Lewyt Corp. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

• Decision Date: 14 July 1954
• Docket Number: No. 184,Docket 22871.,184
• Citation: 215 F.2d 518
• Parties: LEWYT CORP. v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

215 F.2d 518 (1954)

LEWYT CORP. v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE.

No. 184, Docket 22871.

United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Argued April 15, 1954.

Decided July 14, 1954.

Freidin & Littauer, New York City (Eugene Meacham, Fred R. Tansill and Seymour Sheriff, Washington, D. C., of counsel), for petitioner.

H. Brian Holland, Asst. Atty. Gen. (Ellis N. Slack, Lee A. Jackson, and I. Henry Kutz, Sp. Assts. to Atty. Gen., of counsel), for respondent.

Before CLARK, HINCKS and HARLAN, Circuit Judges.

HARLAN, Circuit Judge.

We are asked to review a decision of the Tax Court, 18 T.C. 1245, determining a deficiency of $7,129.21 in petitioner's income tax for the taxable year ended September 30, 1944, and a deficiency of $466,557.19 in excess profits tax for the taxable year ended September 30, 1945. The taxpayer is a New York corporation engaged in the manufacture of vacuum cleaners and electronic devices. For tax purposes it used a fiscal year ending each September 30 and reported on an accrual basis. Each fiscal year referred to in this opinion will be designated simply by the calendar year in which it ended.

In the two years in question § 23(s) of the Internal Revenue Code, 26 U.S.C.A. § 23(s), provided that in computing net income there should be allowed as a deduction (from gross income) the "net operating loss deduction" provided in § 122, 26 U.S.C.A. § 122. Section 122(a) defines "`net operating loss'" as "the excess of the deductions allowed by this chapter over the gross income, with the exceptions, additions, and limitations provided in subsection (d)." We are not concerned here with any of the provisions of subsection (d) except that contained in (d) (6) which permits the deduction of taxes "imposed by Subchapter E of Chapter 2 excess profits taxes paid or accrued within the taxable year," subject to certain rules not presently relevant. If a taxpayer has a net operating loss for a given taxable year, § 122(b) (1) and (2) and § 122 (c)¹ provide that it may be applied, in accordance with prescribed specifications, as a deduction in computing net income for the two preceding taxable years (called a "carry-back") and for the two succeeding taxable years (called a "carry-over"), the starting point being with the second preceding taxable year, and any excess being carried successively, until exhausted, into the subsequent years ending with the taxable year secondly succeeding the year in which the net operating loss occurred.

The taxpayer had net operating losses in each of the years 1946 and 1947, and the dispute we have before us relates primarily to (a) the proper computation of such losses for each of those years, and (b) the application of such losses to the years 1944 and 1945, in each of which the taxpayer had substantial taxable net income.

We come first to the questions relating to the year 1945 in respect of which the Tax Court sustained the determination of the Commissioner that there was a deficiency in excess profits taxes of more than $460,000.

The Commissioner determined that in 1947 the taxpayer had a net operating loss of $786,383.25, which he allowed as a "carry-back" deduction to 1945. The taxpayer claimed additional "carry-backs" to 1945 aggregating $1,381,402.33 by reason of (a) the remittance to the Collector in 1947 of $300,008.87 in respect of excess profits taxes for the years 1943, 1944 and 1945 which, it is asserted, should have been added to the net operating loss for 1947; (b) the remittance to the Collector in 1947 of $55,949.04 interest on the foregoing amount and on some $12,000 of additional income taxes for 1943, which, it is claimed, should also have been added to the 1947 net operating loss; and (c) the failure to allow any portion of the net operating loss for 1946, claimed to be $1,025,444.42, as a "carry-back" to 1945. Each of these claims was denied by the Commissioner, who was sustained by the Tax Court. The taxpayer also contends that the Tax Court erred in failing to credit on the asserted excess profits tax deficiency for 1945 the sum of $108,437.36, which the taxpayer remitted to the Commissioner in 1947 in respect of 1945 excess profits taxes (this amount being part of the $300,008.87 referred to above).

1. 1947 Principal Remittances

These remittances aggregating $300,008.87 were made under the following circumstances:

Prior to 1947, a dispute arose between the taxpayer and the Collector as to the taxpayer's 1943 tax liability. On August 30, 1946, the Collector issued a statutory notice asserting income and excess profits tax deficiencies for 1943 in the amount of $7,757.49 and $194,992.51, respectively. The taxpayer objected to these deficiencies and took the matter to the Tax Court. Meanwhile, settlement negotiations were opened. On September 29, 1947, the taxpayer's auditor, believing that a formula for settlement had been reached, recomputed the tax liability for 1943 and sent the Collector a check for $190,002.16, of which $154,473.30 represented additional taxes for 1943 computed in accordance with the supposed settlement formula, and $35,528.86 the interest on such sum from December 15, 1943. The Collector deposited this check on September 29, 1947 in his "Suspense Account."

Notwithstanding this transaction, settlement conferences continued down to October 30, 1947, when they were broken off, the Head of the Technical Staff of the New York Division advising the Division Counsel on November 6, 1947 that a satisfactory settlement had not been reached and that defense of the case should proceed. However, negotiations were evidently resumed, for on February 24, 1948 a settlement stipulation was filed settling, among other things, the asserted 1943 excess profits tax deficiency for the sum of $140,147.87, which was $1,470.26 less than the amount attributable to excess profits taxes ($141,618.13) in the taxpayer's remittance of September 29, 1947.

On September 29, 1947, the taxpayer also forwarded to the Collector a check for $178,810.92, stated in the letter of transmittal to represent additional taxes of $49,953.38 for 1944, with interest in the amount of $8,492.07, and of $108,437.36 for 1945, with interest in the amount of $11,928.11. This remittance was predicated on a Revenue Agent's examination of the taxpayer's books for 1944 and 1945 (as well as 1946 and 1947), and a computation by the taxpayer's auditor applying in respect of excess profits taxes the same supposed settlement formula as underlay the taxpayer's remittance relating to 1943 excess profits taxes. Although no deficiency notice had been issued, and no settlement negotiations had been begun as to 1944 and 1945 taxes, the factors giving rise to the alleged excess profits tax deficiency for 1943 were deemed equally applicable to 1944 and 1945. The Collector also deposited this second remittance in his "Suspense Account."

The taxpayer charged on its books to earned surplus the principal amounts of these two remittances as tax payments, viz.: $154,473.30 for 1943, $49,953.38 for 1944, and $108,437.36 for 1945. Of the first item, $12,855.17 represented income taxes (with which we are not concerned here) and the balance, aggregating $300,008.87, represented excess profits taxes. The interest payments on these three items were charged to 1947 expense on the taxpayer's books, viz.: $35,528.86 (1943), $8,492.07 (1944) and $11,928.11 (1945), or a total of $55,949.04.

The taxpayer's position that the $300,008.87 of remittances in respect of excess profits taxes should have been allowed as a deduction in computing the net operating loss for 1947 (thereby increasing the "carry-back" to 1945) rests upon § 122(d) (6). As heretofore noted, this section gives a deduction for "the amount" of excess profits taxes "imposed" which were "paid or accrued within the taxable year".

Preliminarily it should be said that while there is an issue relating to the computation of the 1946 net operating loss (which we discuss later) as to the correctness of the Tax Court's holding that in the case of an accrual taxpayer, as this taxpayer was, this section permits only the deduction of excess profits taxes which accrued within the taxable year, for the point now under discussion the taxpayer accepts the decision of the Tax Court in this respect as being correct. It can afford to do so since it is clear that none of these excess profits taxes had accrued prior to 1947 because they were in dispute — see Dixie Pine Products Co. v. Com'r, 1944, 320 U.S. 516, 64 S.Ct. 364, 88 L.Ed. 270 — and whether they accrued in 1947 depends upon whether they can be considered as "paid" in that year despite the fact that the dispute over them was not settled until at least 1948. See Chestnut Securities Co. v. United States, 1945, 62 F. Supp. 574, 104 Ct.Cl. 489, and Lehigh Valley Railroad v. Com'r, 1949, 12 T.C. 977. So the sole question with which we are now concerned is whether these 1947 remittances constituted taxes "paid" within the taxable year, that is 1947, within the meaning of § 122(d)(6). We think they did not.

A remittance made in respect of an asserted or putative tax liability in no proper sense constitutes a tax "payment" except to the extent that it is effective to discharge such liability in whole or in part. That in turn depends upon the agreement of the taxpayer and the Commissioner or his representatives, acting within their powers, or upon whether the taxing authorities have a duty under the particular circumstances involved to accept the remittance as a payment of the tax in full or pro tanto.

Here there was admittedly no agreement in this respect between the taxpayer and the taxing authorities in 1947, and the only question is whether the Collector was, in the setting of these remittances, under a duty to accept them as "payments" pro tanto of the asserted or putative tax liabilities against Lewyt. We think he had no such duty. The taxpayer's 1943 tax liability was still in dispute on ...