Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc. and Subsidiaries v. Commissioner

113 T.C. No. 21
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedOctober 19, 1999
Docket5382-97
StatusUnknown

This text of 113 T.C. No. 21 (Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc. and Subsidiaries 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
Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc. and Subsidiaries v. Commissioner, 113 T.C. No. 21 (tax 1999).

Opinion

113 T.C. No. 21

UNITED STATES TAX COURT

WINN-DIXIE STORES, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES, Petitioner v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Respondent

Docket No. 5382-97. Filed October 19, 1999.

P entered into a leveraged corporate-owned life insurance (COLI) program in which it purchased life insurance on approximately 36,000 of its employees and systematically borrowed against the cash value of the policies to fund the premiums. The COLI program was designed so that annual premiums, fees, and policy loan interest would exceed the projected annual death benefits and net cash value of the policies. The program was designed to generate large amounts of interest on petitioner's policy loans that petitioner intended to deduct for income tax purposes. The income tax savings from the deductions for interest and fees were projected to be substantially in excess of the projected net costs of maintaining the COLI program. In each year of operation, the COLI program projected a pretax loss and an after-tax gain. Held: P's broad-based leveraged COLI program lacked economic substance and business purpose (other than tax reduction) and is therefore a sham for tax purposes. As a result, interest on P's COLI policy - 2 -

loans is not deductible interest on indebtedness within the meaning of sec. 163, I.R.C. The administrative fees associated with the COLI program are not deductible because they were incurred in furtherance of a sham.

Michael J. Henke, Tegan M. Flynn, Cary D. Pugh, Thomas

Crichton IV, Robert H. Cox, and Thomas P. Marinis, Jr., for

petitioner.

Nancy B. Herbert, Jeffrey L. Bassin, James D. Hill, and

Michelle A. Missry, for respondent.

RUWE, Judge: Respondent determined a deficiency of

$1,599,176 in petitioner's Federal income tax for its tax year

ending June 30, 1993. After concessions, the issue is whether

deductions petitioner claimed for policy loan interest and

administrative fees associated with certain of petitioner's

corporate-owned life insurance (COLI) policies are deductible.

Unless otherwise indicated, all section references are to

the Internal Revenue Code in effect for the year in issue, and

all Rule references are to the Tax Court Rules of Practice and

Procedure.

FINDINGS OF FACT

Some of the facts have been stipulated and are so found.

The stipulations of facts are incorporated herein by this

reference. At the time the petition was filed, petitioner was a - 3 -

Florida corporation with its principal office in Jacksonville,

Florida.

Petitioner was founded in the 1920's, and its stock is

publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Petitioner is a

major food retailer made up of self-service food stores which

sell groceries, meats, seafood, fresh produce, deli/bakery,

pharmaceuticals, and general merchandise items. As of June 30,

1993, petitioner had 1,165 stores in 14 States and the Bahama

Islands.

Petitioner is an accrual basis taxpayer, which has adopted a

52-53 week fiscal year ending on the last Wednesday in June.

Petitioner filed a consolidated corporate Federal income tax

return for its fiscal year ending June 30, 1993.

As of June 30, 1993, petitioner employed approximately

36,000 full-time and 69,000 part-time employees. Since 1988, all

full-time employees who completed 3 months of continuous service

have been eligible for a flexible benefits program called "Winn-

Flex". Under Winn-Flex, employees were furnished certain

benefits that they received automatically and certain optional

benefits among which they could choose. Employees automatically

received life insurance and accident and sickness coverage. The

optional benefits included a medical plan, dental coverage,

vision coverage, supplemental associate life insurance, long-term

disability and two flexible spending accounts for health care and - 4 -

dependent care. Petitioner self-insured the medical and life

insurance benefits under Winn-Flex while the remaining benefits

were insured through third parties.

The life insurance coverage provided by the company under

the core Winn-Flex benefit program was in effect only while a

worker was a full-time employee. Petitioner provided no

postretirement benefits to its employees under Winn-Flex. Early

retirees covered by the Winn-Flex plan had the option of

continued coverage under a separate insurance pool not paid for

by petitioner.

Since 1980, petitioner has also maintained a program to

provide death, disability, and retirement benefits to a limited

number of full-time management level employees. This program was

known as the "Management Security Program" (MSP). During the

fiscal year ending in 1993, 615 of petitioner's employees were

covered under the MSP. In order to provide funds for specific

benefits for each manager, petitioner purchased flexible premium

adjustable life insurance policies on each manager (MSP policies)

from American Heritage Life Insurance Co. (AHL). The MSP

policies are individual policies and not group contracts. The

death benefits under the individual MSP policies were tailored to

cover petitioner's costs for preretirement deaths of the covered

individual and to cover costs of postretirement benefits. - 5 -

Petitioner's practice of purchasing MSP policies on the lives of

its managers began long before 1993.

During 1992 and early 1993, Wiedemann & Johnson (WJ) and The

Coventry Group (Coventry) formed a joint venture (WJ/Coventry)

and approached petitioner with a proposal for the purchase by

petitioner of individual excess interest life insurance policies

on the lives of petitioner's employees. AIG Life Insurance

Company (AIG) was to be the underwriter for the proposed

policies. In a letter dated January 12, 1993, Mr. Alan Buerger,

chairman of Coventry, confirmed a meeting on January 14, 1993,

with Mr. Richard D. McCook, petitioner's financial vice

president. Included with the letter was a memorandum from Mr.

Buerger and Mr. Bruce Hlavacek, chairman and chief executive

officer of WJ, proposing that petitioner purchase a "broad-based

COLI pool".

The memorandum provided an overview section which generally

described a broad-based COLI pool as consisting of a group of

corporate-owned life insurance (COLI) policies covering a wide

cross-section of a corporation's employees. Petitioner was the

proposed beneficiary of the COLI policies to be written on the

lives of petitioner's employees. WJ/Coventry's proposal focused

on two issues raised by petitioner in a prior meeting. These two

issues were described as "(i) achieving positive earnings in - 6 -

every year; and (ii) providing an exit if the tax laws change or

Winn-Dixie's appetite for interest deductions declines."

The memorandum summarized the tax aspects of leveraged COLI

with the following captioned diagram:

Insurance Carrier IRS (1) (3)

(2)

Winn-Dixie

1 - Winn-Dixie makes deposits and pays loan interest to insurance carrier. 2 - Winn-Dixie receives withdrawals, loans and death proceeds from the insurance carrier. 3 - Winn-Dixie receives a tax deduction for loan interest paid.

The memorandum next explained the difference between the

proposed broad-based COLI pool and petitioner's then existing

leveraged COLI program being used to fund the MSP. The

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