United States v. Mills, 25439.
Decision Date | 02 August 1968 |
Docket Number | No. 25439.,25439. |
Citation | 399 F.2d 944 |
Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Appellant, v. John A. MILLS, Jr. and Evelyn H. Mills, Appellees. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Mitchell Rogovin, Asst. Atty. Gen., Lee A. Jackson, Meyer Rothwacks, Melva M. Graney, Attys., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., Donald H. Fraser, U. S. Atty., Savannah, Ga., W. Reeves Lewis, Asst. U. S. Atty., Richard C. Pugh, Acting Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellant.
Thomas H. Adams, Julian Friedman, Adams, Adams & Brennan, Savannah, Ga., for appellees.
Before BELL, AINSWORTH and GODBOLD, Circuit Judges.
In this taxpayer's1 suit for refund of income taxes paid for the year 1959, the verdict of the jury was in his favor. The District Judge denied motions by the United States for judgment notwithstanding the verdict and, alternatively, for a new trial, and the Government has appealed.
Taxpayer Mills, a retired banker, on December 16, 1958, formed a corporation under the law of Georgia known as John Mills and Sons, Inc., with an authorized capital of 2,500 shares of common stock of a par value of $100 per share. The purpose of the corporation was to consolidate all of the business and investment assets of Mr. Mills and to simplify the transmission of his assets to his heirs in the event of his death. Taxpayer sought the advice of his accountant concerning the formation of the corporation and its tax consequences and was informed there would be no income tax liability in the exchange of his assets or stock of the corporation. Accordingly, on January 1, 1959, the following transfers were made between the taxpayer and the corporation:
Transferred to the Transferred to corporation by taxpayer by the taxpayer: corporation Various assets consisting Stock of the of cash, corporation $249,800.00 accounts receivable, Promissory notes receivable, note 197,879.55 stocks, cattle real estate $955,351.89 (The corporation assumed payments due on certain notes in the sum of: 507,672.34) ___________ ___________ Net $447,679.55 $447,679.55
Taxpayer received for the transfer 2,498 shares of the corporation's authorized stock of a par value of $249,800 and an unsecured promissory note for $197,879.55 due one year thereafter, bearing interest at 5 per cent per annum — a total of $447,679.55, the net value of the assets transferred by him to the corporation.
The fair market value of the transferred assets at the date of transfer was $1,163,534.97 according to the stipulation entered into between the parties and received in evidence at the trial.2
Section 351 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 (26 U.S.C. § 351) is the pertinent statutory provision which governs taxability of transfers to a corporation controlled by transferor. It reads in pertinent part as follows:
Applying this section, the Commissioner determined a deficiency in income tax. It was conceded that since taxpayer owned all but two of the corporation's authorized shares, he was in control of the corporation immediately after the exchange, as Section 351 requires. However, the Commissioner determined that the unsecured one-year promissory note in the amount of $197,879.55 was "other property" within the meaning of sub-section (b) of Section 351 and that the exchange was therefore taxable to the extent of the fair market value of the note conceded to be the sum of $197,879.55. If, however, the Commissioner had determined, as taxpayer contends he should have, that the one-year note represented a "security" within the meaning of Section 351(a), the exchange would have been wholly tax free under the provisions of the section.
The question, therefore, whether the one-year promissory note was a "security" was submitted to the jury and it found for the taxpayer.
As authority for the meaning of the undefined term "security," both the Government and taxpayer rely on this Court's decisions in Camp Wolters Enterprises v. Commissioner of Int. Rev., 5 Cir., 1956, 230 F.2d 555; Aqualane Shores, Inc. v. C.I.R., 5 Cir., 1959, 269 F.2d 116; and Parkland Place Company v. United States, 5 Cir., 1966, 354 F.2d 916, and both parties quote the following identical excerpt from the Camp Wolters decision, which was restated in Aqualane Shores and applied in Parkland Place Company:
In applying this test in Camp Wolters, this Court found the following factors to be indicative that a note was a "security": The notes "were an integral part of the scheme of its the corporation's forming and financing" (230 F.2d at 559); the rights created by the note "constituted permanent contributions to petitioner's business, not merely temporary advances of rights to be used for current needs" and the "noteholders were assuming a substantial risk of petitioner's enterprise, and on the date of issuance were inextricably and indefinitely tied up with the success of the venture, in some respects similar to stockholders" (Id. at 560, quoting with approval from the Tax Court decision); the giving of the notes was "an integral part of the pot luck no pay no cure plan, formed before incorporation, of launching petitioner with cash and securities in note form" (Id. at 559); the notes and stock were "different forms of the assured participation in the pot luck of the enterprise" or "evidence of participation" (Id. at 560).
The Government contends that since the promissory note on its face is payable in...
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