Plains Petroleum Company and Subsidiaries - Page 46




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          purpose of evading or avoiding Federal income tax by securing the           
          benefit of deductions, credits, or other allowances that the                
          acquiring person or corporation would not otherwise enjoy, the              
          Secretary may disallow such deductions, credits or other                    
          allowances.30  Accordingly, section 269(a) is not applicable31              

          30   Sec. 269(a) provides, in part, as follows:                             
                    SEC. 269(a).  In General.--If--                                   
                         (1)  any person or persons acquire, or acquired on           
                    or after October 8, 1940, directly or indirectly,                 
                    control of a corporation, or                                      
                         (2)  any corporation acquires, or acquired on or             
                    after October 8, 1940, directly or indirectly, property           
                    of another corporation, not controlled, directly or               
                    indirectly, immediately before such acquisition, by               
                    such acquiring corporation or its stockholders, the               
                    basis of which property, in the hands of the acquiring            
                    corporation, is determined by reference to the basis in           
                    the hands of the transferor corporation,                          
               and the principal purpose for which such acquisition was               
               made is evasion or avoidance of Federal income tax by                  
               securing the benefit of a deduction, credit, or other                  
               allowance which such person or corporation would not                   
               otherwise enjoy, then the Secretary may disallow such                  
               deduction, credit, or other allowance.  * * *                          
          31   The instant controversy has its origin in petitioner's                 
          acquisition of Tri-Power and the subsequent dropdown.  The                  
          parties dispute whether sec. 269(a)(2) can separately apply to              
          the dropdown.  We conclude that it is unnecessary to address the            
          dropdown dispute because, as discussed supra in our findings of             
          fact, we found that the dropdown was an integral part of                    
          petitioner's plan to acquire Tri-Power.  Accordingly, we shall              
          look to the purposes of the overall plan of acquisition to decide           
          whether the principal purpose for the acquisition and dropdown              
          was tax avoidance.  See, e.g., Key Buick Co. v. Commissioner,               
          T.C. Memo. 1976-303 (where the issue of whether the transactions            
                                                             (continued...)           





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