§ 1.551-2 Amount included in gross income. ( a ) The undistributed foreign personal holding company income is included only in the gross income of the United States shareholders who were shareholders in the company on the last day of its taxable year on which a United States group (as defined in section 552(a)(2)) existed with respect to the company. Such United States shareholders, accordingly, are determined by the stock holdings as of such specified time. This rule applies to every United States shareholder who was a shareholder in the company at the specified time regardless of whether the United States shareholder is included within the United States group. For example, a domestic corporation which is a United States shareholder at the specified time must return its distributive share in the undistributed foreign personal holding company income even though the domestic corporation cannot be included within the United States group since, under section 554, the stock it owns in the foreign corporation is considered as being owned proportionately by its shareholders for the purpose of determining whether the foreign corporation is a foreign personal holding company.
( b ) The United States shareholders must include in their gross income their distributive shares of that proportion of the undistributed foreign personal holding company income for the taxable year of the company which is equal in ratio to that which the portion of the taxable year up to and including the last day on which the United States group with respect to the company existed bears to the entire taxable year. Thus, if the last day in the taxable year on which the required United States group existed was also the end of the taxable year, the portion of the taxable year up to and incding such last day would be equal to 100 percent and, in such case, the United States shareholders would be required to return their distributive shares in the entire undistributed foreign personal holding company income. But if the last day on which the required United States group existed was September 30, and the taxable year was a calendar year, the portion of the taxable year up to and including such last day would be equal to nine-twelfths and, in that case, the United States shareholders would be required to return their distributive shares in only nine-twelfths of the undistributed foreign personal holding company income.
( c ) The amount which each United States shareholder must return is that amount which he would have received as a dividend if the above-specified portion of the undistributed foreign personal holding company income had in fact been distributed by the foreign personal holding company as a dividend on the last day of its taxable year on which the required United States group existed. Such amount is determined, therefore, by the interest of the United States shareholder in the foreign personal holding company, that is, by the number of shares of stock owned by the United States shareholder and the relative rights of his class of stock, if there are several classes of stock outstanding. Thus, if a foreign personal holding company has both common and preferred stock outstanding and the preferred shareholders are entitled to a specified dividend before any distribution may be made to the common shareholders, then the assumed distribution of the stated portion of the undistributed foreign personal holding company income must first be treated as a payment of the specified dividend on the preferred stock before any part may be allocated as a dividend on the common stock.
( d ) The assumed distribution of the required portion of the undistributed foreign personal holding company income must be returned as dividend income by the United States shareholders for their respective taxable years in which or with which the taxable year of the foreign personal holding company ends. For example, if the M Corporation, whose taxable year is the calendar year, is a foreign personal holding company for 1954 and if A, one of its United States shareholders, makes returns on a calendar year basis, while B, another United States shareholder, makes returns on the basis of a fiscal year ending November 30, A must return his assumed dividend as income for the taxable year 1954 and B must return his distributive share as income for the fiscal year ending November 30, 1955. In applying this rule, the date as of which the United States group last existed with respect to the company is immaterial. Thus, in the foregoing example, if September 30, 1954, was the last day on which the United States group with respect to the M Corporation existed, B would still be required to return his assumed dividend as income for the fiscal year ending November 30, 1955, even though September 30, 1954, the date as of which the distribution is assumed to have been made, does not fall within such fiscal year.
( e ) For the treatment of gain on the sale of certain stock, see section 306(f) and paragraph (h) of § 1.306-3.