinion, fail to show that any one other than the petitioner owned any personalty or fixtures embraced in the property taken as petitioner’s by the city of New York and compensated for in the final decree of condemnation involved in these proceedings. The petition alleges: “The gain, if taxable, from the old realty, was $36,350.00.” This is admitted in the answer. There is no evidence in the record that the sum of $9,454 [761]*761awarded to the petitioner in the decree of the court was for fixtures of petitioner’s tenant, the Vim Electric Co. There is, in fact, no evidence in the record indicating that the city of New York took or condemned any property of the Vim Electric Co., nor that the petitioner accounted to Vim Electric Co. for $9,454 received on the condemnation proceedings.

(3) The third question or issue raised by the motion and in brief for petitioner is that the petitioner was not doing business within the purview of the internal revenue law, so as to make it subject to the excess profits taxes proposed by the Commissioner. The record on this matter is confused and inconsistent. The petitioner in its petition asserts that its “business in 1935 and 1936 was the ownership of realty and the leasing thereof to the Vim Electric Co., Inc.” The petition, however, contains no assignment of error with reference to excess profits taxes. The respondent in his answer admits that the petitioner’s business in 1936 was the ownership of realty, but denies the remaining allegation. No reply was filed. Thus we find the petitioner asserting, in a sense, that it was in business, yet now denying it. Yet if we considered the use of the expression “business” as general and that the allegation in effect was that the petitioner was not doing business, but only owning leased realty, we see that the respondent in effect admits that the business was owning realty. Mere ownership and leasing, without operation, of a parcel of real estate is not such transaction of business as to subject the owner to excess profits tax. Kingkade Hotel Co. v. Jones, 30 Fed. Supp. 508; Rotorite Corporation., 40 B. T. A. 1304 (reversed on other grounds, 117 Fed. (2d) 245, and cases cited; Sears v. Bassett, 111 Fed. (2d) 965. In stating his case, petitioner’s counsel stated that this point “is not in the petition.” There clearly being no issue made on the question, objection was sustained to a question as to whether1 the petitioner did anything else for the next year after losing its building. Some evidence, however, in the record does bear upon the point and we think demonstrates that the petitioner was in business. We find that the petitioner’s income tax and excess profits tax return states the “Kind of business (in detail) ” was “Owners and Operators — Neal Estate” and that precisely the same answer is given in the capital stock tax return to the question, “Nature of business in detail”; that on the income tax and excess profits tax return the “Nature of Business” is checked as “Neal estate, realty holding, real estate agents”; and that the income tax return lists under “Other Deductions Authorized by Law” items of Attorney’s Fees $2,050.39, Professional Fees $25.00.” These claims are consistent only with a contention of trade or business carried on.

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Vim Sec. Corp. v. Commissioner
43 B.T.A. 759 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1941)

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Bluebook (online)
43 B.T.A. 759, 1941 BTA LEXIS 1448, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vim-sec-corp-v-commissioner-bta-1941.