Buffalo Union Furnace Co. v. Helvering

• Citation: 72 F.2d 399
• Decision Date: 31 July 1934
• Docket Number: No. 185.,185.
• Parties: BUFFALO UNION FURNACE CO. v. HELVERING, Com'r of Internal Revenue. HELVERING, Com'r of Internal Revenue, v. BUFFALO UNION FURNACE CO.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (2nd Circuit)

72 F.2d 399 (1934)

BUFFALO UNION FURNACE CO. v. HELVERING, Com'r of Internal Revenue.

HELVERING, Com'r of Internal Revenue, v. BUFFALO UNION FURNACE CO.

No. 185.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

July 31, 1934.

William P. Belden, of Cleveland, Ohio, and Ralph Ulsh, of Buffalo, N. Y. (Belden, Young & Veach, of Cleveland, Ohio, and Slee, O'Brien, Hellings & Ulsh, of Buffalo, N. Y., of counsel), for taxpayer.

Frank J. Wideman, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Sewall Key and Norman D. Keller, Sp. Assts. to Atty. Gen., for Commissioner.

Before L. HAND, SWAN, and CHASE, Circuit Judges.

L. HAND, Circuit Judge.

These appeals (petitions to review) arise upon three returns of the taxpayer for its fiscal years, ending April 30, 1919, 1920 and 1921. The questions involved on the taxpayer's appeal are four: (1) Whether it should have been allowed a deduction for a so-called "relining reserve" for the years 1920 and 1921. (2) If the reserve was properly disallowed, the proper amount to be added for the year 1920. (3) Whether the taxpayer should be allowed to deduct as an ordinary and necessary expense for the year 1919, certain sums spent for restoring a collapsed ore dock. (4) Whether its return for the year 1921 should be surcharged with the sum of $70,863.88, collected by settlement with certain railroads as reparation for unlawful discrimination, between August 1, 1905, and March 31, 1914. The Board decided that the "relining reserve" was not a proper deduction, and refused to allow it, but raised the deduction for depreciation on the whole plant to ten per cent., the Commissioner having allowed only five per cent. This change was made because of the extraordinary rate of destruction of the furnace linings. It next held that the taxpayer had failed to show any error in the amount of the deduction disallowed for lining reserve in 1920; and it also refused to allow as an ordinary and necessary expense the restoration of the dock. The Commissioner had allowed the expense of clearing away the debris, and, as a loss, the depreciated value of the dock as it stood. Finally it charged the taxpayer's return for 1921 with the amount of the full settlement which the railroads paid in that year. The Commissioner at the hearing on the taxpayer's appeal for the year 1919, attempted to get a reconsideration by the Board of his mistaken allowance of the deduction of the "relining reserve." He argued that he was entitled to do this under section 274 (e) of the Revenue Act of 1926 (26 USCA § 1048c); but the Board said no. It held that, having allowed this item so long before, his delay in challenging it had been too great, and barred his remedy. This was the only subject of his appeal.

The Deduction of the "Relining Reserve."

The taxpayer was an iron-founder with three blast furnaces lined with fire-brick. Owing to the great heat necessary, the linings were repeatedly used up and had to be restored; sometimes a lining would last only three months, sometimes five or six years, but the average was between two, and two and a half, years. To provide against the periodic but uncertain lining of the furnaces, the taxpayer had established a practice for a considerable period before 1918 of keeping on its books a reserve to cover the expense when it occurred. Originally this credit was made up of a charge of twenty cents for every ton of iron made, which was increased to thirty cents on November 1, 1916, and to fifty cents on May 1, 1917. This was a common practice among iron-founders and a prudent way to keep the books, as a means of preparing for the heavy sporadic outlays. The taxpayer's position is that such reserves were "ordinary and necessary expenses" of the business and deductible as such. The Commissioner and the Board thought not; they argued that such a reserve was merely for the convenience of the founder, that it represented no outlay, not even a transaction; and that although the taxpayer kept its books on an accrual basis, there was no existing debt to accrue.

There can be no doubt of the correctness of this conclusion. The taxpayer might accrue the cost of relining its furnaces as soon as it contracted to have the work done; but obviously it was no affair of the Treasury that it provided in advance a bookkeeping entry, or even a fund, to meet certain charges when they should arise. No practice, however general in the business, could disguise this, or turn a precaution into a debt. It is quite another matter whether when the contracts for relining were made, they should be treated as deductible "ordinary and necessary expenses," or whether they should be allowed as a depreciation under section 234 (a) (7) of the Revenue Act of 1918 (40 Stat. 1077). That is often a nice question, and it cannot be solved in general terms. Harris & Co. v. Lucas, 48 F.(2d) 187, 188 (C. C. A. 5); Commissioner v. Brier Hill Collieries, 50 F.(2d) 777, 779 (C. C. A. 6); Libby & Blouin v. Com'r, 4 B. T. A. 910, 913. It is of no consequence here in the years 1920 and 1921, because the taxpayer relined no furnaces in either, and there is no evidence to prove that the deduction for depreciation and obsolescence was too small.

But the question does arise in 1919, because, as will appear, we are allowing the Commissioner's appeal which will permit him to cancel the deduction of the "relining reserve" for that year. That was about $127,000, and in that year the taxpayer spent $117,000 for relining one of the furnaces. If the proper allowance is as an expense, the net addition to the income will be only $10,000; if not, it will be $127,000. In the first event obviously the deduction for depreciation cannot also stand, for the Board fixed the rate at ten per cent. to include the cost of periodic relinings. The taxpayer may well prefer to allow the account as it is, with a ten per cent. allowance, than to take the deduction of $117,000 and to have the depreciation reliquidated, say at the five per cent. which the Commissioner originally allowed. But regardless of its preference, an allowance for relining more properly falls under depreciation than repair. The Regulations (article 103 of Regulations 45) did attempt a rigid division. "Repairs in the nature of replacements, to the extent that they arrest deterioration and appreciably prolong the life of the property, should be charged against the depreciation reserve." But what is a "replacement" is left open, and is impossible to define a priori. The substitution of a valve, or of a piece of pipe, would scarcely be one; the truth being that it is too small an incident, too regularly repeated in the life of any large factory. That was at least one reason why the replacement of the piping in Libby & Blouin v. Commissioner, supra, 4 B. T. A. 910, was not treated as a capital expense. We are therefore disposed to call the relining of these furnaces a replacement. The furnace had to be laid off for a considerable time, and the whole interior cleaned of the old brick and relined with new; the expense of this was roughly from $50,000 to $100,000 for each furnace. The more natural way to treat such a charge is to carry it as a depreciation, and we think that the Board was right in so doing. As we have said, the Board added five per cent. to the depreciation allowance for the very purpose of meeting the inordinate depreciation and obsolescence of linings; this was calculated on the whole investment, though it covered only the linings. It seems to us a proper way to deal with the item and since the taxpayer does not claim that the allowance as a whole was insufficient, we affirm the order as to this question.

The Commissioner's Appeal.

The Commissioner's appeal is especially apposite here. In 1919 he had mistakenly allowed the "relining reserve" as a deduction, and it was not until the taxpayer took its own appeal on other grounds, that he sought to cancel it. The Board refused his prayer because of his delay. Its power depends upon section 274 (e) of the Revenue Act of 1926, which explicitly provides that if the Commissioner asserts a claim to a greater deficiency at or before the hearing, the Board may increase it; that is a risk to the taxpayer inherent in his appeal. The Commissioner indeed argues that the Board must consider his claim, no matter what the circumstances, but we need not go so far and we do not; we are content to dispose of this case on the assumption that they have a discretion; but we can see no ground for exercising it against him in this case. The issue raised was not really new; it was the same as that necessarily considered for 1920 and 1921; all the Commissioner asked was that the rulings should be consistent. No proof had become unavailable to the taxpayer; nor had its defence been prejudiced in any other way. All that was needed was to show that the Commissioner had allowed the deduction originally. The taxpayer, having seen fit for any reason to seek a reassessment of its tax for that year, threw open its income for all purposes, and the Board was bound not to do justice by halves. Of course if the deduction is cancelled, a corresponding deduction of 10% for depreciation must be allowed, unless that has already been done. This will stand in the place of the actual expense of relining the "A" furnace, in accordance with our discussion under the last heading. The order is reversed pro tanto and the cause remanded for recomputation of the tax.

The Dock Repairs.

In the autumn of 1918, and therefore within the fiscal year of 1919, a large part of the taxpayer's dock — 400 out of 2,300 feet — slid into the Buffalo River. It had to be replaced, but before that could be done the channel had to be cleared and many tons of ore salvaged, which had gone out with the dock. Thereafter the dock was rebuilt, and the land back of it filled in; it had gone out to a width of fifty feet. All this was done in most substantial fashion; loaded cribs for the dock, and for the hinterland, piles...