Old Mission Portland Cement Co. v. Helvering’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

202 federal appellate · 18 district · 23 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 413 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Donations by corporations. — Corporations are not entitled to deduct from gross income contributions or gifts which individuals may deduct under section 23 (n). Donations made by a corporation for purposes connected with the operation of its business, however, when limited to charitable institutions, hospitals, or educational institutions conducted for the benefit of its employees or their dependents are a proper deduction as ordinary and necessary business expenses. Donations which legitimately represent a consideration for a benefit flowing directly to the corporation as an incident of its business are allowable deductions from gross income.””

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Helvering v. Evening Star Newspaper Co. · Commissioner v. F. & R. Lazarus & Co.

2. ““Amortized bond discount is deductible from the taxpayer’s gross income only by way of anticipation of payment of the bonds at maturity. It is then that the taxpayer pays the difference, between the amount realized upon the sale of the bonds and their par value, which is the subject of the amortization. Helvering v. Union Pacific Railroad Co., supra [ 55 S. Ct. 165 , 79 L. Ed. -]. Here the payment anticipated is from one affiliate to another, an intercompany transaction. If we eliminate it from the computation of income upon the consolidated return, as the regulation directs, there is no anticipated payment of the discount to be amortized and no basis for the deduction. “A single taxpayer who had purchased his own bonds before maturity could not afterwards deduct, from gross income, the amortized discount on the bonds, in . anticipation of their payment at maturity. This is equally the case where the obligor and obligee are affiliated corporations claiming the benefit of a statute which permits them to compute their tax as though they were one. It is true that in either case the bondholder may sell his bonds, before maturity, and thus renew his obligation to pay them. But in neither is the taxpayer in a position to require the government to anticipate an event which may never occur, by conferring upon him the benefit of a deduction to which, without its occurrence, he would not be entitled. Having elected to take the benefit of affiliation, the taxpayer cannot complain of a b”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Southern Ry. Co. v. Commissioner

3. ““The privilege of deducting charitable donations from gross income, conferred on individual taxpayers by section 214 (a) of the Revenue Act of 1921 ( 42 Stat. 239 ), and section 214 (a), Revenue Acts 1924 and 1926 [ 43 Stat. 269 , 44 Stat. 26 ], has not been extended to corporations. A proposal to extend it to them was rejected by Congress pending the passage of the Revenue Act of 1918 ( 40 Stat. 1057 ). Cong.Rec., House, Vol. 56, Part 10, 10426-10428.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 18 F. Supp. 892 - Morgan Const. Co. v. United States