Libby, McNeill & Libby West Indies Co. v. Secretary of the Treasury
Libby, McNeill & Libby West Indies Co. v. Secretary of the Treasury
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court..
Libby, McNeill & Libby is a corporation organized under' the laws of Maine, and it is not authorized to do business', in Puerto Rico. For the world-wide distribution of its. products, it organizes other subsidiary corporations to which, a determined area is assigned for the purpose of business', transactions. Employees of Libby, McNeill & Libby appear as stockholders, officers and directors of these subsidiary corporations, but all the shares are endorsed in blank in favor of the parent corporation. As a matter of fact, the distribution of dividends by these subsidiaries is determined by the-Maine corporation, which is the true and only owner of all the shares.
During the year 1949, Libby (West Indies) had a net income from sources within Puerto Rico of $192,955.14 and it paid the sum of $55,034.30 as tax. Therefore, it had a net balance of $137,920.84. At the beginning of the tax year it had an undivided profit of $91,849.94. It was stipulated by the parties that more than eighty (80) per cent of the volume of its business in 1949 was transacted in Puerto Rico.
On December 29, 1949, the Board of Directors of Libby (West Indies) met in the city of Chicago and approved a dividend for the sum of $100,000 to be distributed from the earned profits, and to be paid in full the 31st of the following December. As Libby (Maine) is the owner of all the shares of Libby (West Indies), it received the payment of said dividend, and a transfer of $100,000 was made to that effect from the surplus fund to the current account of Libby (Maine) in the journal book of the latter, so as “to record a. payment of dividends (in cash) declared by Libby, McNeill and Libby, West Indies Co.”.
In the tax return presented by Libby (West Indies) for the assessment of local income tax for the year 1949, the total amount of this dividend was set forth as the: “total distribution to stockholders charged to earned surplus during the taxable year.” After the declaration of this dividend it still had an earned surplus of $124,017.33.
On August 23, 1950 the Treasurer of Puerto Rico notified Libby (West Indies) of a deficiency for the amount of
On appeal from the judgment rendered, it is set forth that the Superior Court erred in not deciding that § 19(a) (2) (6) of the Income Tax Act of 1925 (13 L.P.R.A. §698(a)(2)(6)) is unconstitutional insofar as it taxes the dividends received by nonresident individuals not citizens of Puerto Rico (a) declared and paid by a foreign corporation .from profits derived within and without Puerto Rico; and (b) declared and paid without Puerto Rico.
There is no dispute whatsoever as to the fact that in case that Libby (Maine) is obliged to pay the tax imposed by the Secretary of the Treasury, the taxpayer-appellant. Libby (West Indies), is then obliged to withhold the same, .and in not doing so, it is responsible for its payment. To that effect, paragraph (a) of §22 of the Income Tax Act •of 1924 (13 L.P.R.A. §701 (a))
To approach the issue raised, and although no specific point is made by the taxpayer in this respect, we shall part from the basis that the alleged unconstitutionality arises from the violation of the due process of law, and that no challenge is made regarding any conflict with the interstate commerce clause.
Section 31 (a) of the Income Tax Act of 1925 (13 L.P.R.A. $ 734 (b)) provides that in the case of a foreign corporation, gross income means only income from sources within Puerto Rico as determined in the manner provided in § 19 (13 L.P.R.A. § 698), that regarding dividends, it specifies that those declared by a foreign corporation shall be treated as gross income unless less than twenty per centum of the gross income of such foreign corporation for the three-year period ending with the close of its taxable year preceding the declaration of such dividends was derived from sources within Puerto Rico.
In P.R. Telephone Co. v. Secretary of the Treasury, 79 P.R.R. 845 (1957) the corporation in question was a corporation organized under the laws of the state of Delaware and authorized to do business in Puerto Rico (Porto Rico Telephone Company) and there was another corporation organized under the laws of Maryland and not authorized to do business locally (International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation) and which owned 99.84% of the capital stock •of the former; in 1940 dividends were declared, and the Treasurer of Puerto Rico notified the Porto Rico Telephone Co. of an income tax deficiency for not having withheld and paid any tax over these dividends. We held that the nonresident corporation which received the income, including the dividends, of another corporation which derived more than the fifty (50) per centum of its gross income from sources within Puerto Rico was obliged to pay a tax over the income received by it from sources within Puerto Rico, less whatever credits and deductions were allowed. In relation to the deductions, § 32(6) provides that in the case of a foreign corporation the deductions shall be allowed only if and to the extent that they are connected with income from ■sources within Puerto Rico and that the apportionment of the deductions with respect to sources within and without Puerto Rico shall be determined by the rules and regulations prescribed by the Treasurer. In order to determine the
“From the items specified in articles 190 to 195 as being-derived specifically from sources within and without Puerto Rico (§ 191 refers to dividends) there shall be deducted the expenses, losses, and other deductions properly apportioned or allocated thereto and a ratable part of any other expenses, losses, or deductions which can not definitely be allocated to some, item or class of gross income. The remainder shall be included in full as income from sources within Puerto Rico. The ratable part is based upon the ratio of gross income from sources within Puerto Rico to the total gross income.”
Finally § 199 of said Regulations clearly establishes that, unless a nonresident foreign taxpayer files a “true and accurate” return of income from sources within Puerto Rico, the tax shall be collected on the basis of the gross income-derived from local sources. This section was applied in the-case of Porto Rico Telephone v. Secretary of the Treasury, supra, and on appeal to the United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit, it was stated that “I.T.T. having failed to file-such a return for the taxable year 1940, it seems clear that it was subject to an income tax upon the dividends which it. received in that year from appellant.” Porto Rico Telephone Co. v. Descartes, 255 F.2d 169, 172 (1958).
There is no doubt whatsoever as to the power of the Commonwealth to levy an income tax on dividends declared or paid on profits derived from activities and business transacted in Puerto Rico. In International Harvester Co. v. Wisconsin Dept. of Taxation, 322 U.S. 435 (1944),. it was held that a state may tax the earnings realized within said state and distributed as dividends to the stockholders, since it has afforded protection and benefits to the corporate-activities of the company which has produced said profits. Cf. Freeman v. Secretary of the Treasury, ante, p. 298 de
A careful and thorough examination of the facts involved
Regarding the second challenge made by the taxpayer against the constitutionality of § 19 (a) (2) (6) in levying a tax on a dividend declared and paid without Puerto Rico, again we disagree. The power of a state to levy taxes on transactions which take place within the state is not affected by the fact that the exaction is contingent upon events brought to pass without the state. Wisconsin v. J. C. Penney Co., 311 U.S. 435, 445 (1940). The fundamental factor is the origin of the taxable income, which is ascribed to the place where the property yielding the dividend is situated or where the corporation transacts the operations culminating in the accumulation of profits which are distributed as dividends. The place where the income is received is not necessarily controlling as to the source of the income. If this were the case, it would be sufficient for the taxpayer to require that the payment of his income be made without Puerto Rico so as to avoid the local tax, and in this way we would be allowing him to decide personally the source of his income irrespective of the situs where it was realized. ArcZ-
Besides, we fully adopt the reasoning set forth in the opinion rendered by the respondent judge, who properly stated: “Nonessential facts regarding the source of the income which are contingent upon the will or fancy of a taxpayer, such as the state or place which he chooses to organize into a corporation, or the place which is selected to hold a board meeting and to declare a dividend, cannot defeat the power of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to collect a tax, if on the other hand said tax has been levied and is proper at law. We should not forget that plaintiff’s President testified that all the collections obtained from the sales made by them were deposited in a bank in Puerto Rico, the Royal Bank of Canada, and that according to the evidence, the plaintiff had no other sources of income but its own sales.”
The witness Fred P. Slivon, Secretary-Treasurer and Director of the-Maine corporation, stated that “the latter transacts its business through, subsidiaries,” that “it is our practice, when establishing subsidiaries, to. appoint employees of the Libby, McNeill corporation of Maine as officers,, directors and stockholders of the subsidiary corporation” and “that these, stockholders endorse their shares in blank and deliver them to us, in order that the Libby, McNeill & Libby corporation may keep them under my custody”; that they are dummy stockholders and that every subsidiary needs an employee of the Maine corporation. Mr. J. R. Hamady, President and Manager of the Illinois corporation stated that neither he nor the San Juan office has any control over the declaration or payment of dividends.
Hereinafter we shall refer to the Maine corporation as Libby (Maine), and to the Illinois corporation as Libby (West Indies).
This sum is broken down thus:
Tax — $29,000, that is 29% of 100,000.
Interest — 7,395.00.
The text of this section applicable to the facts of the case at bar is -that of Act No. 430 of May 14, 1952 (Sess. Laws, p. 874), which was .given a retroactive effect to January 1, 1924.
The term “domestic” when applied to corporations, means those created or organized in Puerto Rico under the local laws; and all those which are not domestic shall be considered as “foreign” corporations.
See, Northwestern States Portland Cement Co. v. Minnesota, 358 U.S. 450 (1959) and the annotation in 67 A.L.R.2d 1322 entitled Validity, under Federal Constitution, of state tax on, or measured by, income of. foreign corporation. See also the following commentaries on the case cited above: 46 Va. L. Rev. 297 (1960); 57 Mich. L. Rev. 903 (1959); 47 Cal. L. Rev. 777 (1959); 27 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 725 (1959). In general terms it may be said that a state may impose a tax over the net income of a foreign corporation which is engaged exclusively in interstate commerce activities provided that (a) it transacts sufficient business within the state to justify such imposition; and, (b) the tax should not be discriminatory and meet the formula for a reasonable distribution of income. Cf. Buscaglia v. Ballester, 162 F.2d 805 (1947) cert. denied 332 U.S. 816 (1947).
Section 19 (a) (2) (6) preserved its original language until the approval of the Income Tax Act of 1954, except that by Act No. 31 of April 12, 1941 (Sess. Laws, p. 478) the volume of gross income which must be derived from sources within Puerto Rico for the three-year period preceding the declaration of dividends was reduced from fifty to twenty per centum. The pertinent part of this section is a literal translation of § 217 (2) (B) of the Federal Revenue Act of 1924 (26 U.S.C., Act of 1924, $217). Section 119(a)(2)(B) of the Income Tax Act of 1954 (13 L.P.R.A. $ 3119) preserved in essence the same language of the above cited $ 19(a)(2)(b) and added that the dividends shall be taxable as gross income in an amount which bears the same ratio to such dividends which the gross income of the corporation for said period from sources within Puerto Rico bears to its gross income from all sources.
Section 4(b) provides, in its pertinent part, that “For the purposes of this Act every distribution [of dividends] is made out of earnings or profits to the extent thereof, and from the most recently accumulated earnings or profits.”
In Lord Forres, 25 B.T.A. 154 (1932) the taxpayer received dividends from a foreign corporation, more than fifty (50) per centum of whose income was derived from sources within the United States. These profits were transferred to England and were commingled with other corporate
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.