Wood-Mosaic Co. v. United States

160 F. Supp. 636, 1 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 1162, 1958 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2537
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Kentucky
DecidedFebruary 20, 1958
DocketCiv. A. Nos. 3287, 3288
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 160 F. Supp. 636 (Wood-Mosaic Co. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wood-Mosaic Co. v. United States, 160 F. Supp. 636, 1 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 1162, 1958 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2537 (W.D. Ky. 1958).

Opinion

SHELBOURNE, Chief Judge.

The two above styled and numbered actions were filed January 25, 1957, and, by an order dated July 17, 1957, they were consolidated and were tried together to the Court without a jury on September 11, 1957. They were submitted to the Court, following the filing of briefs, on January 2, 1958.

In action No. 3288, Wood-Mosaic Corpany (hereinafter referred to as “Company”) seeks to recover corporation income and excess profits taxes paid for the fiscal years ended April 30, 1951, and April 30, 1952, in the aggregate sum of $152,926.43.

In action No. 3288, Wood-Mosiac Corporation (hereinafter referred to as “Corporation”) seeks to recover corporation income taxes for the fiscal years ended April 30, 1952, and April 30, 1953, in the aggregate sum of $56,944.20. (Interest as provided by law is sought to be recovered by the plaintiff in each of the actions.)

By a written stipulation filed at the time of the trial, it appears that the Corporation was incorporated under the laws of the State of Kentucky in 1907, under the corporate name “Wood-Mosaic Company”. November 28, 1947, the corporate name was changed to “Wood-Mosaic Corporation.” The Corporation has engaged in substantially the same business activities in the United States and Canada continuously from 1907 to the present date. The Company was incorporated under the laws of the State of Kentucky on November 28,1947. Thereafter, on December 1, 1947, the Corporation transferred its operating assets and manufacturing facilities located in the United States to the Company and, in consideration of the transfer, received 177,810 shares of the common capital stock of the Company, which represented all of the outstanding and issued capital stock of the Company.

Both the Company and the Corporation kept their books and operated on the accrual basis of accounting and upon the basis of a fiscal year ending April 30th of each year; this fiscal year was used as the basis of their tax returns. The Corporation filed its corporation income and excess profits tax returns for each of the fiscal years ended April 30, 1951, and April 30, 1952, and paid the taxes disclosed to be due in each return. The Corporation likewise filed timely corporation income and excess profits tax returns for each of the fiscal years ended April 30, 1952, and April 30, 1953, and paid taxes disclosed to be due in each return.

March 29, 1956, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue notified the Company that a determination had been made of deficiencies in income and excess profits taxes for the fiscal year ended April 30, 1951, in the sum of $118,613.09, and for the fiscal year ended April 30, 1952, in the sum of $34,861.44.

March 29, 1956, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue notified the Corporation by letter that deficiencies had been determined in its income and excess profits taxes for the fiscal year ended April 30, 1952, in the sum of $20,640.15, and for the fiscal year ended April 30, 1953, in the sum of $27,066.53.

The deficiencies and the interest thereon were paid by the Company and the Corporation to the District Director of Internal Revenue for the District of Kentucky. It is stipulated that both the Company and the Corporation timely filed their respective claims for a refund of the deficiencies in income and excess profits taxes and that, upon the claims for refund being officially disallowed and the separate claims for refund of interest [639]*639having been ignored for more than six months by the Commissioner, these actions were timely filed.

The nine questions involved, as stated by counsel in their briefs, are substantially as follows:

1. Whether the Commissioner erred in disallowing a deduction of a loss in the sum of $3,366.29, claimed by Wood-Mosaic Company for the fiscal year 1951, under the provisions of Section 23(f) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1939, 26 U.S.C.A. § 23(f), on account of the alleged abandonment of machinery and equipment in that year. (Taxpayer was allowed to amortize or depreciate the amount disallowed over the next succeeding five years.)

2. Whether the Commissioner erred in disallowing a deduction in the sum of $40,000 claimed by Wood-Mosaic Company for the fiscal year 1951, under the provisions of Section 23 (q) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1939, as a charitable contribution to MacLean Foundation.

3. Whether the Commissioner erred in disallowing a deduction of a loss or a reduction in the value of its inventory in the sum of $12,112.84, claimed by Wood-Mosaic Company for the fiscal year 1952, on account of the alleged damage to a supply of Philippine logs purchased and loaded on board ship prior to the close of its fiscal year 1952, but not received in the damaged condition until the following fiscal year.

4. Whether the Commissioner erred in refusing to allow Wood-Mosaic Company a loss claimed on account of the reduction in the value of its inventory of Philippine mahogany lumber at the close of its fiscal year 1952, in the sum of $15,-264.50.

5. Whether the Commissioner erred in disallowing deductions claimed by Wood-Mosaic Company of its inventory of supplies on hand at the close of the fiscal years 1951 and 1952, in the sum of $6,439.61 and $2,098.40, respectively, as a result of its change in the method of accounting for such supplies from an inventory method to the method of expens-ing them as purchases were made.

6. Whether the Commissioner erred in disallowing a loss claimed by Wood-Mosaic Company for each of the fiscal years 1951 and 1952 in the sum of $5,000, respectively, of the amounts by which the value of its inventory of walnut veneers was written down during each of these years.

7. Whether the Commissioner erred in disallowing a write-down by the Wood-Mosaic Corporation in the value of its inventory of forearm gunstocks as at the end of the fiscal year 1952 to the extent of $5,782.35.

8. Whether Wood-Mosaic Company, as an “acquiring corporation” within the meaning of Section 462(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1939, as amended by the Excess Profits Tax Act of 1950, 26 U.S.C.A. Excess Profits Taxes, § 462 (a), may elect to compute its excess profits tax credits under Part I, Subchap-ter D of Chapter 1, 1939 Code, 26 U.S. C.A. Excess Profits Taxes, § 430 et seq., or whether it was required to compute its excess profits tax credits under Part II of that subchapter for the purpose of determining its excess profits tax for the taxable year 1951.

9. Whether Wood-Mosaic Corporation, as a “component corporation” within the meaning of Section 461(b) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1939, as amended, is entitled to or may elect to use its own base period experience prior to the date of transfer of its assets to Wood-Mosaic Company on November 28, 1947, in computing its excess profits credits for the purpose of determining its excess profits tax for the taxable years involved.

The facts relating to Question No. 1 above are that, in the taxable year of 1951, the Company had made at its plant in Huntington, West Virginia, a comprehensive inventory of machinery and equipment, by which it was ascertained that machinery and equipment carried in previous inventories at $3,366.29 was not on hand April 30, 1951. The Com[640]*640pany claimed a loss on the grounds that the equipment had been abandoned due to theft or otherwise.

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Bluebook (online)
160 F. Supp. 636, 1 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 1162, 1958 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2537, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wood-mosaic-co-v-united-states-kywd-1958.