Helvering v. Mountain Producers Corporation

Decision Date07 March 1938
Docket NumberNo. 600,600
PartiesHELVERING, Commissioner of Internal Revenue, v. MOUNTAIN PRODUCERS CORPORATION
CourtU.S. Supreme Court

[Syllabus from pages 376-378 intentionally omitted] Messrs. Homer S. Cummings, Atty. Gen., and Golden W. Bell, Asst. Sol. Gen., of Washington, D.C., for petitioner.

Mr. Harold D. Roberts, of Denver, Colo., for respondent.

Mr. Chief Justice HUGHES delivered the opinion of the Court.

Respondent, Mountain Producers Corporation, owned all the capital stock of the Wyoming Associated Oil Corporation and filed a consolidated income tax return for the year 1925. Two distinct questions are involved with respect to the taxable income of the above-mentioned affiliate. These are (1) as to the amount of the gross income of the affiliate for the purpose of the statutory allowance for depletion in the case of oil and gas wells (Revenue Act 1926, §§ 204(c)(2), 234(a)(8), 44 Stat. 14, 41; and (2) as to a claim of exemption from taxation of income received by the affiliate under a trust agreement with the owner of an oil and gas lease from the State of Wyoming. The Board of Tax Appeals decided against respondent upon both points (34 B.T.A. 409) and its decision was reversed by the Circuit Court of Appeals, 10 Cir., 92 F.2d 78. Because of an asserted conflict with a decision of the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in the case of Bankline Oil Company v. Commissioner, 90 F.2d 899 (see Helvering v. Bankline Oil Company, 303 U.S. 362, 58 S.Ct. 616, 82 L.Ed. 897, decided this day), we granted certiorari. 302 U.S. 681, 58 S.Ct. 409, 82 L.Ed. —-.

First.—Wyoming Associated, organized in 1919, held certain placer mining claims, leases and operating agreements in the Salt Creek Oil Field in Natrona County, Wyo. Pursuant to the Oil and Gas Leasing Act of Congress of February 25, 1920, 41 Stat. 437, the company exchanged its placer claims for government leases and later certain exchanges were made with the Midwest Oil Company and the Wyoming Oil Fields Company. In 1923, Wyoming Associated made a contract with the Midwest Refining Company by which the former agreed to sell to the latter all the oil produced by it in the Salt Creek Oil Field and the Refining Company agreed to purchase such oil until January, 1934, upon a sliding scale of prices based upon the average price received by the Refining Company for gasoline and kerosene. Wyoming Associated agreed to give the Refining Company free use of all storage facilities, pipe lines, buildings and equipment, and so much of the oil and gas produced as might be reasonably necessary for production pruposes. The Refining Company agreed, as part of the price of the oil thus purchased, to drill, case and maintain all wells, supply water, install and operate pumps, and conduct all development and production operations. The Refining Company agreed to take delivery of the purchased oil at the outlet gates of the measuring tanks located at or near the wells.

Respondent contended that the gross income of Wyoming Associated from its properties during the taxable year, for the purpose of the statutory allowance for depletion, consisted of the total cash payments received by Wyoming Associated, plus the cost of production defrayed by the Refining Company under its contract. The amount of that cost was shown by stipulation. The Board of Tax Appeals limited the gross income of Wyoming Associated to the cash payments received. The Circuit Court of Appeals was of the opinion that the cost of production incurred by the Refining Company should be added in the view that, had Wyoming Associated produced the oil at its own expense, its gross income would have been the amount which it received for the oil sold and it would thus have obtained in cash the proportionate amount which represented the cost of the production.

Laying emphasis upon the provision of the contract that the Refining Company should perform its services as a part of the purchase price of the oil, respondent contends that it is irrelevant that the Refining Company acted for its own benefit; that the production and lifting services were performed prior to delivery of the oil, and that the Refining Company was acting as the agent for Wyoming Associated down to the point of delivery and not until then became a vendee; that thus Wyoming Associated did not sell oil under the ground but oil severed from the ground and treated for delivery; that it was not essential for respondent to show that the total price under the contract must be either above or below the market price at any specified time, and that the price as fixed by the contract controlled the dealings and the taxes of the parties. Respondent agrees that an interest in oil or gas or some type of ownership is essential to the right of deduction for depletion and assumes that no one but Wyoming Associated owned any interest in the oil and gas in place.

The government argues that the cash price received for the oil is the seller's entire 'gross income from the property' where, as in this instance, the oil is purchased under a contract by which a refiner agrees to defray the expense of the development and production operations and to pay a cash price based on the prices it obtains for the products it sells at its refinery; that the oil production operations were conducted by the Refining Company for its own benefit in order to obtain the oil at a price it deemed to be favorable; that the method of determining the purchase price under the contract was not related to the field market price of oil but was expressly related to a different basis, which might be greater, that is, to a basis consisting of the current prices obtained by the Refining Company for its gasoline and kerosene; that, if the development operations had been unsuccess- ful and no oil had been produced, the services of the Refining Company would still have been paid for by the owner's promise to sell at a fixed price whatever oil might be produced, and that this should be taken to be the meaning of the provision that the Refining Company should perform its services as part of the price for oil purchased; that the owner of oil in place, instead of preparing it for delivery and sale, may prefer to lessen his work, lower his price and thus decrease his gross income from the property and in such case the services which the buyer may perform are not to be regarded as part of that income.

We think that the government's argument is sound. The evident purpose of the statutory provision controls. It is a unique provision to meet a special case. Analogies sought to be drawn from other applications of the revenue acts may be delusive and lead us far from the intent of Congress in this instance. Congress has recognized that in fairness there should be compensation to the owner for the exhaustion of the mineral deposits in the course of production. United States v. Ludey, 274 U.S. 295, 302, 47 S.Ct. 608, 610, 71 L.Ed. 1054. But to appraise the actual extent of depletion on the particular facts in relation to each taxpayer would give rise to problems of considerable perplexity and would create administrative difficulties which it was intended to overcome by laying down a simple rule which could be easily applied. To this end, the taxpayer was permitted to deduct a specified percentage of his gross income from the property. See United States v. Dakota-Montana Oil Company, 288 U.S. 459, 461, 53 S.Ct. 435, 436, 77 L.Ed. 893. Congress was free to give such an arbitrary allowance as the deduction was an act of grace. In answer to the contention that the provision may produce 'unjust and unequal results,' we have remarked that this is likely to be so 'wherever a rule of thumb is applied without a detailed examination of the facts affecting each taxpayer.' Helvering v. Twin Bell Syndicate, 293 U.S. 312, 321, 55 S.Ct. 174, 178, 79 L.Ed. 383.

The rule being of this sort for obvious purposes of administrative convenience, we must apply it in the simple manner it contemplates. The 27 1/2 per cent. allowed is a fixed factor, not to be increased or lessened by asserted equities. The term 'gross income from the property' means gross income from the oil and gas (Helvering v. Twin Bell Syndicate, supra) and the term should be taken in its natural sense. With the motives which lead the taxpayer to be satisfied with the proceeds he receives we are not concerned. If, in this instance, the development operations had failed to produce oil, it would hardly be said that the expense of drilling, borne under contract by another, constituted 'gross income' of the taxpayer within the meaning of the statute. Nor, when oil or gas is produced, does the statute base the percentage on market value. The gross income from time to time may be more or less than market value according to the bearing of particular contracts. We do not think that we are at liberty to construct a theoretical gross income by recourse to the expenses of production operations. The Refining Company for its own purposes undertook the expense of those operations, and Wyoming Associated was content to receive as its own return the cash payments for the oil produced, leaving to the Refining Company the risks of production.

We are of the opinion that the cash payments made by the Refining Company constituted the gross income of Wyoming Associated and was the basis for the computation of the depletion allowance.

Second.—The State of Wyoming, in 1919, made a lease for the term of five years to the Midwest Oil Company covering a section of 'school land' (section 36, township 40 north, range 79 west) for the purpose of producing oil and gas, reserving a royalty to the State. The lease was superseded in 1923 by another lease of like import, running from 1924, the royalty to the state being fixed at 65 per cent. of oil and gas produced. In 1923, the Midwest Oil Company executed a declaration of trust, that it held...

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