U.S. v. Friendship College, Inc.

• Decision Date: 05 July 1984
• Docket Number: No. 83-2200,83-2200
• Citation: 737 F.2d 430
• Parties: -612, 84-2 USTC P 9629, 10 Collier Bankr.Cas.2d 1151, 18 Ed. Law Rep. 527, Bankr. L. Rep. P 69,925, Unempl.Ins.Rep. CCH 15,419 UNITED STATES of America, Appellant, v. FRIENDSHIP COLLEGE, INC., Appellee. In re FRIENDSHIP COLLEGE, INC., Debtor.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 430

737 F.2d 430

55 A.F.T.R.2d 85-612, 84-2 USTC P 9629,

10 Collier Bankr.Cas.2d 1151, 18 Ed. Law Rep. 527,

Bankr. L. Rep. P 69,925,

Unempl.Ins.Rep. CCH 15,419

UNITED STATES of America, Appellant, v. FRIENDSHIP COLLEGE, INC., Appellee.

In re FRIENDSHIP COLLEGE, INC., Debtor.

No. 83-2200.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued May 8, 1984.

Decided July 5, 1984.

George L. Hastings, Jr., Tax Div., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C. (Charles R. Brewer, U.S. Atty., Asheville, N.C., Glenn L. Archer, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Michael L. Paup, Wynette J. Hewett, Tax Div., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., on brief), for appellant.

R. Keith Johnson, Charlotte, N.C., for appellee.

Before RUSSELL and ERVIN, Circuit Judges, and HAYNSWORTH, Senior Circuit Judge.

DONALD RUSSELL, Circuit Judge:

This case of first impression requires us to interpret the Bankruptcy Reform Act's (hereafter the Act) treatment of taxes withheld by a bankrupt employer from its employees' wages, but never paid by the bankruptcy estate to the Internal Revenue Service. The question is whether, as the government argued, these taxes are payable as a first priority administrative expense out of the bankruptcy estate, or merely as a sixth priority tax liability, as the bankruptcy trustee contended. For the reasons stated below, we find that the taxes in question, as well as the penalties and interest thereon, are first priority expenses.

I.

On 26 February 1981, Friendship College, the debtor below and a South Carolina non-profit organization, filed for Chapter 11 reorganization. Following the filing, in the Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of North Carolina, the debtor was left in possession to act as bankruptcy trustee, and the bankruptcy estate was created from all the debtor's assets at the time of filing.

During the reorganization, Friendship College continued to pay wages to its employees, and to withhold the required amounts of FICA and income tax from its employees' paychecks. It neither paid the withheld amounts to the government as it should have, nor did it pay its own employer's share of FICA. The government subsequently assessed the bankruptcy estate for the unpaid taxes, and for penalties, and interest thereon.

By 15 December 1981, when it was obvious that Friendship College's Chapter 11 reorganization was not effective, the bankruptcy court appointed a trustee in bankruptcy to supervise the liquidation of the estate, and on 7 January 1983 approved a liquidation plan. The government filed a claim for the taxes due from the reorganization period, and contended that the taxes, penalties, and interest were payable under the first priority category, "administrative expenses," Secs. 507(a)(1) and 503(b)(1)(B)(i) of the Bankruptcy Code, 11 U.S.C. Secs. 507(a)(1) and 503(b)(1)(B)(i). First priority expenses are to be paid from the bankruptcy estate before all other unsecured claims. The trustee contended that the claims were payable only under Sec. 507(a)(6), the sixth category of claims, which includes most tax liabilities.

The parties stipulated to this direct appeal from the May 9, 1983, order of the Bankruptcy Court, 34 B.R. 126, holding that the tax claims in question are not entitled to first priority status. The bankruptcy court held that the amounts due for the employer's share of the FICA taxes are entitled to first priority status, but that the amounts withheld as the employees' share of FICA and income taxes are entitled only to sixth priority status. It also held all interest on all tax amounts here in question to be entitled to no priority.

II.

The first issue on appeal is whether the taxes in question are to be considered first priority administrative expenses, not sixth priority expenses as found by the bankruptcy court. Under Sec. 503(b)(1)(B)(i), administrative expenses include:

any tax incurred by the estate, except a tax of a kind specified in Sec. 507(a)(6) of this title.

Section 507 gives the order of priority for claims and expenses of the bankruptcy estate. Section 507(a)(6)(C) is for taxes:

required to be collected or withheld and for which the debtor is liable in whatever capacity.

The government's argument relied in large part on the difference between the phrases "for which the debtor is liable," which implies pre-petition liabilities, and "incurred by the estate," which necessarily means post-petition liabilities, since by definition there can be no bankruptcy estate until the petition in bankruptcy is filed. For the reasons stated below, we agree with the government.

The bankruptcy court construed the language "incurred by the estate" to preclude inclusion of taxes withheld from wages paid by the estate, on the grounds that such taxes are incurred by the employees, not the estate. After looking at the statute's language, the bankruptcy court divided the taxes claimed here into two categories, and treated the employer's share of FICA taxes as having been "incurred by the estate," and entitled to first priority treatment, but treated the amount withheld from wages as not "incurred by the estate," or alternatively, as excepted from first priority treatment by Sec. 507(a)(6). On appeal, the government contested only the finding as to the taxes withheld from the employees' wages.

As both sides agree, the old bankruptcy law would have made wages, and taxes withheld from wages earned and paid after the filing of the bankruptcy petition, a first priority claim. The current law became effective (in most respects) on 6 Nov. 1978, and most changes from the old act are explicitly discussed in the legislative history of the new Act.

The language of the statute, we think, implies that the bankruptcy estate should pay the taxes here in question as first priority expenses, because the word "estate" implies post-petition liabilities. The Internal Revenue Code provides other support for this conclusion. The Code, at 26 U.S.C. Sec. 3401, requires that the employer withhold taxes from employees' wages, and at Sec. 3403, makes the employer "liable for the payment of taxes required to be deducted and withheld." Thus the Code itself treats taxes withheld from wages as a liability of the employer, not the employee, even though the word "incurred" is not used. Other courts have used the word "incurred" to refer to liability of the bankruptcy estate for payment of taxes withheld, see, e.g., Otte v. U.S., 419 U.S. 43, 95 S.Ct. 247, 42 L.Ed.2d 212 (1974).

We also believe that the language of the statute here is sufficiently ambiguous to warrant consideration of the...