United States v. Bond, 11 Civ. 5608 (BMC)

Decision Date15 September 2012
Docket Number11 Civ. 5608 (BMC)
PartiesUNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff/Appellant/Cross-Appellee, v. EDWARD P. BOND, Liquidating Trustee of the LIQUIDATING TRUST FOR PT-1 COMMUNICATIONS, INC., PT-1 LONG DISTANCE, INC. AND PT-1 TECHNOLOGIES, INC. Defendant/Appellee/ Cross-Appellant.
CourtU.S. District Court — Eastern District of New York

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff/Appellant/Cross-Appellee,
v.
EDWARD P. BOND, Liquidating Trustee of the LIQUIDATING TRUST FOR PT-1 COMMUNICATIONS,
INC., PT-1 LONG DISTANCE, INC. AND PT-1 TECHNOLOGIES, INC. Defendant/Appellee/ Cross-Appellant.

11 Civ. 5608 (BMC)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

Dated: September 15, 2012


MEMORANDUM
DECISION AND ORDER

COGAN, District Judge.

Before me is an appeal from a final order of the Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York, which incorporated four interlocutory orders. The United States (hereinafter the "IRS") challenges these interlocutory orders and the final order on eight separate grounds, most of which have sub-arguments. The Liquidating Trustee ("the Trustee") appeals on one ground. The final order of the Bankruptcy Court is hereby affirmed, substantially for the reasons set forth in the four interlocutory orders and the denial of a motion for reconsideration filed by the Liquidating Trustee and issued subsequent to the final order, with one exception. I conclude that the Bankruptcy Court was without jurisdiction to enjoin the IRS's future exercise of its rights to setoff and recoupment. I write here to explain my reasoning for that conclusion, as well as to clarify my reasons for affirmance on certain issues and to address issues not discussed in the Bankruptcy Court's decisions.

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BACKGROUND

This case concerns the income tax treatment of three related telecommunications entities, PT-1 Communications, Inc., PT-1 Long Distance, Inc., and PT-1 Technologies, Inc. (hereinafter "PT-1" or the "PT-1 Entities"). In 2000, WorldCom engineered a hostile takeover of both PT-1 and its parent company, the Star Group, which culminated in PT-1 and the Star Group filing for bankruptcy in 2001. WorldCom itself filed for bankruptcy in 2002. During PT-1's decade-old bankruptcy proceedings, numerous disputes have arisen with regard to PT-1's tax treatment during this tumultuous period. These disputes have now been resolved by the Bankruptcy Court and are before this Court on appeal. Roughly $16 million plus a decade of interest is at stake, with the United States seeking to recover $7 million in postpetition taxes, and the trustee seeking to recover alleged pre- and postpetition overpayments totaling $8.8 million.

I. PT-1's Business

PT-1 principally performed two services, each of which allowed for phone calls to be completed through long-distance switches it either owned or had a right to use. First, it sold pre-paid calling cards. Second, it provided dial-around long distance, which allowed a telephone caller to avoid his default long-distance carrier by dialing a prefix, such as "10-10," prior to the ten-digit telephone number.

For a time, PT-1 was a successful and independent group of companies. In the mid-1990s, the three PT-1 Entities filed their own consolidated income tax returns, with their tax year ending June 30. The exception was an eight-month return that ended February 4, 1999, because on that date PT-1 was taken over through a merger with the Star Group, a larger group of telephone industry companies. For the 1998 tax year, PT-1 paid $6.2 million in corporate income tax, some portion of which the parties agree was an overpayment arising from the

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carryback to this tax year of the net operating loss ("NOL") from PT-1's eight-month tax period ending February 28, 1999.

With Star's acquisition of PT-1 in 1999, PT-1 was included in the Star Group's consolidated income tax return for the periods ending December 31, 1999 (ten months) and December 31, 2000 (twelve months). Both returns report net operating losses, with the returns containing an allocation of losses to its constituent entities, including PT-1. However, a problem arose for the 2001 return. In late 2000, WorldCom had taken control of PT-1 pursuant to a stock pledge agreement with Star on which Star defaulted. Under WorldCom control, the PT-1 Entities then filed for bankruptcy in the Eastern District of New York on March 1, 2001, and later that year Star filed in the District of Delaware. However, for some undisclosed reason, neither WorldCom nor Star included PT-1 on its consolidated return for any portion of the 2001 year. PT-1 was unaware of this fact for quite some time, due largely in part to Star's March 2002 request for an extension of time to file its return, which extension included PT-1.

II. PT-1's Tax Returns

The Star Group has not yet filed any type of return for any portion of 2001. PT-1 thus became self-described "tax orphans," with neither of their putative parents willing to include them on their consolidated income tax returns for the 2001 tax year or years going forward. Choosing then to file their own return, the PT-1 Entities in September 2002 filed a consolidated income tax return for the postpetition portion of 2001 (the "Short Period"), reporting tax due of $6,706,172 based on $19,160,492 in taxable income, which reflected $20,455,135 of taxable income before the application of an NOL carry-forward allocated to PT-1 from the Star Group 2000 return in the amount of $1,294,643. The Short Period return was not accompanied by a

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request made under 11 U.S.C. § 505(b) for a prompt determination of tax.1 PT-1 paid that administrative tax expense of $6.7 million with the return in the ordinary course of business as the debtor in possession. The Trustee has been attempting to recover this tax ever since on the grounds that PT-1 in fact had no tax liability for the Short Period.

PT-1 did not at that time file a return for the pre-petition portion of 2001 - the period referred to by the parties as the "Stub Period." It did, however, file an amended return for its tax year ending June 30, 1998, seeking a refund of over $2 million as a result of NOL carrybacks from the subsequent two tax periods. The IRS did not respond to this refund request until January 27, 2004, stating that because PT-1 had not filed a tax return for the Stub Period, PT-1 might potentially have owed additional tax to the Government which could offset the refund claim amount. PT-1 then sent to the IRS two unsigned returns; one purporting to address the tax for the Stub Period, the other purporting to address the tax for the full 2001 calendar year. PT-1 also requested that the IRS deal with it on its own for the 2001 tax year because Star no longer existed, which the IRS refused to do.

For the 2002 tax year, PT-1 filed its own consolidated income tax return, which included a request made under section 505(b) for a prompt determination of tax. The 2002 return included a bad-debt deduction of $21,648,496 and an NOL of $5,590, 832. The IRS examined the 2002 return, and eventually disallowed all but around $900,000 of that claimed bad-debt deduction, which converted that NOL to positive taxable income of around $14 million, with a $5.1 million tax claimed by the IRS on that income. The IRS's examination was not completed within the time allowed under § 505(b). Instead, the IRS filed on August 1, 2006 a request for

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payment of administrative expense for the 2002 year in the sum of $7.8 million related to the disallowance of the bad-debt deduction.

For the 2003 tax year, PT-1 again filed its own consolidated income tax return and again included a request for a prompt determination of tax under section 505(b). The IRS did not examine this return, and has never charged tax or filed a request for payment for the 2003 tax year. The 2003 return reported a loss of $4,062,803, which the Trustee has sought to carry back to the 2001 Short Period.

III. PT-1's Pre-Paid Business and its Sale

On PT-1's books, when a pre-paid calling card was sold, the proceeds of the sale were classified as deferred revenue and were not immediately recognized as income. PT-1 contended that it was not required to consider any payments as income (for tax purposes) until it rendered the service of completing the call under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Although the IRS disagrees, this dispute is not at issue here.

In February 2001, one month before declaring bankruptcy, PT-1 sold its prepaid calling card business to a third party, IDT. At that time, its deferred revenue account contained $27.7 million in cash that had not yet been reported. The parties agree that as part of the sale, IDT purchased the assets of the phone card business, including inventory and all accounts receivable, and agreed to service the remaining calls for outstanding cards in circulation. However, how much the business was sold for is in dispute.

The face of the sale agreement identified a one-dollar price tag,2 and Rosalind Gaffney, head of PT-1 tax, testified at trial to the same price. However, the agreement also required IDT

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to indemnify PT-1 for up to $5 million against certain then pending litigation claims. Under the agreement, if those claims were not resolved within a 120-day period, IDT would give PT-1 cash equal to 70% of the indemnity obligations, or $3.5 million. More importantly, IDT agreed to compensate PT-1 for PT-1 providing "termination services" for the cards already in circulation. IDT agreed to deposit $4 million in escrow, which was to be paid to PT-1 upon closing as a "deposit" for these future obligations.

In March 2001, IDT and STAR amended the agreement with IDT, causing PT-1 to execute the amendment as well. A significant change to the agreement was that IDT was no longer required to pay the indemnity or the $4 million deposit, which evidently had not been placed in escrow or paid to PT-1 upon closing of the sale as the original sales agreement had required. According to the Trustee, PT-1 performed its post-sale obligations under the contract, but IDT never paid.

PT-1 initiated an adversary proceeding against IDT in its own bankruptcy on July 25, 2002. The complaint includes claims for unpaid services rendered in excess of $10 million, the failure to pay the $5 million indemnity, and the failure to pay the...

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