- 14 - economic outlay--unless Schanno defaulted. This conclusion is consistent with the treatment of the participations in Schanno’s certified financial statements. Those statements, which were certified as correct by the independent accounting firm and which were reviewed by petitioner, disclosed the participations as a guaranty by petitioner of the debt between American and Schanno. In Underwood v. Commissioner, supra, we held that the taxpayer’s series of interrelated transactions was tantamount to a disguised guaranty of an S corporation’s indebtedness to a third party. In that case, the taxpayers were the sole shareholders of two corporations engaged in the retail barbecue business, one a profitable C corporation (C-corp), the other an unprofitable S corporation (S-corp). The C-corp made loans to the S-corp over nearly a 2-year period. The S-corp gave the C- corp promissory notes for the loans. In an attempt to acquire additional S-corp basis, the taxpayers rearranged the notes in three steps: (1) The C-corp surrendered the notes of the S-corp; (2) one of the taxpayers gave a personal note to the C-corp; and (3) the S-corp gave its note to that taxpayer. We held that the taxpayer did not make the requisite economic outlay and that the substance of the arrangement was similar to a guaranty of the indebtedness. See Underwood v. Commissioner, supra at 475; see also Estate of Leavitt v. Commissioner, 90 T.C. 206 (1988), affd. 875 F.2d 420 (4th Cir. 1989). Likewise here, we find thePage: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011