Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/318/322.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 10:56:44+00:00

Document:
[318 U.S. 322, 323] Mr. Samuel H. Levy, of Washington, D.C., for petitioner.
Mr. John E. Hughes, of Washington, D.C., for respondent.
The taxpayer, a corporation, respondent here, owed certain past due bills for merchandise. This indebtedness was represented by interest bearing notes. Interest upon these notes had been accrued for the years prior to 1937 and deducted in the taxpayer's income tax returns, to the amount of $11,435.22. In November, 1936, the creditors agreed to cancel all interest accruing after January 1, 1932. The first entry on the taxpayer's books which records the cancellation appears in December 1937, the tax year here involved, when over $16,000 was credited.
The taxpayer credited the total amount of the cancelled debts, $25, 219.65 to earned surplus. 1 It did not return any of the sum as taxable income. No proof appears of the insolvency of the taxpayer before or after the cancellation. Its balance sheets show assets exceeding liabilities at the opening and close of 1937 with net assets greater than the asserted adjustment of income. Under these circumstances the Commissioner increased the taxpayer's reported income by $19,234.21, the sum of the items of the cancelled indebtedness which the Board of Tax Appeals found had served to offset income in like amounts in prior years. The taxpayer had accrued the rent and interest in former years. No claim for additional taxes is made by the Commissioner.
The taxpayer sought a redetermination on the ground that the cancellations were exempt gifts and that it was not enriched beyond the tax advantages gained by the deductions in former tax returns. The Board of Tax [318 U.S. 322, 325] Appeals found that the cancellations were not gifts, concluded that the tax benefits in dollars obtained by the deductions of former years did not limit the 1937 tax springing from the cancellation and affirmed the Commissioner's determination of deficiency. American Dental Co. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 44 B.T.A. 425. The Court of Appeals reversed on the ground that the cancellations constituted exempt gifts. 7 Cir., 128 F.2d 254. On account of a variety of views in the circuits as to the taxability of similar adjustments of indebtedness, we granted certiorari. 2 317 U.S. 612 , 63 S.Ct. 59, 87 L.Ed. --.
In fields closely related to the cancellation of indebtedness which we are considering here, this Court has treated gains in net assets as income. In United States v. Kirby Lumber Co., 284 U.S. 1 , 52 S.Ct. 4, the taxpayer purchased its own bonds at a discount. It was held taxable on the increase in net assets which resulted. 7 This holding was confirmed by Helvering v. American Chicle Co., 291 U.S. 426 , 54 S.Ct. 460. See, also, Commissioner v. Coastwise Transp. Corp., 1 Cir., 71 F.2d 104. Forfeiture or surrender of a lease by which the lessor gains property or money makes such gain taxable. Helvering v. Bruun, 309 U.S. 461 , 60 S.Ct. 631; Hort v. Commissioner, 313 U.S. 28 , 61 S. Ct. 757. The narrow line between taxable bonuses and tax free gifts is illuminated by Bogardus v. Commissioner, 302 U.S. 34 , 58 S. Ct. 61, on the one side and upon the other by Noel v. Parrott, 4 Cir., 15 F.2d 669, as approved in Old Colony Trust Co. v. Commissioner, 279 U.S. 716, 730 , 49 S.Ct. 499, 504.
'The amendments made by section 215 of the bill are applicable only to taxable years beginning after December 31, 1938. They are not applicable to discharges of corporate indebtedness occurring prior to the date of the enactment of the bill. They are also not applicable to a discharge occurring in any taxable year beginning after December 31, 1942. They likewise do not apply to any discharge of corporate indebtedness occurring in any proceeding under section 77B, or under chapter X or XI, of the Bankruptcy Act of 1898, as amended, since such discharges are governed by other provisions of law.' P. 25.
In the light of these views upon gain, profit and income, we must construe the meaning of the statutory exemption of gifts from gross income by Section 22(b) (3). The broad import of gross income in Section 22(a)13 admonishes us to be chary [318 U.S. 322, 330] of extending any words of exemption beyond their plain meaning. Cf. Heiner v. Colonial Trust Co., 275 U.S. 232, 235 , 48 S.Ct. 65, 66; United States v. Stewart, 311 U.S. 60, 63 , 61 S.Ct. 102, 104. Gifts, however, is a generic word of broad connotation, taking coloration from the context of the particular statute in which it may appear. Its plain meaning in its present setting denotes, it seems to us, the receipt of financial advantages gratuitously.
The release of interest or the complete satisfaction of an indebtedness by partial payment by the voluntary act of the creditor is more akin to a reduction of sale price than to financial betterment through the purchase by a debtor of its bonds in an arms-length transaction. In this view, there is no substance in the Commissioner's differentiation between a solvent or insolvent corporation or the taxation of income to the extent of assets freed from the claims of creditors by a gratuitous cancellation of indebtedness. Lakeland Grocery Co. v. Commissioner, 36 B.T.A. 289. Cf. Madison Railways Co. v. Commissioner, 36 B.T.A. 1106; Spokane Office Supply Co. v. Commissioner, 39 B.T.A. 1243, Docket No. 86762, memo. op. of April 29, 1939; Model Laundry, Inc. v. Commissioner, 39 B.T.A. 1339, Docket No. 93493, memo. op. of January 15, 1940. See, also, Haden Co. v. Commissioner, 5 Cir., 118 F.2d 285, which supports the Commissioner.
'No evidence was introduced to show a donative intent upon the part of any creditor. The evidence indicates, on the contrary, that the creditors acted for purely business reasons and did not forgive the debts for altruistic reasons or out of pure generosity.' 44 B.T.A. 425, 428.
With this conclusion we cannot agree. We do not feel bound by the finding of the Board because it reached its conclusions, in our opinion, upon an application of erroneous legal standards. Section 22(b)(3) exempts [318 U.S. 322, 331] gifts. This does not leave the Tax Court of the United States free to determine at will or upon evidence and without judicial review the tests to be applied to facts to determine whether the result is or is not a gift. The fact that the motives leading to the cancellations were those of business or even selfish, if it be true, is not significant. The forgiveness was gratuitous, a release of something to the debtor for nothing, and sufficient to make the cancellation here gifts within the statute.
When Congress wished to exempt income 'attributable to the discharge ... of any indebtedness' it did so explicitly. It defined such exemption with particularity and only to a limited extent, as illustrated by the various enactments, including 114 of the Revenue Act of 1942, 26 U.S.C.A. Int.Rev.Acts, all of which appear to throw light leading away from and not towards the conclusion drawn from them by the Court. In the absence of such specific exemption of what as a practical matter may be income, determination of whether it is or is not income should be left to the tribunal whose special business it is to ascertain the controverted facts and the reasonable inferences from them. In deciding that, in the circumstances of the present case, the debt cancellations were not gifts and therefore taxable, the Board of Tax Appeals (now the Tax Court of the United States) did not invoke wrong legal standards. It knew well enough the difference between taxable income and gifts. It applied these legal concepts to its interpretation of the facts. That its judgment should not be upset is counselled by wise fiscal as well as judicial administration.
[ Footnote 1 ] There is an unexplained and immaterial variance between the sum of the items cancelled and the total credited to surplus.
[ Footnote 2 ] Dallas T. & T. Warehouse Co. v. Commissioner, 5 Cir., 70 F.2d 95; Commissioner v. Coastwise Transp. Corp., 1 Cir., 71 F.2d 104; Hirsch v. Commissioner, 7 Cir., 115 F.2d 656; Helvering v. A. L. Killian Co., 8 Cir., 128 F.2d 433; Haden Co. v. Commissioner, 5 Cir., 118 F.2d 285.
The article relating to the exclusion of gifts from gross income is not helpful. It merely says gifts are exempt from the income tax. Art. 22( b)(3)-1.
[ Footnote 6 ] Regulations 74, Art. 64 (1931); Regulations 69, Art. 49 (1926); Regulations 65, Art. 49 (1924), for individuals; Regulations 62, Art. 50 ( 1922), for individuals; Regulations 45 (1920 ed.), Art. 51, for individuals.
When the gift tax was revived in 1932, the House Report gave as an example of a gift 'the forgiveness or payment by A of B's indebtedness.' H. Rep. No. 708, 72nd Cong., 1st Sess., p. 28(5).
[ Footnote 7 ] The fact that the purchase was made in the taxable year of issue is immaterial. Burnet v. Sanford & Brooks Co., 282 U.S. 359, 364 , 365 S., 51 S. Ct. 150, 151, 152; Commissioner v. Norfolk Southern R. Co., 4 Cir., 63 F.2d 304.
[ Footnote 8 ] For discussions of the general problem see 'The Revenue Act of 1939 and the Income Tax Treatment of Cancellation of Indebtedness,' 49 Yale L.J. 1153; 'Cancellation of Indebtedness and Its Tax Consequences,' 40 Col.L. Rev. 1326; 'Discharge of Indebtedness and the Federal Income Tax,' 53 Harv. L.Rev. 977.
[ Footnote 9 ] Corporate reorganizations under Chap. X, 11 U.S.C.A. 501 et seq. or 77B, 11 U.S.C.A. 207, 268, 270, 276(c)(3), 52 Stat. 904, 905, 11 U.S.C.A. 668, 670, 676(c)(3); arrangements under Chap. XI, 395, 396, 52 Stat. 915, 11 U.S.C.A. 795, 796; real property arrangements under Chap. XII, 520, 521, 522, 52 Stat. 929, 11 U.S.C.A. 920, 921, 922; wage earners plans under Chap. XIII, 679, 52 Stat. 938, 11 U.S.C.A. 1079; railroad adjustments under Chap. XV, 735, 53 Stat. 1140, 11 U.S.C. A. 1235.
[ Footnote 10 ] 53 Stat. 875, 215, 26 U.S.C.A. Int.Rev.Acts, page 1181.
[ Footnote 11 ] See S.Rep. No. 648, 76th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 5; H.Rep. No. 855, 76th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 23.
'(9) Income from discharge of indebtedness. In the case of a corporation, the amount of any income of the taxpayer attributable to the discharge, within the taxable year, of any indebtedness of the taxpayer ... evidenced by a security .... This paragraph shall not apply to any discharge occurring before the date of enactment of the Revenue Act of 1939, or in a taxable year beginning after December 31, 1945.' Revenue Act 1942, 26 U.S.C.A. Int.Rev.Acts.
[ Footnote 13 ] Helvering v. Clifford, 309 U.S. 331, 334 , 60 S.Ct. 554, 556.

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