Two federal courts, the United States Tax Court and the United States Court of Appeals, reached opposing conclusions regarding a decision classifying a Mr. John Menard’s 1998 compensation as purely salary or as combination salary and disguised dividend. For clarification, a “disguised dividend” is compensation given to a CEO, controlling shareholder, or president of a closely held corporation that is determined in excess of a reasonable salary for work completed.
Ruling Court Decision
The compensation received by Mr. Menard, the CEO and controlling shareholder of Menard, Inc., was not unreasonable for his position and therefore did not include a tax evasive disguised dividend. This opinion agrees with the decision made by the United States Court of Appeals.
The argument presented by the Tax Court did not consider factors brought to attention by the Court of Appeals. Most notably, the Tax Court did not consider all forms of compensation to the CEO when determining a formula for comparability. This is problematic as the comparability formula used to determine a reasonable compensation for Mr. Menard to receive and was the basis of the Tax Court’s argument against Mr. Menard.
Both courts made their decisions based on two main arguements:
• Compensation Comparability Formula
• Bonus versus dividend
Decision Overview
United States Tax Court Decision In 2004, the United States Tax Court released a memo regarding their decision that the compensation of Mr. John Menard in
The appellants view the “substance” of the transaction is over the “form”. Generally, taxpayers are bound by the form of their transaction and may not argue the substance triggers different tax consequences. The Tax Court found the form and substance of the transaction was a loan from the bank to VAFLA and not to the appellants. The proceeds were to be used in the operation of the business and petitioners were not free to dispose the loan. Nor were the payments reported as constructive dividends.
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