Burnet v. North American Oil Consolidated
Decision Date | 14 September 1931 |
Docket Number | No. 6315.,6315. |
Citation | 50 F.2d 752 |
Parties | BURNET, Commissioner of Internal Revenue, v. NORTH AMERICAN OIL CONSOLIDATED. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
G. A. Youngquist, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Sewall Key and Helen R. Carloss, Sp. Assts. to the Atty. Gen. (C. M. Charest, Gen. Counsel, and Prew Savoy and Allin Pierce, Sp. Attys., Bureau of Internal Revenue, all of Washington, D. C., of counsel), for petitioner.
Herbert W. Clark and Leon de Fremery, both of San Francisco, Cal., for respondent.
Before WILBUR and SAWTELLE, Circuit Judges, and NETERER, District Judge.
Petitioner seeks to review a decision of the Board of Tax Appeals with relation to a deficiency tax of respondent for income and profit taxes for the year 1917. The sole question involved is whether or not the sum of $171,972.20 derived from the sale of oil produced on section 2 during the year 1916, impounded in the hands of a receiver appointed by the federal court for that purpose, and retained by him until 1917, when under order of court it was turned over to the respondent, was taxable as income for the year 1917. The land which produced this oil was government land which had been in the possession of the respondent under placer mining claims. The government contended that, as the land had been withdrawn from location by an order of President Taft, the respondent was not entitled to a patent. An action was brought to terminate the respondent's right, and in that action the receiver was appointed. The respondent was a large operating company holding many pieces of property, and this litigation affected only the property in section 2. The trial court determined the matter in favor of the respondent U. S. v. North American Oil Consolidated (D. C.) 242 F. 723. This decision was affirmed by the Circuit Court of Appeals of this circuit (264 F. 336). The case was finally disposed of by the Supreme Court on March 21, 1922, when it issued its mandate dismissing the appeal thereto in pursuance of a stipulation of counsel. 258 U. S. 633, 42 S. Ct. 315, 66 L. Ed. 802. The money thus impounded had been paid over to the respondent after the decision of the District Court in 1917.
The Board of Tax Appeals held, in accordance with the contention of the respondent, that the income impounded by the receiver should have been returned by him as his income for the year 1916. In that regard we quote from the opinion of the Board of Tax Appeals as follows: .
The petitioner contends that section 13, subdivision (c), of the Revenue Act of 1916, 39 Stat. 756, 771, does not apply, for the reason that it is inapplicable to a receiver holding only a part of the property of the taxpayer corporation. This section provides for returns by receivers where they are operating "the property or business of corporations," etc. It is provided that they "shall make returns of net income as and for such corporations, * * * in the same manner and form as such organizations are hereinbefore required to make returns." It provides that the tax should be assessed in the same manner as if assessed directly against the organizations of whose businesses or properties they have custody or control. It will be observed that, as applied to the receiver having possession of the entire property of the corporation, etc., as in the case of receiver in bankruptcy, the statutory provisions with reference to such taxation are readily applicable, but, where only a portion of the property of the corporation is in the hands of a receiver, it would follow that only a portion of the income of the corporation was in the possession of the receiver, and the tax could not be assessed and collected in the same manner as if assessed directly against the taxpayer, unless for purposes of assessment and collection it was in some fashion combined with the income, if any, received directly by the corporation or in case of loss by the corporation and corresponding deduction was made therefrom. While this consideration does not necessarily determine the proper interpretation of the statute (section 13 c supra), it clearly points to the conclusion that section 13 (c) applies only to receivers who are operating the entire property or business of a corporation, etc. The Secretary of the Treasury, soon after the enactment of the statute in 1916, adopted regulations based upon that view of the statute (article 26, par. 181, art. 209). We quote therefrom as follows:
Later additional regulations were promulgated pursuant to 40 Stat. 1057, 1143, § 1309 (26 USCA § 1245 note):
Article 622, after providing for returns of income by receivers, concludes as follows: ...
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Commissioner of Internal Rev. v. Alamitos Land Co., 9404.
...Court in North American Oil Consolidated v. Burnet, 286 U.S. 417, 52 S.Ct. 613, 76 L.Ed. 1197, affirming the decision of this court (50 F.2d 752). In this case most of the points raised by the respondent herein were determined adversely to its contentions. It was held that the amount so pai......