Court Opinion

ID: 9460696
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 21:57:58.638226+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:36:44.470458
License: Public Domain

VAN OOSTERHOUT, Senior Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
I would affirm the trial court’s decision, principally upon the basis of Judge Webster’s well-reasoned opinion, reported at 359 F.Supp. 158 (E.D.Mo.1973). Judge Webster makes the following critical findings:
It is undisputed * * * that all of the members of the controlled group were acting as a group for purposes of borrowing working capital, and that the interest burden was shared according to a pre-established formula. 359 F.Supp. at 164.
* * * * * 48-
Plaintiff charged the group and recovered from the group as a whole all of the interest charges it paid on behalf of the group. Plaintiff’s income and expenses, for tax purposes, were thus no different in amount than they would have been had an exact proration been made according to amounts separately loaned to the members of the group. Id. at 163.
44 * 44 44 44 44
Plaintiff was fully reimbursed for all but its own share of the borrowing costs it incurred on behalf of the group. Id. at 162.
44 44 -X 44 44 44
The federal income tax return of plaintiff for 1961 clearly reflects its income and there has been no tax evasion on its part. Id. at 162.
Upon the basis of such findings, Judge Webster determined:
The court finds and concludes that allocating part of the interest income of the impaired subsidiaries to plaintiff as imputed interest was unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious. Id. at 165.
In my view, such findings are supported by substantial evidence, are not induced by any erroneous view of the law, and are not clearly erroneous, and afford a sound basis for the judgment entered by Judge Webster. This case differs factually from B. Forman Co. v. Commissioner, 453 F.2d 1144 (2d Cir. 1972), and Kahler Corp. v. Commissioner, 486 F.2d 1 (8th Cir. 1973), in a number of significant respects. In those cases no subsidiaries paid any interest; no showing of subsidiary participation in the loans obtained from the financial *233institutions was made, and no business purpose in making the interest-free loans was established. In our present case, the court found upon the basis of the parties’ stipulation, particularly paragraph 3 thereof, that the subsidiaries participated in making the loans and that the subsidiaries as a group agreed to reimburse the parent corporation for all interest and other expense arising out of the borrowing. It is undisputed that the group as a whole reimbursed the parent for all interest and incidental expense incurred as a result of the loans, and that the interest paid by the group as a whole fell weli within the safe harbor provisions.1 Such interest was reported as income by taxpayer.
The court on the present record was also warranted in finding that a legitimate business purpose existed for shifting the interest burden from the loss subsidiaries to the gain subsidiaries, and that no tax evasion was established.
The parent company is the only entity whose tax liability is directly involved in this case. The Government has instituted no timely proceedings under § 482 or otherwise to increase the tax liability of any subsidiary.
I recognize that § 482 confers considerable discretion upon the Commissioner to allocate income. Under the peculiar facts of this case, I agree with the trial court that the Commissioner has abused his discretion in making the allocation that he made.
I would affirm the judgment entered by the trial court.

. The Government in its brief states :
Here, taxpayer, a parent corporation, lent substantial sums of money to its numerous subsidiaries, having itself borrowed the sums in question at an interest rate of 5.55 percent. Under one of the safe harbor rates spelled out in the Regulations the rate paid by the taxpayer is deemed the arm’s length rate for purposes of the reloans to the subsidiaries. Thus, had the taxpayer charged each subsidiary interest at 5.55 percent, there would have been no basis for adjustment by the Commissioner. However, the taxpayer charged no interest to some of the subsidiaries which were in poor financial condition and charged the balance the rate of 5.75 percent — the latter rate being at the level which would provide the taxpayer with interest income in the same aggregate amount which it had to pay on its own borrowing and which would net out at an average rate of 5.55 percent to all subsidiaries.