- 19 - receive anything of value from the redemption on account of personal services that would entitle Chrysler to deduct a compensation expense with respect thereto. The employees have simply surrendered their Chrysler stock for its value in cash. Nor are we persuaded by petitioner’s insistence that a proper analysis of the origin of the claim test is that presented in Keller St. Dev. Co. v. Commissioner, 688 F.2d 675 (9th Cir. 1982), affg. T.C. Memo. 1978-350, and that this analysis shows that Chrysler’s costs to redeem its common stock are deductible. In the Keller St. Dev. Co. case, the taxpayer corporation sold a brewery. Dissenting shareholders sued for rescission in a derivative suit. After 10 years, the litigation produced a judgment, part of which awarded the corporation $2,432,175.45. This amount represented compensation for the buyer’s use of the brewery assets and as a substitute for the products or profits that those assets would have generated following the sale. In affirming a decision of this Court, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected the taxpayer’s assertion that the $2,432,175.45 was taxable as capital gains on the sale of assets. The court determined that the claim which produced the $2,432,175.45 award originated in the sale of the brewery’s assets, a capital transaction. The court then reasoned that “we must next examine how the payment fits into the structure of a capital transaction.” Id. at 682. It concluded that the awardPage: Previous 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011