Automobile Club of Michigan v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue/Opinion of the Court

In 1945, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue revoked his 1934 and 1938 rulings exempting the petitioner from federal income taxes, and retroactively applied the revocation to 1943 and 1944. The Commissioner also determined that prepaid membership dues received by the petitioner should be taken into income in the year received, rejecting the petitioner's method of reporting as income only that part of the dues as was recorded on petitioner's books as earned in the tax year. The Tax Court sustained the Commissioner's determinations, and the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed. This Court granted certiorari.

The Commissioner had determined in 1934 that the petitioner was a 'club' entitled to exemption under provisions of the internal revenue laws corresponding to § 101(9) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1939, notifying the petitioner that ' * *  * future returns, under the provisions of section 101(9) *  *  * will not be required so long as there is no change in your organization, your purposes or methods of doing business.' In 1938, the Commissioner confirmed this ruling in a letter stating: ' *  *  * as it appears that there has been no change in your form of organization or activities which would affect your status the previous ruling of the Bureau holding you to be exempt from filing returns of income is affirmed *  *  * .' Accordingly the petitioner did not pay federal taxes from 1933 to 1945. The Commissioner revoked these rulings in 1945, however, and directed the petitioner to file returns for 1943 and subsequent years. Pursuant to this direction, the petitioner filed, under protest, corporate income and excess profits tax returns for 1943, 1944 and 1945.

The Commissioner's earlier rulings were grounded upon an erroneous interpretation of the term 'club' in § 101(9) and thus were based upon a mistake of law. It is conceded that in 1943 and 1944 petitioner was not, in fact or in law, a 'club' entitled to exemption within the meaning of § 101(9), and also that petitioner is subject to taxation for 1945 and subsequent years. It is nevertheless contended that the Commissioner had no power to apply the revocation retroactively to 1943 and 1944, and that, in any event, the assessment of taxes against petitioner for 1943 and 1944 was barred by the statute of limitations.

The petitioner argues that, in light of the 1934 and 1938 rulings, the Commissioner was equitably estopped from applying the revocation retroactively. This argument is without merit. The doctrine of equitable estoppel is not a bar to the correction by the Commissioner of a mistake of law. The decision in Stockstrom v. Commissioner, 88 U.S.App.D.C. 286, 190 F.2d 283, 30 A.L.R.2d 443, to the extent that it holds to the contrary, is disapproved.

Petitioner's reliance on H.S.D. Co. v. Kavanagh, 6 Cir., 191 F.2d 831, and Woodworth v. Kales, 6 Cir., 26 F.2d 178, is misplaced because those cases did not involve correction of an erroneous ruling of law. Reliance of Lesavoy Foundation v. Commissioner, 3 Cir., 238 F.2d 589, is also misplaced because there the court recognized the power in the Commissioner to correct a mistake of law, but held that in the circumstances of the case the Commissioner had exceeded the bounds of the discretion vested in him under § 3791(b) of the 1939 Code.

The Commissioner's action may not be disturbed unless, in the circumstances of this case, the Commissioner abused the discretion vested in him by § 3791(b) of the 1939 Code. That section provides:

'Retroactivity of regulations or rulings.

'The Secretary, or the Commissioner with the approval of the     Secretary, may prescribe the extent, if any, to which any      ruling, regulation, or Treasury Decision, relating to the      internal revenue laws, shall be applied without retroactive      effect.'

The petitioner contends that this section forbids the Commissioner taking retroactive action. On the contrary, it is clear from the language of the section and its legislative history that Congress thereby confirmed the authority of the Commissioner to correct any ruling, regulation or Treasury decision retroactively, but empowered him, in his discretion, to limit retroactive application to the extent necessary to avoid inequitable results.

The petitioner, citing Helvering v. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 306 U.S. 110, 59 S.Ct. 423, 83 L.Ed. 536, argues that resort by the Commissioner to s 3791(b) was precluded in this case because the repeated re-enactments of § 101(9) gave the force of law to the provision of the Treasury regulations relating to that section. These regulations provided that when an organization had established its right to exemption it need not thereafter make a return of income or any further showing with respect to its status unless it changed the character of its operations or the purpose for which it was originally created. Helvering v. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. is inapplicable to this case. As stated by the Tax Court: 'The regulations involved there (Helvering v. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.) * *  * purported to determine what did or did not constitute gain or loss. The regulations here * *  * in nowise purported to determine whether any organization was or was not exempt.' These regulations did not provide the exemption or interpret § 101(9), but merely specified the necessary information required to be filed in order that the Commissioner might rule whether or not the taxpayer was entitled to exemption. This is thus not a case of ' * *  * administrative construction embodied in the regulation(s) *  *  * ' which, by repeated re-enactment of § 101(9), ' *  *  * Congress must be taken to have approved *  *  * and thereby to have given *  *  * the force of law.' Helvering v. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 306 U.S. at pages 114, 115, 59 S.Ct. at page 425.

We must, then, determine whether the retroactive action of the Commissioner was an abuse of discretion in the circumstances of this case. The action was the consequence of the reconsideration by the Commissioner, in 1943, of the correctness of the prior rulings exempting automobile clubs, initiated by a General Counsel Memorandum interpreting § 101(9) to be inapplicable to such organizations. The Commissioner adopted the General Counsel's interpretation and proceeded to apply it, effective from 1943, indiscriminately to automobile clubs. We thus find no basis for disagreeing with the conclusion, reached by both the Tax Court and the Court of Appeals, that the Commissioner, having dealt with petitioner upon the same basis as other automobile clubs, did not abuse his discretion. Nor did the two-year delay in proceeding with the petitioner's case, in these circumstances, vitiate the Commissioner's action.

The petitioner's contention that the statute of limitations barred the assessment of deficiencies for 1943 and 1944 is also without merit. Its returns for those years were not filed until October 22, 1945. Within three years, on August 25, 1948, the petitioner and the Commissioner signed consents extending the period to June 30, 1949. The period was later extended to June 20, 1950. Notice of deficiencies was mailed to petitioner on February 20, 1950. The assessments were therefore within time under §§ 275(a) and 276(b) unless, as the petitioner asserts, the statute of limitations began to run from the dates when, if there was a duty to file, the statute required filing. The petitioner argues that because its omission to file on March 15, 1914, and March 15, 1945, was induced by the Commissioner's 1934 and 1938 rulings, it is only equitable to interpret the statute of limitations as running from those dates in the circumstances of this case. But the express condition prescribed by the Congress was that the statute was to run against the United States from the date of the actual filing of the return, and no action of the Commissioner can change or modify the conditions under which the United States consents to the running of the statute of limitations against it. In Lucas v. Pilliod Lumber Co., 281 U.S. 245, 249, 50 S.Ct. 297, 299, 74 L.Ed. 829, this Court held:

'Under the established general rule a statute of limitation     runs against the United States only when they assent and upon      the conditions prescribed. Here assent that the statute might     begin to run was conditioned upon the presentation of a      return duly sworn to. No officer had power to substitute     something else for the thing specified. * *  * '

It is also argued that the Form 990 returns filed by the petitioner in compliance with § 54(f) of the 1939 Code, as amended, constituted the filing of returns for the purposes of § 275(a). But the Form 990 returns are merely information returns in furtherance of a congressional program to secure information useful in a determination whether legislation should be enacted to subject to taxation certain tax-exempt corporations competing with taxable corporations. Those returns lack the data necessary for the computation and assessment of deficiencies and are not therefore tax returns within the contemplation of § 275(a). Cf. Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Lane-Wells Co., 321 U.S. 219, 64 S.Ct. 511, 88 L.Ed. 684.

The final issue argued concerns the treatment of membership dues and arises because such dues are paid in advance for one year. The dues upon collection are deposited in a general bank account and are not segregated from general funds but are available and are used for general corporate purposes. For bookkeeping purposes, however, the dues upon receipt are credited to an account carried as a liability account and designated 'Unearned Membership Dues.' During the first month of membership and each of the following eleven months one-twelfth of the amount paid is credited to an account designated 'Membership Income.' This method of accounting was followed by petitioner from 1934. The income from such dues reported by petitioner in each of its tax returns for 1943 through 1947 was the amount credited in the year to the 'Membership Income' account. The Commissioner determined that the petitioner received the prepaid dues under a claim of right, without restriction as to their disposition, and therefore the entire amount received in each year should be reported as income. The Commissioner relies upon North American Oil Consolidated v. Burnet, 286 U.S. 417, 424, 52 S.Ct. 613, 615, 76 L.Ed. 1197, where this Court said: 'If a taxpayer receives earnings under a claim of right and without restriction as to its disposition, * *  * (it) has received income which (it) is required to return *  *  * .'

The petitioner does not deny that it has the unrestricted use of the dues income in the year of receipt, but contends that its accrual method of accounting clearly reflects its income, and that the Commissioner is therefore bound to accept its method of reporting membership dues. We do not agree. Section 41 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1939 required that '(t)he net income shall be computed * *  * in accordance with such method of accounting regularly employed in keeping the books *  *  * but *  *  * if the method employed does not clearly reflect the income, the computation shall be made in accordance with such method as in the opinion of the Commissioner does clearly reflect the income. * *  * ' The pro rata allocation of the membership dues in monthly amounts is purely artificial and bears no relation to the services which petitioner may in fact be called upon to render for the member. Section 41 vests the Commissioner with discretion to determine whether the petitioner's method of accounting clearly reflects income. We cannot say, in the circumstances here, that the discretionary action of the Commissioner, sustained by both the Tax Court and the Court of Appeals, exceeded permissible limits. See Brown v. Helvering, 291 U.S. 193, 204-205, 54 S.Ct. 356, 361, 78 L.Ed. 725.

Affirmed.

Mr. Justice WHITTAKER took no part in the consideration or decision of this case.

Mr. Justice BURTON, whom Mr. Justice CLARK joins, concurring in part and dissenting in part.

I join in the Court's opinion insofar as it holds (a) that the Commissioner did not abuse his discretion under § 3791(b) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1939 when, in 1946, he revoked previous rulings exempting petitioner from federal income taxes and directed petitioner to file returns for 1943 and 1944, and (b) that assessment of deficiencies for those years was not barred by the statute of limitations. However, for the reasons stated by Mr. Justice HARLAN, I dissent from the Court's holding that the Commissioner acted within his discretion under § 41 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1939 when he determined, in reliance upon the 'claim of right' doctrine, that petitioner's method of accounting for prepaid membership dues did not clearly reflect its income.

Mr. Justice HARLAN, dissenting.