Court Opinion

ID: 4475176
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2020-01-16 21:11:22.596046+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:04:27.327858
License: Public Domain

Disney, /., dissenting: Because section 722 (a) requires the applicant for relief to reconstruct average base period net income in a “fair and just amount,” the majority deny petitioner relief for the reason that it measured such amount by the experience of its coaffiliate from which it purchased its business during the base period, and because the coaffiliate had been allowed excess profits tax credit based upon such experience. The majority view is that such experience was improperly “used” by petitioner, having already once been used, and that the petitioner obtains for its parent “duplicate” benefits. I can not agree that petitioner “used” such experience a second time. It merely pointed to it as a good example of a comparative, as it could have pointed to any other similar corporation, under a well established technique of proving a base period norm of earnings by comparison with those of a comparative business. The majority seems to consider petitioner as claiming, as a matter of right, the use of the experience of its coaffiliate, but since the petitioner is not, and does not claim to be, an “acquiring corporation” under Supplement A, section 740, it is clear that the coaffiliate is cited only as a comparative. Moreover, under sections 141 and 730 of the Internal Revenue Code, a consolidated excess profits credit is provided in case of consolidation of return by corporations like petitioner, its coaffiliate from whom it purchased, and the common parent corporation. No such consolidated return having been filed in this matter, petitioner must for purpose of such credit be regarded as a separate juristic entity. Though paying lip service to that principle, the majority, in my view, violate its essentials and in effect compel the petitioner to be treated as if on a consolidated return basis. The petitioner, filing separate return and having none of the benefits of consolidated basis, and having a right to point to its coaffiliate, as a comparative, in my view is not duplicating the benefits of the coaffiliate, and I find nothing “fair and just” in denying relief. I therefore dissent.