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proof is on the Commissioner. Since the Govern- ment has not sustained its burden of proof the 5-year statute is not applicable and the 3-year statute of limitations precluded a lawful assessment for that year. The plaintiff is entitled to recover. Id.
VI. (6) In the instant case, the plaintiff, on July 23, 1946, filed a waiver of restrictions on assessment and col- lection of the income tax deficiencies for 1942 through 1945, and on November 22, 1946, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue assessed the tax deficiencies with interest computed to August 22, 1946, thirty days after the filing of the waiver. On November 7, 1947, the Commissioner signed the overassessment schedule and issued certificates of overassessment for 1942 and 1943, with interest thereon, part of which was credited against the deficiencies and in- terest. It is held that interest on the overpayment stopped accruing on November 22, 1946, not on August 22, 1946. Judgment for plaintiff. Dewey Portland Cement, 41.
VII. (7) Where plaintiff, a corporation, sues for amounts paid as "over-riding royalties" in 1947 and 1948 which amounts plaintiff asserts were deductible as ordinary and necessary expenses under Section 23 (a) (1) (A) of the Internal Revenue Code, it is held, on all the facts and circumstances of the case, that the plaintiff is not entitled to recover. Ingle Coal, 121. Internal Revenue 570.
VIII. (8) The plaintiff corporation, Ingle Coal Corporation, was successor to the Ingle Coal Company, a family corporation engaged in the business of mining bitu- minous coal on lands held under lease, the lands not having been acquired from the Ingle family. The stockholders of the old corporation decided to liqui- date the corporation, transfer its assets and liabili- ties to the stockholders, who would then in turn transfer them to a new corporation in exchange for the stock of the new corporation and a new contract obligating the new corporation to pay named indi- viduals, who were then stockholders, five cents a
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ton royalty, in addition to the royalty stipulated in the lease, on the coal thereafter mined under the lease. The plan was duly consummated and royal- ties paid for the period from July 1, 1942, to Decem- ber 31, 1942, and for the year 1943. The Commis- sioner disallowed the deduction of the overriding royalties as an expense. In 10 T. C. 1199, Ingle Coal Corporation v. Commissioner, the Tax Court sustained the finding of the Commissioner and held that the "over-riding royalties" were not an ordinary and necessary expense and were in substance a non- deductible distribution of dividends. The decision was affirmed, 174 F. 2d 569. Id.
IX. (9) In its income tax returns for the tax years 1947 and 1948, the plaintiff included in its deductions the "over-riding royalties" for each of these years, which deductions the Commissioner disallowed. Claim for refund was timely filed. Id.
X. (10) The contention of the defendant is not sustained that the plaintiff is estopped from prosecution of the instant case by the doctrine of collateral estoppel for the reason that the material facts and the issues of law are the same as those previously litigated in Ingle Coal Corporation v. Commissioner, 174 F. 2d. 569. The fact that 50 percent of the "over-riding royalties" involved in the instant case were paid to non-stockholders is a significant change in the ma- terial facts which makes the doctrine of collateral estoppel inapplicable. Id.
XI. (11) In the light of all the facts and circumstances of the instant case, it is held that the transaction by which the assets and liabilities of the Ingle Coal Company were transferred to the Ingle Coal Corporation, the plaintiff, was without substance and was a sham. The agreement lacked real consideration, was gratuitous, and was in reality a device for a distri- bution of dividends or profits in the guise of royalty payments. The payments of the "over-riding royalties" were not an ordinary and necessary expense within the meaning of the tax statutes. Id. Internal Revenue
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XII. (12) Taxpayers are free to adopt any form of legal organiza- tion for the conduct of their affairs, dictated by business prudence and convenience. Taxpayers have a right to decrease the amount of their taxes by means which the statutes permit. But the means adopted are subject to scrutiny, and, in a proper case, may be ignored for tax purposes. Id. Internal Revenue 193.
XIII. (13) For the purpose of administration of the taxing statutes, transactions involving close or family corporations and the stockholders are subject to special scrutiny to determine their true purpose and effect. Transitory arrangements should be dis- regarded for substance and reality. Id.
XIV. (14) Where the plaintiff sues to recover interest on over- payments of taxes for the fiscal years ending August 31, 1943, 1944, 1947, and 1948, it is held that under Section 3771 (b) (1) of the Internal Revenue Code (1939) interest on the overassessments should be allowed up to the assessment date of the deficiencies against which a portion of the overassessment was credited. Accordingly, interest on the overpayments continued beyond 30 days after the filing of waivers. Judgment suspended. Abney Mills, 159.
XV. (15) Where plaintiff, an attorney, who made his income tax return on a cash basis, sues to recover for a portion of taxes paid by him in 1937, on the basis that he had mistakenly included items from two sources of in- come; it is held that plaintiff is entitled to recover on one item of asserted expense and is not otherwise entitled to recover. Black, 165.
XVI. (16) Plaintiff was retained to procure compensation for losses resulting from a fire caused by a railroad operated by the Government and agreed to accept as his compensation a percentage of net collections received by a pool arrangement between himself and a group of other attorneys. It is held that plaintiff was taxable in 1937 on the entire amount of his compensation for that year although only a part of such compensation was received by him in that year and the balance in a subsequent year, where it is
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determined that the entire amount was available during the taxable year and no reason appeared why the remaining portion could not then have been collected by asking for it. Id.
Internal Revenue 265.
XVII. (17) Plaintiff reported as income for the year 1937 the sum of $56,750 as compensation received as a lobbyist for an association interested in legislation before Congress, plaintiff taking $13,000 as expenses, re- presenting sums paid over by plaintiff to individuals, who, in his opinion, would acknowledge receipt thereof. Later a further amount of such expenses was claimed in an amended return, including $4,000 plaintiff asserts that he paid to others whom he did not identify, and who are presumed to have been persons who would have denied the receipt of the asserted payments. It is held that to permit the deduction of such payments as ordinary and neces- sary business expenses would be an obvious violation of public policy.
XVIII. (18) On the report of a commissioner finding that there is satisfactory proof that one-half of the plaintiff's hotel bill during the five months of the active lobby- ing for the sugar legislation was a deductible expense, recovery is allowed for $2,505. Id.
XIX. (19) In a suit for recovery of additional income taxes assessed by the defendant and paid by the plaintiff for the calendar year 1944, where the defendant admits the overpayment and the only question before the Court of Claims is whether the formal claim for refund filed by the plaintiff on June 19, 1949, can be held to have been a perfection of an informal claim filed on July 19, 1946; it is held that in the light of the facts and circumstances existing at the time, including the intention of the taxpayer and the understanding of the Treasury officials, the formal refund claim of June 19, 1949, was but a perfection of the informal claim of July 19, 1946. The defendant's motion to dismiss is denied. The plaintiff is entitled to recover. Stuart, 174. Internal Revenue
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XX. (20) In his 1944 income tax return the plaintiff claimed a deduction on account of amortizable bond premiums which was disallowed by the Commissioner in accordance with the practice at that time. The deductibility of the bond premiums in question was then in litigation. Plaintiff in July 1946, filed a "Waiver of Restriction on Assessment and Collec- tion of Deficiency in Tax," and paid the amounts in question. The "Waiver" stated that it should not prejudice the plaintiff's claim for refund and should not be construed as a final closing agreement. Id.
XXI. (21) The purpose of the claim for refund required by Section 322 of the Internal Revenue Code is to advise the Government that the taxpayer believes his taxes have been erroneously assessed, and that he asks for the return of the amount of overassessment or for credit to his account. Whether a refund is sufficient under the statute must be judged by the facts rather than by the form. The assertion that an alleged overpayment is erroneous and that such payment is an overassessment need not contain a specific and express demand for immediate refund, when, as in the instant case, the question upon the basis of which the refund is asserted and is asked, is in litigation. Id.
XXII. (22) Upon the conclusion of the litigation which upheld the plaintiff's contention as to the deductibility of the amortization of bond premiums of the type in question, plaintiff on June 19, 1949, filed on the proper form a formal claim for refund, perfecting his reservation and informal claim of July 19, 1946. It is held that in the light of all the surrounding facts and circumstances, including the intention of the taxpayers, the formal claim of June 19, 1949, was a timely amendment of the informal claim of July 19, 1946. Id.
XXIII. (23) The plaintiff in the instant case did not file a motion for summary judgment but in view of the opinion of the court, and the facts alleged in the petition and the decision in Commissioner v. Korell, 339 U. S. 619, it is held that the plaintiff is obviously entitled
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