Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/330/709/
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 00:12:08+00:00

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Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 330 › United States v. Ogilvie Hardware Co., Inc.
A corporation, organized with a paid-in capital of $100,000, increased its capitalization in 1924 to $200,000 by declaration of a $100,000 stock dividend out of past earnings. Thereafter, operating losses created a deficit in total capitalization, the deficit being about $71,000 in 1937, but being reduced to about 61,000 by 1938. With this deficit, the corporation was forbidden by state law to pay any dividends, and it refrained from doing so. The Commissioner of Internal Revenue assessed, and the Company paid, undistributed profits taxes under § 14 of the Revenue Act of 1936 for its fiscal years ending in 1937 and 1938. The corporation sued for a refund of these taxes under § 26(c)(3) of the Revenue Act of 1936, as added by § 501(a)(3) of the Revenue Act of 1942, claiming to be a corporation having "a deficit in accumulated earnings and profits" within the meaning of that section.
Held: the corporation is entitled to the refund. Pp. 330 U. S. 713-719.
(a) The 1942 amendment was deigned to grant corporations a refund on account of payments of undistributed profits taxes for tax years in which they had an accumulated deficit, and where, for that reason, state law, federal law, or public regulatory orders of either prohibited distribution of dividends. P. 330 U. S. 713.
(b) It was an extraordinary relief measure, and its language, the circumstances which prompted its passage, and the very mechanics of the amendment itself require that determination of rights to refund under it be based on consideration of something other than the established meaning under federal tax law of the word "deficit" and the phrase "accumulated earnings and profits." Pp. 330 U. S. 714-719.
(c) Congress at least intended to refund taxes imposed on corporations which had failed to distribute dividends when distribution, in violation of state law, would have impaired long existing state-approved corporate capitalizations. P. 330 U. S. 719.
A District Court awarded a judgment under § 501(a)(3) of the Revenue Act of 1942, 56 Stat. 798, to a corporation for refund of undistributed profits taxes paid while the corporation's capital was impaired, although half the capital had resulted from a stock dividend paid out of past earnings. 62 F.Supp. 338. The Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed. 155 F.2d 577. This Court granted certiorari. 329 U.S. 699. Affirmed, p. 330 U. S. 719.
This is a suit for tax refund which the District Court allowed. 62 F.Supp. 338. The Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed. 155 F.2d 577. We granted certiorari because of an apparent conflict with Century Electric Co. v. Commissioner, 144 F.2d 983.
Act of 1936 imposed a surtax on certain corporate net income earned during the tax year but not distributed as dividends. [Footnote 2] It provided no exemption from that surtax because a corporation had an accumulated deficit at the beginning of the tax year or because state law prohibited payments of dividends.
"without violating a provision of a written contract executed by the corporation prior to May 1, 1936, which provision expressly deals with the payment of dividends."
Section 26(c)(1) of the 1936 Act relieved corporations from the tax if such contracts existed. 49 Stat. 1648, 1664. The question we had to decide in those cases was whether a state constitution, corporate charter, or state statute, which prohibited payment of dividends, was a "written contract" within the meaning of the § 26(c)(1) exemption provision. We held that we could not so expand the provision's language, relying in part upon previous statements of this Court "that provisions granting special tax exemptions are to be strictly construed." Helvering v. Northwest Steel Rolling Mills, supra, 311 U. S. 49. Since the respondent here had no "written contract"
against payment of dividends, it had no exemption from the surtax imposed by the original 1936 Act.
"DEFICIT CORPORATIONS. In the case of a corporation having a deficit in accumulated earnings and profits as of the close of the preceding taxable year, the amount of such deficit, if the corporation is prohibited by a provision of a law or of an order of a public regulatory body from paying dividends during the existence of a deficit in accumulated earnings and profits, and if such provision was in effect prior to May 1, 1936."
§ 501(a)(2), Revenue Act of 1942, 56 Stat. 798, 954.
any statute of limitations or other designated statutory bars. 56 Stat. 798, 955.
The Government's contention is that we should construe the word "deficit" and the phrase "accumulated earnings and profits" according to their established meaning under federal tax law; that, so construed, the $100,000 allotted for stock dividends remained a part of earnings and profits for tax purposes; therefore, there was no deficit in the federal tax sense, and consequently the tax payments should not have been refunded here despite the state prohibition against distribution. We may assume that the Government is correct in contending that, if Congress intended in the 1942 amendment to use the words "deficit" and "earnings and profits" in this federal tax sense, the stock dividend did not reduce "earnings," there was no "deficit," and the refund should be denied. See § 115, Revenue Act of 1936, 49 Stat. 1648, 1687-1689; Commissioner v. Bedford, 325 U. S. 283, 325 U. S. 292. This construction would greatly limit the scope of the relief granted by the 1942 amendment. To determine whether Congress intended so to limit the relief it granted, we must look to the whole 1942 amendment in its relationship to the 1936 Act and the legislative and judicial history intervening between the two.
application from corporations which had been required to pay an undistributed profits tax continued to reach and to concern Congress. Representatives of these corporations appeared before the House and Senate Committees in 1942, and Congress responded to their complaints by enacting the several provisions of § 501 -- the retroactive relief legislation now under consideration.
One subject of complaint was that, under the income tax definitions, only a fraction of capital losses were deductible from taxable net income. Corporations which had suffered large capital losses in a given year were required to pay undistributed profits taxes in that year as though they had made a profit. The 1942 amendment, as reported by the House Committee, met this complaint by recommending that refunds be authorized for corporations who had paid under this 1936 definition of net income. [Footnote 3] This authorization, subsequently approved by the Senate Committee, [Footnote 4] clearly shows that Congress intended to provide for this phase of the refund without regard to tax definitions, and did not intend its authorized refund to be restricted by the application of established tax terminology.
urged that such corporations had been "caught in a trap," and that they were justly entitled to have a refund for that reason. It was apparently in response to the foregoing complaints that the relief provision before us, not part of the House bill as it came to the Senate, [Footnote 7] was introduced by the Senate Committee. [Footnote 8] We think Congress was moved to relieve those corporations which it considered to be "caught in a trap" whereby they were taxed by the Federal Government if they did not pay dividends, and subject to prosecution and penalties by the Federal Government or the states if they did.
Some of the language Congress used, considered tax-wise only, provides plausible support for the interpretation urged by the Government which would give the relief amendment more limited scope. But the provision before us is not a general tax exemption to be interpreted in the framework of a currently operating general revenue law. It is a special retroactive relief measure to authorize repayment of taxes collected in previous years under a revenue law which had already been substantially abandoned. The language of this extraordinary relief measure and the circumstances which prompted its passage convince us that Congress intended to provide refunds to corporate taxpayers, with possible minor exception, who had paid undistributed profits taxes as a choice between conflicting state and federal compulsions.
state law or state regulatory bodies, prohibit payments of dividends. In this case, the ultimate right to refund depends upon state law. Cf. Lyeth v. Hoey, 305 U. S. 188, 305 U. S. 193. Before that right can be finally established, courts must examine state law at least to the extent of determining (1) what is a "deficit;" (2) what are "accumulated earnings and profits;" (3) what was the state law on these questions prior to May 1, 1936; (4) whether payments of dividends under these circumstances were prohibited by state law. Acceptance of the Government's contention would mean that courts administering the 1942 Act must first determine whether a deficit exists under federal law; if such a federal deficit exists, they must then turn to state law to decide whether, under it, a deficit exists such as prohibits the payment of dividends. We do not think that Congress intended the courts so to administer the 1942 amendment. The Government's argument that it does relies heavily upon the Senate Committee Report.
and, in the subsequent Treasury Regulations, it was indicated that no tax credit should be allowed where a tax deficit resulted from "prior capitalization of surplus in the course of a nontaxable reorganization." [Footnote 10] Aside from the fact that corporate reorganizations and simple stock dividends are quite different things, we find this one illustrative example insufficient to outweigh the considerations which have governed our interpretation of the 1942 amendment.
"I. No corporation shall pay dividends in cash or property (a) except from the surplus of the aggregate of its assets over the aggregate of its liabilities, plus the amount of its capital stock; or (b) out of any surplus due or arising from (1) any profit on treasury shares before resale; or (2) any unrealized appreciation in value or revaluation of fixed assets; or (3) any unrealized appreciation in value or revaluation of inventories before sale; or (4) the unaccrued portion of unrealized profit on notes, bonds or obligations for the payment of money, purchased or otherwise acquired, unless such notes, bonds or obligations are readily marketable, in which case they may be taken at their actual market value; or (5) the unaccrued or unearned portion of any unrealized profit in any form whatever, whether, in the form of notes, bonds, obligations for the payment of money, installment sales, credits, or otherwise, except as provided in the preceding sub-paragraph (4)."
"III. No corporation shall pay dividends in shares of the corporation, except from the surplus of the aggregate of its assets . . . over the aggregate of its liabilities, plus the amount of its capital stock."
La. Acts 1928, No. 250, § 26, I, III, 1 La.Gen.Stat. § 1106.
Sen.Rep. No.1631, 77th Cong., 2d Sess., 244, 245 (1942).
Hearings before Senate Committee on Finance on Revenue Act of 1942, 77th Cong., 2d Sess., 2343-2345 (1942). Counsel for another deficit railroad corporation pointed out that, under governing state law, that railroad's officers would have been liable for a penalty of double the damages to anyone harmed. Id. at 1422.
"Next, I have a statement on behalf of Crane Johnson Co. that section 501 of the House bill should be simplified. That point is this: if a corporation was forbidden by State law to declare a dividend because its capital stock was impaired, it could not avoid the undistributed profits tax enacted in 1936, and was caught in a trap. A rich corporation could. It could declare a dividend, and avoid it. Surely you would not discriminate against a poor one."
"Furthermore, if it had an impairment of capital stock and was organized under the laws of about one-third of the States where corporations in such condition are allowed to declare dividends, a dividend would be a return of capital to the shareholder, and no credit for the undistributed profits tax would be given."
"There is no reason for granting relief retroactively in the limited cases which may be held to be covered by the vague and ambiguous language of section 501 of the House bill without granting relief in these cases also."
"The language of section 501 is vague and ambiguous, and ought to be simplified. In 1938, relief was granted as soon as this situation was brought to the attention of Congress, but unfortunately was not made retroactive to 1936. The House bill in section 501 properly makes it retroactive to 1936, but is not phrased in simple enough language."
Hearings, supra, 1022. See also id. at 1306-1308.
See H.R.Rep., note 3 supra.
See Sen.Rep., note 4 supra.
". . . [A] new paragraph . . . has been added, providing for an additional credit in cases of corporations having a deficit in accumulated earnings and profits and prohibited by law from paying dividends and . . . a new subsection has been added providing for a stock redemption credit."
"Section 501 . . . grants relief from the undistributed profits tax for taxable years beginning after December 31, 1935, and prior to January 1, 1938, by allowing as an additional credit in computing undistributed net income the portion of the adjusted net income which, in certain instances, could not be distributed as taxable dividends. . . ."
"Under § 14 of the Revenue Act of 1936, corporations in general were subject to surtax at various rates from 7 to 27 percent of their undistributed net income. In some instances, State law or an order of a public regulatory body prohibited payment of dividends during the existence of a deficit, even though the corporation had current earnings and profits which would constitute undistributed net income under the definition thereof in § 14(a)(2). Such corporations were therefore subject to undistributed profits surtax even though they were prohibited by law from paying dividends. The addition of the new paragraph 3 to subsection (c) of section 26 to provide an additional credit in the amount of the deficit in accumulated earnings and profits as of the close of the preceding taxable year is intended to give relief in certain of these cases."
"Also, under § 14 of the Revenue Act of 1936, it was possible that the undistributed net income of a corporation might exceed accumulated and current earnings and profits. In such case, the tax could not be avoided even if distributions were made to shareholders."
The amendment was to provide relief in this situation also.
This is tax language and should be read in its tax sense. We must not disregard the illumination of an authoritative tax lexicon in reading tax legislation. The language of the 1942 amendment carries with it tax usage, tax practice, and the gloss of authoritative legislative history. All combine to make the condition under which State law prohibiting distribution of profits comes into play, that which Congress, in words of art, said was the condition -- namely, the existence of "a deficit in accumulated earnings and profits." Here, there was no deficit in the controlling sense of the term. And nothing warrants the attribution of a nontechnical meaning to so settled a technical term. Nothing, that is, except the suggestion that to give the 1942 amendment this established meaning might not afford the relief that, as a matter of abstract justice, should be afforded. But this is merely an attempt to invoke what has been called the "equity" of a statute. I am no friend of artificial canons of construction, and I would not strain language in order to construe tax exemptions strictly. On the other hand, Revenue Acts are not the kind of legislation which should be loosely construed in order to grant exemptions.
any event, I do not think the argument of counsel for a taxpayer urging relief should carry more weight than the use by Congress of settled tax language, carrying a meaning which excludes that result -- a meaning which is reenforced by the legislative, judicial, and administrative history that led up to and followed the enactment. See Century Electric Co. v. Commissioner, 144 F.2d 983, aff'g the Tax Court, 3 T.C. 297; S.Rep. No. 1631, 77th Cong.2nd Sess., pp. 244-46; Treasury Regulations, 94 and 101, Art. 115-11; Treasury Regulations 103, § 19.115-11; Treasury Regulations 111, § 29.115-11. The short of the matter is that, even though corporate profits here were withheld because Louisiana forbade their distribution, there can be no credit allowed for a deficit because, in a federal tax sense, there was no deficit.
see S.Rep. 2156, 74th Cong., 2d Sess., p. 19, requires that, in respect to federal taxes, assets be treated as available for distribution as earnings regardless of stock dividends which capitalize earnings and profits. H.Rep. No.2894, 76th Cong., 3rd Sess., p. 41, cited in Commissioner v. Wheeler, 324 U. S. 542, 324 U. S. 546. The specific example cited by the Senate Committee Report on § 501 of the Revenue Act of 1942 shows that Congress intended to limit the relief afforded by the amendment to cases where the deficit in question had not resulted from the capitalization of accumulated earnings and profits. [Footnote 2/4] The majority finds a difference between capitalization of earnings in a nontaxable reorganization and capitalization of earnings by a simple stock dividend. The circumstances are different, but the difference is not significant for the legal effect of the stock dividend on earnings and profits. The example given is concerned with the effect of capitalizing earnings and profits, not with the method. If Congress meant to relieve undistributed earnings and profits even though those earnings and profits were considered available under § 115(h), it should have said so.
"In the case of a corporation the following credits shall be allowed to the extent provided in the various sections imposing tax --"
"(1) PROHIBITION OF PAYMENT OF DIVIDENDS. An amount equal to the excess of the adjusted net income over the aggregate of the amounts which can be distributed within the taxable year as dividends without violating a provision of a written contract executed by the corporation prior to May 1, 1936, which provision expressly deals with the payment of dividends. If a corporation would be entitled to a credit under this paragraph because of a contract provision and also to one or more credits because of other contract provisions, only the largest of such credits shall be allowed, and, for such purpose, if two or more credits are equal in amount, only one shall be taken into account."
Section 501(a)(2), Revenue Act of 1942, 56 Stat. 798, 954.
"(3) DEFICIT CORPORATIONS. -- In the case of a corporation having a deficit in accumulated earnings and profits as of the close of the preceding taxable year, the amount of such deficit, if the corporation is prohibited by a provision of a law or of an order of a public regulatory body from paying dividends during the existence of a deficit in accumulated earnings and profits, and if such provision was in effect prior to May 1, 1936."
"EFFECT ON EARNINGS AND PROFITS OF DISTRIBUTIONS OF STOCK. -- The distribution (whether before January 1, 1936, or on or after such date) to a distributee by or on behalf of a corporation of its stock or securities or stock or securities in another corporation shall not be considered a distribution of earnings or profits of any corporation --"
"(1) if no gain to such distributee from the receipt of such stock or securities was recognized by law, or"
"(2) if the distribution was not subject to tax in the hands of such distributee because it did not constitute income to him within the meaning of the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution or because exempt to him under section 115(f) of the Revenue Act of 1934 or a corresponding provision of a prior Revenue Act. As used in this subsection, the term 'stock or securities' includes rights to acquire stock or securities."
"(1) The X corporation for the calendar year 1936 had an adjusted net income of $200,000 . . ."
"(2) Assume in the above example that the deficit in accumulated earnings and profits is $20,000 for income tax purposes, but the deficit in accumulated earnings and profits on the corporation's books by reason of a prior capitalization of surplus in the course of a nontaxable reorganization amounts to $250,000. In this case, although the State law would probably prohibit payment of any dividends, the credit allowed under the amendment to section 26(c) is limited to $20,000, which is the deficit in accumulated earnings and profits for income tax purposes. X corporation therefore will be liable for undistributed profits surtax on $180,000 of its adjusted net income."

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§ 501
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 § 1106
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