CH Mead Coal Co. v. Commissioner of Internal Rev.
Decision Date | 28 August 1939 |
Docket Number | No. 4469.,4469. |
Citation | 106 F.2d 388 |
Parties | C. H. MEAD COAL CO. v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
Edgar J. Goodrich, of Washington, D. C. (Guggenheimer & Untermyer, of Washington, D. C., on the brief), for petitioner.
Ellis N. Slack, Sp. Asst. to Atty. Gen. (Sewall Key, Sp. Asst. to Atty. Gen., on the brief), for respondent.
Before PARKER and NORTHCOTT, Circuit Judges, and H. H. WATKINS, District Judge.
This is a petition to review a decision of the United States Board of Tax Appeals involving a deficiency in income taxes of the petitioner, C. H. Mead Coal Company, a West Virginia corporation, for the year 1934 in the amount of $1,475.16. 38 B. T. A. 1163, 1164.
After the Commissioner determined a deficiency the taxpayer applied to the Board for a redetermination. After a hearing the Board made findings of fact and rendered an opinion upholding the action of the Commissioner, two members of the Board dissenting. On December 30, 1938, a decision was entered in accordance with the opinion of the majority of the Board.
There is no dispute as to the facts and as found by the Board they are as follows:
The only question presented for our consideration is whether the petitioner is entitled to percentage depletion for the year 1934.
The pertinent statutes are:
Sec. 23 (m) Revenue Act of 1934, 26 U.S.C.A. § 23 (m).
Sec. 114 (b) (4) Revenue Act of 1932, 26 U.S.C.A. § 114 note.
Sec. 114 (b) (4) Revenue Act of 1934, 26 U.S.C.A. § 114(b) (4).
The contention on behalf of the petitioner is first, that the election of percentage depletion made in its tax return for the year 1933 held good for "all succeeding taxable years" and therefore entitled it to percentage depletion for the year 1934 and, second, that if another election was required by the Revenue Act of 1934, in making its amended return for the year 1934, which amendment the Commissioner should have allowed, it had complied with the requirement.
It is clear that if the petitioner has made the election required by the Act of 1934, what it did in its return for the year 1933 is immaterial. We will therefore first consider whether the Act of 1934 has been complied with by the taxpayer. We are of the opinion that it has.
Section 114 (b) (4) of the Revenue Act of 1934 reads as follows:
* * *."
In using the words "first return" Congress evidently intended to include a completed first return or a first return as properly amended and did not intend to limit the taxpayer's right of election to the first form filed. Any other construction would, in fairness to the taxpayer, be too narrow and restricted. A first return is no less a first return because amended, provided the amendment be timely and is made to correct a mistake, made without any intent on the part of the taxpayer to take any undue advantage as to its tax payments, and without any bad faith. A different construction would, as said in the case of Glenn v. Oertel Co., 6 Cir., 97 F.2d 495, 496, permit the government to lay a tax upon the taxpayer's errors rather than its income. In that case the court discussed what constituted a "first return" and said: * * *."
Here the taxpayer, being badly advised, failed to claim depletion on a percentage basis in the first form of the return it made but immediately upon learning of its mistake, and before the time for filing its return for the next succeeding year, filed an amendment claiming the depletion to which it was admittedly entitled.
When we consider the fact that in its return for the year 1933 the...
To continue reading
Request your trial-
Haggar Co v. Helvering
...return' under § 114(b)(4) of the Revenue Act of 1934, 48 Stat. 680, 710, 26 U.S.C.A. Int.Rev.Acts, page 702; C. H. Mead Coal Co. v. Commissioner, 4 Cir., 106 F.2d 388, 390; cf. Pacific National Co. v. Welch, 304 U.S. 191, 194, 58 S.Ct. 857, 858, 82 L.Ed. 1282. Thus read the statute gives fu......
-
Richardson v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 183
...held to a choice made under a misapprehension of his legal liability. There are cases squinting in this direction. C. H. Mead Coal Co. v. Commissioner, 4 Cir., 106 F.2d 388 (bad advice, but error corrected before subsequent return filed); Momsen-Dunnegan-Ryan case, supra (dictum, as to igno......
-
Bookwalter v. Mayer
...Revenue, 311 U.S. 55, 58, 61 S.Ct. 95, 85 L.Ed. 36; Klinghamer v. Brodrick, 10 Cir., 242 F.2d 563; C. H. Mead Coal Co. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 4 Cir., 106 F.2d 388, 391; Morrow, Becker & Ewing, Inc. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 5 Cir., 57 F.2d 1, 2; Stewart v. United St......
-
Woodward v. United States, Civ. A. No. 67-C-16-C.
...made on their original return. Under Welch, they are entitled to no more than this. Finally, the decision in C. H. Mead Coal Company v. C.I.R., 106 F.2d 388 (4th Cir. 1939), cited by plaintiffs, is no longer controlling. There, the question was whether a depletion allowance statute, which r......