DocketNumber: Docket Nos. 3555-83, 3748-83, 3749-83, 3750-83.
Filed Date: 7/28/1986
Status: Non-Precedential
Modified Date: 11/20/2020
MEMORANDUM OPINION
FAY,
Petitioners | Year | Deficiency |
Kenneth H. Miyamoto | 1977 | $1,639.00 |
and Carol Sue Miyamoto | 1978 | $1,096.00 |
Robert W. Wagner | 1978 | $1,011.00 |
and Marcella E. Wagner | ||
Paul S. Gray and | 1977 | $2,198.00 |
Jeanne R. Gray | 1978 | $2,392.00 |
David S. Guckenberg and | 1977 | $ 325.00 |
June E. Guckenberg | 1978 | $4,459.00 |
*288 The issues are (1) whether petitioners are precluded by
The facts have been fully stipulated. We set forth herein those facts pertinent to our decision.
Petitioners Kenneth H. Miyamoto and Carol Sue Miyamoto resided in Bloomington, Minn., when they filed their petition herein. They filed joint Federal income tax returns for 1977 and 1978, listing their respective occupations as "Food Service (General Manager)" and "Housewife".
Petitioners Robert W. Wagner and Marcella E. Wagner resided in Faribault, Minn., when they filed their petition herein. They filed a joint Federal income tax return for 1978, listing their respective occupations*289 as "Self Employed" and "Housewife".
Petitioners Paul S. Gray and Jeanne R. Gray resided in Faribault, Minn., when they filed their petition herein. They filed joint Federal income tax returns for 1977 and 1978, listing their respective occupations as "Executive" and "Housewife".
Petitioners David S. Guckenberg and June E. Guckenberg resided in Tonka Bay, Minn., when they filed their petition herein. They filed joint Federal income tax returns for 1977 and 1978, listing their respective occupations as "Certified Public Accountant" and "Secretary/Housewife" on their 1977 return, and as "Corporate Officer" and "Housewife/Secretary" on their 1978 return. 3
During or prior to the years in issue, petitioners Kenneth H. Miyamoto, (herein, "Miyamoto") Paul S. Gray (herein, "Gray"), David S. Guckenberg (herein, "Guckengerg") and Robert W. Wagner (herein, "Wagner"), together with certain other individuals, entered into a total of seven partnerships*290 (herein referred to collectively as "the partnerships") as described herein. Gray, Guckenberg and Wagner entered into two partnerships during 1972, one entitled "Sandy's Investment Company of Fairmont" and the other "Sandy's Investment Company of Cloquet." Miyamoto, Gray, and Guckenberg entered into one partnership during 1976, entitled "Mason City Division, North Central Food Systems Investment Company" and another during 1977, entitled "Crookston Division, North Central Food Systems Investment Company." Miyamoto, Gray, Guckenberg and Wagner entered into two partnerships during 1975, one entitled "Grand Forks Division, Central Foods Systems Investment Company" and the other, "Superior Division, Central Foods Systems Investment Company". They also entered into one partnership during 1978, entitled "North Central Food Systems Investment Co., Hutchinson Division."
The partnership agreements for two of the partnerships, Sandy's Investment Company of Fairmont and Sandy's Investment Company of Cloquet, provided, in relevant part, as follows:
The purpose of this Partnership is to acquire for investment, receive title to certain real estate located in * * * [a specified location], *291 and to conduct the operation of leasing such real estate to others.
The partnership agreements for the five remaining partnerships provided, in relevant part, as follows:
The purpose of this Partnership is to acquire for investment, receive title to certain real estate located in * * * [a specified location] and to conduct the operation of leasing such real estate to others, or to operate a retail fast food franchise thereon.
The partnership agreements do not indicate that any of the partnerships had as a business purpose the construction, manufacture or production of fast food franchise restaurant buildings or their components.
Each of the seven partnerships owns and leases a Hardee's fast food restaurant to North Central Food Systems, Inc. 4, a corporation which operates the restaurant under a franchise from Hardee's Food Systems Inc., of Rocky Mount, North Carolina (herein, "Hardee's Food Systems"). Hardee's Food Systems strives to achieve a uniform style and appearance with respect to the buildings housing the restaurants operated by its franchisees and, to this end, supplies detailed construction drawings and specifications for such buildings. These drawings and specifications*292 were used in the construction of the seven restaurant buildings owned and leased by the partnerships.
The record contains copies of agreements pertaining to the construction of three of the seven restaurant buildings. The first of these is entitled "Construction Contract Agreement for the Construction of a Hardee's Family Restaurant." This agreement, which calls for the construction of a Hardee's restaurant to Crookston, Minnesota, is dated August 19, 1977, and is between "North Central Foods Systems, Inc., a corporation" as the owner, 5 and Bear Construction, Inc., of Grand Forks, North Dakota as the contractor. Article II thereof provides, in relevant part, as follows:
It is agreed by and between the parties: * * *
(a) That the work included in this contract is to be done under the direction of the DIRECTOR OF CONSTRUCTION*293 OF HCC CONSTRUCTION & EQUIPMENT CO. (hereinafter called "Director of Construction") and that his decision as to the true meaning of the contract documents shall be final; 6
(b) That for the purposes of the general conditions incorporated herein the Director of Construction shall be considered the Architect (the services of the Director of Construction shall be paid for by the OWNER);
* * *
(f) That neither Hardee's Food Systems, Inc., nor its subsidiaries shall have a voice in the selection, discharge, supervision or control of Contractor's servants, representatives, or sub contractors, or in fixing their number, compensation, or period of hours of service, nor shall it have any right to direct or instruct Contractor in the method of performance or the means of accomplishing the desired result except to the extent that a particular method is specified in this contract or in any specifications which are made a part hereof.
(g) The contractor shall assign a job superintendent to this project when the work on this project is begun and the same job superintendent shall continue supervision of the work on this project until all work is completed or the contractor obtains written*294 approval of changing job superintendent from HCC Construction and Equipment and the Director of Construction or original job superintendent is fired for good cause.
This agreement also contains provisions relating to the contract price, time for completion, events of default, and various covenants of the contractor.
Of the two remaining construction agreements in the record, the first is dated as of May 1, 1978, and is between "Sandy's Investment Co. of Cloquet" as the owner and Paul S. Gray Co., Inc. as the contractor. 7 It designates the project as "renovation and addition to" a Hardee's restaurant in Cloquet, Minn. The*295 second is dated as of June 6, 1978, and is between "Hardees Investment Co., of Hutchinson" 8 as the owner and Paul S. Gray Co., Inc. as the contractor. It designates the project as a new Hardee's Restaurant in Hutchinson, Min. Each of these two contracts is entitled "Standard Form of Agreement Between Owner and Contractor" and is a standard form contract produced by the American Institute of Architects (AIA Document A101). Each is a four page document containing brief provisions relating to, among other things, the work, time of commencement, the contract sum, progress payments, and final payment. 9 Such agreements do not contain any provision concerning the owner's rights of control, if any, over the construction process.
*296 Each of the Hardee's restaurant buildings leased by the partnerships to North Central Foods Systems, Inc., contains various components. The parties agree that one of the restaurant buildings, located at Hutchinson, Minn. (herein, the "Hutchinson restaurant"), is representative of the others, and they have submitted detailed information pertaining thereto. The following table shows the various components of the Hutchinson restaurant, and their related costs.
Description of Property | Cost Claimed |
Parking Area Lighting | 1,829 |
Decorative Divide Walls | 587 |
Menu Board and Framing and Electric | 749 |
Drive Up Window | 526 |
Safe Installation | 74 |
Lay in Acoustical Ceiling | 3,559 |
Identity Soffit and Mansard | 6,479 |
Sanitary Finishes | 8,913 |
Cabinets and Counters | 2,595 |
Toilet Room Accessories/Partitions | 1,629 |
Kitchen Plumbing System | 4,465 |
Drink Tubing Sleeves | 848 |
Kitchen Exhaust Fans | 1,652 |
Kitchen Make-Up Air System | 4,306 |
Decorative Light Fixtures | 1,154 |
Accent Light Fixtures | 2,782 |
Battery Pack Lights | 419 |
Kitchen Equipment Electrical | 5,850 |
Cash Register Electrical | 158 |
Sign Electrical | 2,467 |
Signage | 2.675 |
Total | 10 53,716 |
*297 On their Federal income tax returns for the years in issue, petitioners claimed an investment tax credit based upon the costs relating to the foregoing components of the Hutchinson restaurant, as well as similar components of the six other restaurant buildings owned by the partnerships and leased to North Central Foods Systems, Inc. By statutory notices of deficiency issued on November 23, 1982, respondent determined that petitioners were precluded from claiming the credit by reason of the provisions of
In the instant proceedings, respondent concedes that some of the components of the restaurants are
Under
(A) the property subject to the lease has been manufactured or produced by the lessor, or
(B) the term of the lease (taking*299 into account options to renew) is less than 50 percent of the useful life of the property, and for the period consisting of the first 12 months after the date on which the property is transferred to the lessee the sum of the deductions with respect to such property which are allowable to the lessor solely by reason of
* * *
Petitioners are seeking an investment tax credit with respect to property leased by the partnerships (i.e., noncorporate entities) of which they were partners. Thus, under the provisions of
*300
In
More recently,
In deciding whether the taxpayers were entitled to the credit with respect to the warehouse components, the Court first noted that the property leased by the taxpayers included both
With the foregoing considerations in mind, we now consider whether petitioners have satisfied the requirements of
Petitioners bear the burden of proving their entitlement to the claimed credit. See
Furthermore, to the extent that manufacture of the components of the restaurants may have been accomplished by means of the construction 13 of the restaurant buildings themselves, we find that petitioners have not established that the partnerships controlled the construction of such buildings in the ordinary course of their business within the meaning of
*309 Based upon the record herein, we find that petitioners have not shown that the partnerships controlled the manufacture or production of the restaurant components claimed by them to be
*310 To reflect the foregoing,
1. Cases of the following petitioners are consolidated herwith: Robert W. Wagner and Marcella E. Wagner, docket No. 3748-83; Paul S. Gray and Jeanne R. Gray, docket No. 3749-83; and David S. Guckenberg and June E. Guckenberg, docket No. 3750-83.↩
2. Unless otherwise indicated, all section references are to the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, as amended and in effect during the years in issue, and all Rule references are to the Tax Court Rules of Practice and Procedure.↩
3. Both petitioners Paul S. Gray and Jeanne R. Gray and petitioners David S. Guckenberg and June E. Guckenberg filed amended returns for 1978. The propriety of the adjustments set forth in these amended returns is not in issue herein.↩
4. A letter contained in one of the exhibits to the stipulation of facts indicates that petitioner David S. Guckenberg is president of North Central Food Systems, Inc. The record does not otherwise contain evidence concerning the relationship, if any, between North Central Food Systems, Inc., and the various partnerships or the individual partners.↩
5. The parties have stipulated that all of the restaurant buildings are owned and leased by the partnerships to North Central Food Systems, Inc. However, the contract concerning the construction of the restaurant at Crookston, Minn., lists the owner thereof as "North Central Foods Systems Inc.", and that entity is a party to the contract. The reason for this discrepancy is not apparent from the record. ↩
6. The record does not show the relationship, if any, between HCC Construction and Equipment Co. and the partnerships or individual partners herein.↩
7. Petitioner Paul S. Gray is president of Paul S. Gray Co., Inc. ↩
8. We assume that this entity is the same as "North Central Foods Systems Investment Co., Hutchinson Division", the partnership entered into by Miyamoto, Gray, Guckenberg and Wagner in 1978, but the record is not explicit on this point. ↩
9. Although the terms of certain other documents (e.g. "General Conditions AIA Document A201") appear to be incorporated by reference into these agreements, such other documents have not been made part of the record herein.↩
10. By means of a supplemental stipulation of facts filed after submission of this case, the parties set forth similar cost information pertaining to the components of the restaurant buildings at locations other than Hutchinson, Minn.↩
11. Petitioners do not assert that the tests set forth in
12. The relevant section was enacted by Congress as part of Pub. L. 92-178, 85 Stat. 497, and was originally designated as
13. In the context of
14. The fact that property is constructed or manufactured by an independent contractor does not, of itself, require a conclusion that such property has not been constructed or manufactured by the taxpayer. See
15. This case was submitted to the Court on the basis of a fully stipulated record, and we have therefore reached our conclusion herein based upon those facts set forth in the stipulation of facts, the supplemental stipulation of facts, and the exhibits thereto (herein, the "stipulations"). However, petitioners rely in their briefs upon certain factual allegations which were not referred to in the stipulations, but rather, which were contained in attachments to their petitions and which respondent expressly denied in his answers. These included, for example, the allegation that petitioner Gray, who was president of Paul S. Gray Co., Inc., supervised the construction of the restaurants on behalf of the partnerships. We accord no weight to such allegations, since, under Rule 143(b), unadmitted allegations in pleadings and statements made in briefs are not evidence and, in this fully stipulated case, we consider those matters not contained in the stipulations to be without support in the record.↩
16. In their briefs, petitioners rely upon
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