Bull v. United States, 649

• Citation: 295 U.S. 247,79 L.Ed. 1421,55 S.Ct. 695
• Decision Date: 29 April 1935
• Docket Number: No. 649,649
• Parties: BULL v. UNITED STATES
• Court: United States Supreme Court

295 U.S. 247

55 S.Ct. 695

79 L.Ed. 1421

BULL

v UNITED STATES.

No. 649.

Argued April 9, 1935.

Decided April 29, 1935.

Messrs. Loring M. Black, Jr., and David A. Buckley, Jr., both of Washington, D.C., for petitioner.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 248-249 intentionally omitted] The Attorney General and Mr. James W. Morris, of Washington, D.C., for the United States.

Mr. Justice ROBERTS delivered the opinion of the Court.

Archibald H. Bull died February 13, 1920. He had been a member of a partnership engaged in the business of ship-brokers. The agreement of association provided that in the event a partner died the survivors should continue the business for one year subsequent to his death, and his estate should 'receive the same interests, or participate in the losses to the same extent,' as the deceased partner would, if living, 'based on the usual method of ascertaining what the said profits or losses would be. * * * Or the estate of the deceased partner shall have the option of withdrawing his interest from the firm within thirty days after the probate of will * * * and all adjustments of profits or losses shall be made as of the date of such withdrawal.' The estate's representative did not exercise the option to withdraw in thirty days, and the business was conducted until December 31, 1920, as contemplated by the agreement.

The enterprise required no capital and none was ever invested by the partners. Bull's share of profits from January 1, 1920, to the date of his death, February 13, 1920, was $24,124.20; he had no other accumulated profits and no interest in any tangible property belonging to the firm. Profits accruing to the estate for the period from the decedent's death to the end of 1920 were $212,718.79; $200,117.90 being paid during the year, and $12,601.70 during the first two months of 1921.

The Court of Claims found:

'When filing an estate tax return, the executor included the decedent's interest in the partnership at a value of $24,124.20, which represented the decedent's share of the earnings accrued to the date of death, whereas the Commissioner, in 1921, valued such interest at $235,202.99, and subjected such increased value to the payment of an estate tax, which was paid in June and August, 1921. The lastmentioned amount was made up of the amount of $24,124.20 plus the amount of $212,718.79, hereinbefore mentioned. The estate tax on this increased amount was $41,517.45.¹

'April 14, 1921, plaintiff filed an income tax return for the period February 13, 1920, to December 31, 1920, for the estate of the decedent, which return did not include, as income, the amount of $200,117.09 received as the share of the profits earned by the partnership during the period for which the return was filed. The estate employed the cash receipts and disbursement method of accounting.

'Thereafter, in July, 1925, the Commissioner determined that the sum of $200,117.09 received in 1920 should have been returned by the executor as income to the estate for the period February 13 to December 31, 1920, and notified plaintiff of a deficiency in income tax due from the estate for that period of $261,212.65, which was due in part to the inclusion of that amount as taxable income and in part to adjustments not here in contro- versy. No deduction was allowed by the Commissioner from the amount of $200,117.09 on account of the value of the decedent's interest in the partnership at his death.' 6 F.Supp. 141, 142.

September 5, 1925, the executor appealed to the Board of Tax Appeals from the deficiency of income tax so determined. The Board sustained the Commissioner's action in including the item of $200,117.99 without any reduction on account of the value of the decedent's interest in the partnership at the date of death,² and determined a deficiency of $55,166.49, which, with interest of $7,510.95, was paid April 14, 1928.

July 11, 1928, the executor filed a claim for refund of this amount, setting forth that the $200,117.99, by reason of which the additional tax was assessed and paid, was corpus; that it was so originally determined by the Commissioner and the estate tax assessed thereon was paid by the executor; and that the subsequent assessment of an income tax against the estate for the receipt of the same sum was erroneous. The claim was rejected May 8, 1929. September 16, 1930, the executor brought suit in the Court of Claims, and in his petition, after setting forth the facts as he alleged them to be, prayed judgment in the alternative: (1) For the principal sum of $62,677.44, the amount paid April 14, 1928, as a deficiency of income tax unlawfully assessed and collected; or (2) for the sum of $47,643.44 on the theory that if the sum of $200,117.99 was income for the year 1920 and taxable as such, the United States should have credited against the income tax attributable to the receipt of this sum the overpayment of estate tax resulting from including the amount in the taxable estate $34,035,³ with interest thereon.

The Court of Claims held that the item was income and properly so taxed. With respect to the alternative relief sought, it said: 'We cannot consider whether the Commissioner correctly included the total amount received from the business in the net estate of the decedent subject to estate tax for the reason that the suit was not timely instituted.' Judgment went for the United States.⁴ Because of the novelty and importance of the question presented we granted certiorari.⁵

1. We concur in the view of the Court of Claims that the amount received from the partnership as profits earned prior to Bull's death was income earned by him in his lifetime and taxable to him as such; and that it was also corpus of his estate and as such to be included in his gross estate for computation of estate tax. We also agree that the sums paid his estate as profits earned after his death were not corpus but income received by his executor, and to be reckoned in computing income tax for the years 1920 and 1921. Where the effect of the contract is that the deceased partner's estate shall leave his interest in the business and the surviving partners shall acquire it by payments to the estate, the transaction is a sale, and payments made to the estate are for the account of the survivors. It results that the surviving partners are taxable upon firm profits and the estate is not.⁶ Here, however, the survivors have purchased nothing belonging to the decedent, who had made no investment in the business and owned no tangible property connected with it. The portion of the profits paid his estate was therefore income and not corpus; and this is so whether we consider the executor a member of the old firm for the remainder of the year, or hold that the estate became a partner in a new association formed upon the decedent's demise.

2. A serious and difficult issue is raised by the claim that the same receipt has been made the basis of both income and estate tax, although the item cannot in the circumstances be both income and corpus; and that the alternative prayer of the petition required the court to render a judgment which would redress the illegality and injustice resulting from the erroneous inclusion of the sum in the gross estate for estate tax. The respondent presents two arguments in opposition, one addressed to the merits and the other to the bar of the statute of limitations.

On the merits it is insisted that the government was entitled to both estate tax and income tax in virtue of the right conferred on the estate by the partnership agreement and the fruits of it. The position is that, as the contract gave Bull a valuable right which passed to his estate at his death, the Commissioner correctly included it for estate tax. And the propriety of treating the share of profits paid to the estate as income is said to be equally clear. The same sum of money in different aspects may be the basis of both forms of tax. An example is found in this estate. The decedent's share of profits accrued to the date of his death was $24,124.20. This was income to him in his lifetime and his executor was bound to return it as such. But the sum was paid to the executor by the surviving partners, and thus became an asset of the estate; accordingly, the petitioner returned that amount as part of the gross estate for computation of estate tax and the Commissioner properly treated it as such.

We are told that, since the right to profits is distinct from the profits actually collected, we cannot now say more than that perhaps the Commissioner put too high a value on the contract right when he valued it as equal to the amount of profits received—$212,718.99. This error, if error it was, the government says is now beyond correction.

While, as we have said, the same sum may in different aspects be used for the computation of both an income and an estate tax, this fact will not here serve to justify the Commissioner's rulings. They were inconsistent. The identical money—not a right to receive the amount, on the one hand, and actual receipt resulting from that right on the other—was the basis of two assessments. The double taxation involved in this inconsistent treatment of that sum of money is made clear by the lower court's finding we have quoted. The Commissioner assessed estate tax on the total obtained by adding $24,124.20, the decedent's share of profits earned prior to his death, and $212,718.79, the estate's share of profits earned thereafter. He treated the two items as of like quality, considered them both as capital or corpus; and viewed neither as the measure of value of a right passing from the decedent at death. No other conclusion may be drawn from the finding of the Court of Claims.

In the light of the facts it would not have been permissible to place a value of $212,718.99 or any other value on the mere right of continuance of the partnership relation inuring to Bull's estate. Had he lived, his share of profits would...