CENT. ILLINOIS PUBLIC SERV. CO. v. United States, Civ. No. 4920.
| Decision Date | 29 December 1975 |
| Docket Number | Civ. No. 4920. |
| Citation | 405 F. Supp. 748 |
| Parties | CENTRAL ILLINOIS PUBLIC SERVICE COMPANY, Plaintiff, v. UNITED STATES of America, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of Illinois |
Sharon L. King, Isham, Lincoln & Beale, Chicago, Ill., for plaintiff.
Nafzinger & Otten, Kenneth H. Otten, Springfield, Ill., Michael von Mandel, Trial Atty., Tax Div., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., Donald B. Mackay, U. S. Atty., Springfield, Ill., for defendant.
FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
This case was tried before the Court without a jury. Thereafter counsel filed briefs.
The issue is found for Plaintiff and against the Defendant.
That only issue is whether or not the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 required that the Plaintiff company withhold taxes on payments it made on occasion to some of its employees for lunch. If an employee was away from home and travelling on the company's business during the day and ate lunch wherever he was without returning for that purpose, the company paid the employee in one classification an amount not to exceed $1.40, and certain other employees an amount as reimbursement for the actual cost of the lunch. These classifications related only to the particular geographical division of the company where the employee worked, or his union status and are not relevant to the tax question. Overnight trips also are not involved. The company considered the lunch payments to be travel expenses not subject to withholding and therefore nothing was withheld by the company on these payments. The Government claims however that these lunch payments were additional wages and therefore subject to withholding. The Government assessed a deficiency against the company in 1971 for additional withholding taxes together with interest for four taxable quarters in 1963 amounting to $25,188.50 in taxes with $11,427.22 in taxes, or a total amount of $36,615.72. The company paid this amount and brings this suit for refund.
There appears to be little dispute about the underlying facts.
The company is an Illinois corporation having its principal office in Springfield, Illinois, and is a public utility engaged in the generating, transmissions, distribution and sale of electric energy and the distribution and sale of natural gas in Illinois.
The company reimbursed its employees for legitimate travel expenses which included these lunch payments in accordance with its established policy. If the employee was on a required trip for the company's business, the employee made an accounting on a company form which he turned in to his supervisor for approval followed by payment by the company. For employees in one category this was not to...
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Central Illinois Public Service Company v. United States
...The District Court ruled in the Company's favor, holding that the reimbursements in question were not wages subject to withholding. 405 F.Supp. 748 (1975). The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed. 540 F.2d 300 (1976). Because that decision appeared to be in confl......
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CENTRAL ILLINOIS PUB. SVC. CO. V. UNITED STATES
...The District Court ruled in the Company's favor, holding that the reimbursements in question were not wages subject to withholding. 405 F.Supp. 748 (1975). The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed. 540 F.2d 300 (1976). Because that decision appeared to be in confl......
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Hotel Conquistador, Inc. v. US
...even for 1963, not "a money making proposition for an employee.'" (435 U.S. at 23 n. 3, 98 S.Ct. at 918 citing the District Court, 405 F.Supp. 748, 749.) A $1.25 figure for 1971 must be considered more modest than modest. Any "total package" view of the $1.25 would also have to take into ac......