This is a suit under Title VII of the Revenue Act of 1936, 49 Stat. 1648, 1747, 7 U.S.C. § 644 et seq., 7 U.S.C.A. § 644 et seq., for a refund of processing taxes paid under the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933. The problem of the case derives from the procedural requirements of a claim for such a refund.
The petitioner, Angelus Milling Company, known until June, 1933 as the Middleport Flour Mills, Inc., was a processor of wheat, with its principal office in Niagara Falls, New York. During the years for which the refund is claimed-1933 to 1936-its processing operations were closely connected with those of the Niagara Falls Milling Company. The two companies had the same officers, employees, and majority stockholder, and a joint bank account. They also had a common set of books, but the respective transactions of the two companies-purchases, costs of manufacture, sales-were entered in their separate accounts on the books. Between July 9, 1933, and January 31, 1935, the companies filed joint processing tax returns. Between February 1, 1935, and November 31, 1935, Niagara filed returns in its name on behalf of itself and petitioner.
After United States v. Butler, 297 U.S. 1, 56 S.Ct. 312, 80 L.Ed. 477, 102 A.L.R. 914, invalidated the processing tax, three claims were filed with the Commissioner on June 22, 1936, all stating the name of the taxpayer and claimant as 'Niagara Falls Milling Co., Inc., and/or Middleport Flour Mills, Inc.' Each of these claims is for only part of the period during which the tax was paid, and their total is $434,045.27. Admittedly the form of these claims did not satisfy the requirements of the statute or the authorized Treasury Regulations. They were filed on an old Form 843 and not on the required Form P.T. 79. While these claims were still undetermined, Niagara, on June 30, 1937, filed a claim in the sum of $436,231.73. This claim was in due form but was filed by Niagara on its own behalf alone. Thereafter, on August 15, 1938, petitioner filed a claim, designated 'Amendment to Claim', for itself alone for the refund of $145,839.12. While this claim was submitted on Form P.T. 79, it failed to give the information required by the form and the regulations, containing merely an apportionment between Angelus and Niagara of the three earlier claims. An attached affidavit stated that this claim 'was originally filed on the 22nd day of June 1936 in the name of the Niagara Falls Milling Company and/or Middleport Flour Mills, Inc.' The Commissioner, on May 23, 1941, denied this claim.
To review this disallowance, petitioner brought proceedings in the United States Processing Tax Board of Review. A motion to dismiss, because of a fatal defect in the claim, was denied by the Board, but the Commissioner in his answer stood on his ground that the Board was without jurisdiction to entertain the proceedings. At this stage in the litigation Congress abolished the Processing Tax Board of Review and transferred its jurisdiction to the present Tax Court. That Court granted the Commissioner's renewed motion to dismiss, 1 T.C. 1031, and the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed. 144 F.2d 469. We brought the case here, 323 U.S. 703, 65 S.Ct. 268, because conflict was urged with the decision in United States v. Memphis Cotton Oil Co., 288 U.S. 62, 53 S.Ct. 278, 77 L.Ed. 619.