DocketNumber: Docket Nos. 3273, 1236, 1229, 1231, 1232 and 1252.
Citation Numbers: 5 T.C.M. 638, 1946 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 126
Filed Date: 7/26/1946
Status: Non-Precedential
Modified Date: 11/21/2020
*126 A corporation distributed to its stockholders in 1940 participating oil royalty interests in wells it operated under lease. These interests had a cost basis of zero to the corporation and a fair market value of $68,000 when distributed. The stock of the corporation had a cost basis of zero to the stockholders and was held by them over 24 months. Held, (1) following
A taxpayer who provided in her own home the major support and care of her granddaughter during the entire year 1940 was head of a family and entitled to credit for one dependent during such year. Daughter of taxpayer shown by the evidence to be dependent upon taxpayer for support for seven-twelfths of the year.
Memorandum Findings of Fact and Opinion
ARNOLD, Judge: These proceedings were consolidated since they involve the effect upon Beach Petroleum Corporation, Ltd., hereinafter referred to as the corporation, and certain of its stockholders, or transferees of stockholders, *128 of the distribution as a dividend of certain participating royalty interests in wells drilled by the corporation under oil and gas leases it acquired. All deficiencies relate to the calendar year 1940. In Docket No. 3273 (Beach Petroleum) the respondent determined deficiencies of $15,516.17 in income tax and $5,164.24 in declared value excess profits tax against the corporation. The sole issue as to this petitioner is whether the corporation derived taxable income by the distribution among its stockholders of the royalty interests which had appreciated in value while held by the corporation.
The respondent determined that the Estate of Leona May Burton, who was one of the stockholders of the corporation and who died December 1, 1940, was liable for a deficiency of $2,488.66 in income tax, and asserted deficiencies in that amount against each of three transferees of this decedent's estate, namely, Donald E. Bowen, Docket No. 1229, Justine M. Bowen Burton, Docket No. 1236, and LaVergne J. Round, Docket No. 1231. These three petitioners concede that they are transferees but contest the determination of the liability of their transferor. The respondent determined a deficiency of $1,339.49*129 in income tax against Mary R. Garfinkel and Abe Garfinkel, as trustees of J. B. Garfinkel Trust Co. 1, Docket No. 1232, one of the stockholders of the corporation, and a deficiency of $4,490.47 in income tax against the Estate of Amber L. Ingram, Docket No. 1252. Amber L. Ingram was one of the stockholders and died March 1, 1941. The issues common to the cases of these petitioners are the taxability of the distribution to the stockholders of the royalty interests and whether the stockholders are entitled to deduct depletion with respect to the proceeds received by them from such interests. In the Ingram case, Docket No. 1252, the further questions are raised whether the taxpayer was the head of a family and entitled to credit for dependents and whether a deduction taken on account of a bad debt loss is allowable. In the Garfinkel Trust case, Docket No. 1232, the respondent concedes that income has been overstated in the amount of $176.57. This concession will be given effect in the computation under Rule 50.
The facts are stipulated except with respect to the issues arising only in the Ingram case, Docket No. 1252. The stipulated facts are adopted as part of our findings of fact*130 and are summarized herein. Additional facts are found from the testimony introduced in the Ingram case.
Findings of Fact
Petitioner, Beach Petroleum Corporation, Ltd., is a corporation organized under the laws of California with its principal place of business at Long Beach, California. Its income, declared value excess profits and defense tax return for the calendar year 1940 was filed with the collector of internal revenue at Los Angeles, California. Such return was made on the accrual basis of accounting.
Petitioner, Donald E. Bowen, is an individual with principal residence in Alhambra, California. Petitioner, Justine M. Bowen Burton, is an individual with principal residence in Arcadia, California. Petitioner, LaVergne J. Round is an individual with principal residence in Arcadia, California. These three petitioners, transferees of the Estate of Leona May Burton, deceased, who died on December 1, 1940, are liable as such transferees for any deficiency in income tax for the year 1940 that may be due from such Estate. An individual income and defense tax return for the calendar year 1940 was filed for the decedent with the collector at Los Angeles, California.
Petitioners*131 Mary R. Garfinkel and Abe Garfinkel are trustees of a trust estate created under a declaration of trust on November 6, 1935, executed by Mary R. Garfinkel, a married woman, as grantor. The trustees filed a fiducairy income and defense tax return for the calendar year 1940 with the collector of internal revenue at Los Angeles. The respondent has overstated the fiduciary income of these petitioners in the sum of $176.57 representing the following amounts of expenses properly allowable as deductions in determining net income - telephone expense $13.10; post office box rent $13.39; accounting expense $72.50; and postage, office supplies and miscellaneous expense $77.58.
Petitioner, Barbara J. Kelly, was appointed executrix of the estate of Amber L. Ingram on April 1, 1941. Amber L. Ingram died March 1, 1941, and this petitioner is her daughter. An individual income and defense tax return for the calendar year 1940 was filed for the decedent with the collector of internal revenue at Los Angeles, California.
Beach Petroleum Corporation, Ltd., entered into an oil and gas lease on September 15, 1931, with the owners of certain oil lands. The lease reserved a 12 1/2 percent royalty interest*132 to the landowners. An overriding 4 percent royalty interest was subsequently issued to prior sub-lessors for relinquishing their interests in the lease.
During the years 1931 to 1933 the corporation drilled three wells upon this property. Participating royalty interests were issued to the public to finance this drilling. On April 9, 1940, there were outstanding in the hands of the public participating royalty interests in the amounts of 22 5/6 percent in Well No. 1, 10 1/2 percent in Well No. 2, and 11 1/8 percent in Well No. 3.
The corporation at the time of acquiring the lease and at the time of drilling the wells had no earnings or profits and all monies received from the sale of participating interests were used in drilling the wells.
During the year 1940 the corporation had outstanding 772 shares of common stock of which one-fourth was held by G. C. Nelson, one-fourth by Leona May Burton, one-fourth by Amber L. Ingram and one-fourth by Mary R. Garfinkel and Abe Garfinkel, trustees for J. B. Garfinkel Trust No. 1.
On March 23, 1940, the corporation's board of directors declared a dividend to petitioner's stockholders consisting of a 44 percent participating royalty interest*133 in Well No. 1, a 56 percent participating royalty interest in Well No. 2, and a 56 percent participating royalty interest in Well No. 3. On April 10, 1940, pursuant to such dividend declaration the corporation distributed to its stockholders as a dividend in kind such participating royalty interests. These interests distributed had a cost or other basis of zero in the hands of the corporation and a fair market value of $68,322.04 (instead of $53,614.04 as used by the taxpayers) on the date of distribution. The assignments gave the corporation the right to withhold from the proceeds the pro rata part of the cost of operation not to exceed seven dollars per month for each one percent of interest.
The corporation had a deficit on January 1, 1940, of $30,310.04 and a deficit on December 31, 1940, of $30,183.08.
In addition to the distribution of the participating royalty interests the corporation during the calendar year 1940 distributed cash dividends to its shareholders in the amounts of $1,930 on January 22, $1,930 on February 21, and $1,930 on March 21.
The profits of the corporation during 1940, and before the deduction for statutory depletion of $3,915.72, was $7,831.44.
*134 The stock of the corporation owned by the shareholders, Leona May Burton, Amber L. Ingram, and Mary R. Garfinkel and Abe Garfinkel, trustees of J. B. Garfinkel Trust No. 1, had a cost or other basis of zero in the hands of each of these shareholders and had been held by them more than 24 months prior to 1940. The assets received by each of such shareholders consisting of assignments of percentages of participating royalty interests distributed on April 10, 1940, had a fair market value at the date of receipt to each shareholder of $17,080.51. The gross amounts received by the corporation from the operations of the wells from April 10, 1940 to December 31, 1940, which were allocated to the stockholders, the expenses of operations deducted by the corporation applicable to this portion of the production and the net amounts distributed in cash to the stockholders are as follows:
(1) | (2) | (3) | |
Expense deducted | Net Receipts | ||
Share of | by Beach Petroleum | before | |
Stockholder | Gross Proceeds | for Operating Cost | Depletion |
Mary R. Garfinkel and Abe | |||
Garfinkel, Trustees of J. B. | |||
Garfinkel Trust No. 1 | $6,547.27 | $1,922.72 | $4,624.55 |
Amber L. Ingram | 6,547.27 | 1,922.72 | 4,624.55 |
Leona May Burton | 5,538.26 | 1,791.58 | 4,046.68 |
*135 The estimated reserves of oil in the three wells and the production during the period April 10 to December 31, 1940, in barrels, were, respectively, as to Well No. 1 - 85,492 and 15,652; as to Well No. 2 - 65,922 and 12,642; and as to Well No. 3 - 120,036 and 22,950; the totals being, respectively, 271,450 and 51,244.
Leona May Burton died December 1, 1940, and therefore did not share in the production for the last month of the year which amounted to 5,236.27 barrels.
Additional Findings of Fact in Docket No. 1252
Amber L. Ingram, one of the stockholders of Beach Petroleum Corporation, Ltd., died on March 1, 1941. During the taxable year 1940 she resided at Long Beach, California. In 1936 her daughter, Barbara, married John J. Roulstone. Barbara and her husband lived in San Diego, where a child was born to them in July 1937. In September 1937 the Roulstones returned to Long Beach and made their home with Mrs. Ingram.
In October 1938, Barbara separated from Roulstone. She obtained an interlocutory decree of divorce in 1939 and a final decree in 1940. She was awarded alimony of $50 per month and was awarded $25 per month for the support of the child. None of the alimony was*136 ever paid, but during the year 1940 $25 per month was received on account of Roulstone for the support of the child. Barbara resided with her mother in Long Beach until May 1939. She was under a physician's care from 1937 through 1940. The physician diagnosed her condition as incipient tuberculosis and ordered her to go to a dry climate, preferably the desert. In May 1939 she went to a ranch in San Bernardino County. She stayed there until the latter part of March 1940 when she returned to her mother's home. During June of 1940 she went to Lake Arrowhead, where Mrs. Ingram rented a cabin for her and sent Barbara, the baby and a maid. Barbara returned to her mother's home in July 1940. On July 27, 1940, Barbara remarried, and did not live with her mother after that date. During the period January 1 to July 27, 1940, Barbara was incapable of self-support.
Barbara's child, Joan Roulstone, lived with and was cared for by Mrs. Ingram during the year 1940, except for the month of June at Lake Arrowhead. During the entire calendar year Mrs. Ingram provided the major part of the child's support.
During the entire taxable year 1940 Mrs. Ingram was the head of a family and had one dependent, *137 Joan Roulstone, for the entire year, and another dependent, Barbara, for seven-twelfths of the year.
Opinion
In Docket No. 3273 we have the issue whether the petitioner, Beach Petroleum Corporation, Ltd., derived taxable income by the distribution of royalty interests to its stockholders. Under the stipulated facts the interests distributed had a cost or other basis of zero to the corporation and a fair market value of $68,322.04 on the date of distribution.
Appreciation in value of property while held by a corporation is not even an accrual of income prior to the realization of such appreciation through sale or conversion of the property. The question whether a distribution to stockholders of assets which have appreciated in value while held by a corporation is a realization of income to the corporation was involved in
Docket Nos. 1229, 1231, 1232, 1236 and 1252 involve the issues of the extent to which the dividends distributed are taxable to the stockholders of Beach Petroleum Corporation, Ltd., and whether the stockholders are entitled to a deduction for depletion with respect to the income they received from those interests.
These petitioners contend that*139 the distribution of the participating royalty interests constituted a taxable dividend to the stockholders only to the extent of the available earnings and profits of the corporation (without including as earnings any gain from the appreciation in value of the interests), and a return of capital as to the remainder. On January 1, 1940, the corporation had a deficit of $30,310.04. Its earnings for the year, before depletion were $7,831.44. It paid in cash dividends $5,790 prior to the distribution of the royalty interests, paid a gratuity of $1,333, and accrued income tax for 1940 in the amount of $581.48, leaving $126.96 of net earnings available for further dividend purposes. The petitioners concede that the amount received by each stockholder is measured by the fair market value at the time of receipt, or $17,080.51, as under
Respondent contends that the corporation's profits were increased by the gain in value of the interests and that therefore the entire value of the distribution of participating interests was taxable income to the stockholders, as was also the amount of the cash dividends, citing
A distribution by a corporation to its stockholders may be a return of capital or a dividend out of profits. To the stockholder it is not income and not ordinarily taxable if a return of capital, but is income and taxable if a dividend. For a corporation to be able to distribute a dividend there must be profits in the year of distribution or accumulated prior thereto. Any distribution not in liquidation is required under the law to be from earnings rather than from capital.
In
The case of
The stockholders claimed statutory depletion deductions of 27 1/2 percent of the income they received subsequent to April 10, 1940, from the royalty interests. The respondent disallowed these deductions, contending that the interests received by these taxpayers were not such economic interests in the oil in place as to entitle them to a deduction for depletion, pointing out that the assignments they received provided for a certain percent interest "in and to the proceeds hereafter realized*145 from the sale of all oil, gas and other hydrocarbon substances produced and saved from" the oil wells. Under this limitation, says the respondent, they were entitled to nothing more than a percentage of the net profits received from the sale of oil, and since the assignments provided for retention by the corporation of the costs of operation up to seven dollars per month as to each one percent of interest the stockholders would receive nothing unless production exceeded these costs, so that it would be possible for the output of the wells to be exhausted without any profits reaching the stockholders. Respondent argues that where the taxpayer receives a distribution only when and if there is a profit from producing and selling the oil he does not have an economic interest in the oil in place so as to entitle him to depletion, citing
The petitioners contend that the assignments made by the corporation did convey to the assignees an economic interest in*146 the oil in place, that since the oil itself was the only source to which the assignees could look for payment, there being no obligation on the corporation to pay except from production and after deduction of costs, the assignees are entitled to depletion deductions.
The decisions of the Supreme Court in
The allowance for percentage depletion is intended to permit the owner of an interest to recover his investment through the deduction of a part of the income. It is to compensate him for the reduction in value of his capital investment resulting from the extraction of minerals. Although here the capital investment of the petitioners in the stock was zero, they received the participating interests at a valuation of $17,080.51. In the Burton-Sutton Oil Co. case it was said that the cost of the investment to the beneficiary of the depletion right is unimportant. These stockholders received a part of the rights of the corporation which was the*148 operator under the lease, and which, but for the assignment, would be entitled to depletion deductions with respect to these percentages. These assignees are entitled to the depletion deduction and the disallowance of such deductions was error.
In Docket No. 1252 we are concerned also with the question of the extent to which during 1940 Amber L. Ingram was entitled to personal exemption as head of a family and to credit for dependents.
On the return filed for the Estate of Amber L. Ingram by her executrix a credit of $2,000 was claimed as the head of a family for the entire year and a credit of $400 for one dependent for the entire year for Joan Roulstone, grandchild of the decedent. The respondent disallowed these credits and allowed only the personal exemption of $800. This action is alleged as error. The petitioner, the executrix, also alleges that the tax was overpaid, claiming that in addition to the credits claimed on the return, a further credit should be allowed for an additional dependent for seven-twelfths of the year, as decedent's daughter Barbara, was dependent upon the decedent for her support until July 27, 1940, being incapable of self-support on account of ill*149 health during that time. Respondent concedes on the brief that Mrs. Ingram was the head of a family and entitled to credit for one dependent for seven-twelfths of the year.
Mrs. Ingram's daughter, Barbara, and her granddaughter, Joan Roulstone, made their home with Mrs. Ingram and were supported by her until July 27, 1940. On this date Barbara married and left her mother's household and thereafter resided elsewhere, but Joan Roustone continued to reside with and was supported by Mrs. Ingram for the remainder of the year. The amount of $25 per month was received for the support of the child paid on the account of her father but the major part of her support was furnished by Mrs. Ingram. Respondent argues that Barbara's second husband was financially able to maintain and support Joan and that, therefore, Joan was not dependent upon Mrs. Ingram for her chief support and Mrs. Ingram was not the head of a family after July 27, 1940. Respondent says that Joan resided with her grandmother as a matter of convenience rather than necessity, that it would have been possible for Joan to live with her mother and stepfather and that her residence with her grandmother was only by reason of the*150 fact that the latter's home was more spacious, and contends that as Mrs. Ingram's daughter and grandchild were not dependent upon her after July 27, 1940, for their chief support, she is not entitled to the status of head of a family or to a credit for a dependent after that date, and the respective exemptions should be limited to seven-twelfths thereof.
In
Mrs. Ingram also supported her daughter, Barbara, during the taxable year until July 27, when Barbara remarried. Petitioner now claims a dependency credit for seven-twelfths of the year on this account. This credit was not claimed on the return but is asked for in the petition. Since Barbara was an adult it must be shown, not only that she received her principal support from her mother, but also that she was incapable of self-support.
The respondent concedes on the brief that Mrs. Ingram sustained a bad debt loss in 1940 in the amount of $3,495.55, as claimed on the return.
Since the stipulated value of the royalty interests distributed is $68,322.04 on the date of distribution, instead of $53,616.04 as used by the taxpayers in their returns, a recomputation of the tax will be necessary in each case except in the case*153 of the corporation.
Decision will be entered for the petitioner in Docket No. 3273. Decision will be entered under Rule 50 in Docket Nos. 1229, 1231, 1232, 1236 and 1252.
1. The proceedings of the following petitioners are consolidated herewith: Justine M. Bowen Burton, Transferee of the Estate of Leona May Burton, Deceased; Donald E. Bowen, Transferee of the Estate of Leona May Burton, Deceased; LaVergne J. Round, Transferee of the Estate of Leona May Burton, Deceased; J. B. Garfinkel Trust No. 1, Mary R. Garfinkel and Abe Garfinkel, Trustees; and Estate of Amber L. Ingram, Deceased, Barbara J. Bertling (now Barbara J. Kelly), Executrix.↩