Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

21 B.T.A. 304

Sunset Color Works v. Commissioner

United States Board of Tax Appeals

Decided November 12, 1930

United States Board of Tax Appeals · decided 1930-11-12

Where the petitioner contracted to paint a roof and repair it and guaranteed that the roof would be leak proof for ten years, but that if for any cause it could not be so maintained, it would refund so much of the contract price as the number of years the roof was not functioning bore to the term of ten years, and where in the year 1925 the roof leaked and was not susceptible of repair, but petitioner postponed admitting such fact until 1926, in which year demand for refund…

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently July 1963

Relies on Lucas v. American Code Co. · Austin v. Commissioner · Producers' Fuel Co. v. Commissioner

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1930-11-12

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1*307OPINION.

Phillips:

¶2Notwithstanding the books of petitioner were kept in a crude manner, the testimony discloses that it entered therein all amounts payable and all amounts receivable and that it kept inventories. These facts indicate that the books were kept on an accrual basis. Cf. Mason Machine Works Co., 3 B. T. A. 745.

¶3The question presented is whether petitioner had the right to accrue in 1925 the refund called for by the contract. Petitioner relies upon Producers Fuel Co., 1 B. T. A. 202, while respondent relies upon William J. Ostheimer, 1 B. T. A. 18, Bump Confectionery Co., 4 B. T. A. 50, and similar cases. These and similar decisions of the Board are referred to with approval and are cited in the footnotes to the opinion in Lucas v. American Code Co., 280 U. S. 445.

¶4In the instant case the petitioner made no admission of liability in the taxable year, nor did it enter upon negotiations looking to a settlement as in Producers Fuel Co., supra.While it recognized that the day of reckoning was near, it delayed the inevitable as long as possible. It denied that the roof could not be repaired and it was not until the following year that the other party to the contract took the position that such was the fact and demanded payment accordingly. While the case differs in its facts from those upon which the respondent relies, it appears to fall within the principles which governed those decisions. We are of the opinion that under those decisions the amount here involved was not properly accruable until 1926.

¶5Decision will be entered for respondent.

/21/bta/304 · .json · Public domain