This is a petition by the Lucky Lager Brewing Company, hereafter petitioner, to review a decision of the Tax Court assessing a deficiency against it in the amount of $102,343.94 in excess profits tax for the calendar year 1950.

To meet the expenses of the Korean war Congress imposed an excess profits tax on corporate income with a special provision favoring corporations showing an exceedingly large growth during the period immediately before the war. The Tax Court held that petitioner’s income history did not bring it within the favored class of growth corporations, and petitioner here seeks review of that decision.

Under Section 435 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1939, enacted in 1951, 26 U.S.C.A. Excess Profits Taxes, § 435, the excess profits tax imposed by Section 430 of the Code, 26 U.S.C.A. Excess Profits Taxes, § 430, applies only to the portion of the 1950 income of a corporation which exceeds its income during a base period of the statute. Two alternative methods are provided for determining the amount of corporate income during the base period which is to be deducted from (or taken as a “credit” against) the 1950 income of the corporation, thereby reducing the amount of the 1950 income which is subject to the excess profits tax.

The first method for determining the amount of this “credit” is set forth in Section 435(d) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1939 which provides in substance that the amount of the corporation’s income subject to the excess profits tax is determined by deducting therefrom the average income of the corporation *622 during its three best years of the four-year period 1946-1949. This is the method which was applied in the present case by the Tax Court.

The second alternative is provided for in Section 435(e) of the Code. It is petitioner’s contention that this method is applicable to this case. This section provides that a corporation’s credit against its 1950 income for the purposes of the excess profits tax may be based upon its income in 1949 alone, rather than its average income for three years of the four-year base period, if the corporation meets the special requirements of a “growth” corporation set forth therein. The only such requirement with which we are concerned on this appeal is the subpart of Section 435(e) (1) (A) (ii) which provides that “the gross receipts of the taxpayer (as determined under paragraph (5)) for the last half of its •base period is 150 per centum or more of its gross receipts for the first half of its base period.”

Paragraph (5) of Section 435(e) defines “gross receipts” as follows:

It is conceded that if the term “gross receipts” as defined above is what the buyer paid for the beer regardless of the $8.00 per barrel federal excise tax on beer 1 which the petitioner paid prior to its sale, then the petitioner’s gross receipts during the last half of the base period, 1948-1949, were not 150% of its gross receipts during the first half of the base period, 1946-1947. Henee, if its gross receipts are what the buyer paid for the beer the selling petitioner is not a “growth” corporation under Section 435(e), and the amount of its 1950 income which is subject to the excess profits tax must be determined by deducting from its income for that year its average income during its three best years during the base period under Section 435(d), rather than its 1949 income under Section 435(e). On the other hand, if petitioner’s contention that “gross receipts” as defined above does not include the federal beer excise tax is correct, then petitioner’s gross receipts in 1948-1949 were 150% of its gross receipts in 1946-1947, and petitioner is a “growth” corporation under Section 435(e), and is entitled to calculate its credit under that section.

The contention of petitioner is that the word “gross” in the term “gross receipts” means what the buyer paid for the beer less what the manufacturer paid to the government prior to its sale under the excise tax, enacted in 1939. As far as we are able to analyze petitioner’s contention, it seems to be that the tax, in effect, is on the buyer and that the selling petitioner here in receiving his payment for the beer acted in two capacities: one as a collector for the government of a tax on the buyer and the other as recipient of payment of the *623 remainder of the sales prices for the beer itself. 2

We do not agree. The language of paragraph (5) of Section 435(e) that “gross receipts” are “the total amount received or accrued * * * from the sale * * * of stock in trade” [emphasis supplied] is irrefutably plain. It is a logical absurdity to contend that the “total amount received” from the sales is not what the customer paid but a lesser amount determined by a deduction of a particular tax paid, here required to be paid and in fact paid by the seller, before the delivery of the beer. A similar case is Liggett & Myers Tobacco Co. v. United States, 1937, 299 U.S. 383 , 57 S.Ct. 239, 240 , 81 L.Ed. 294 , where the Court of Claims held the tax on tobacco manufactured by the tobacco company and sold by it to the State of Massachusetts, was laid on the manufacturer, the statute providing that:

just as here the tax on beer is to be paid by the maker of the beer. It was there contended that the burden of the tax fell upon the State of Massachusetts, the buyer. Answering this, the court stated:

The gross receipts also included a California excise tax of 63 cents per barrel. In our view of the case we do not reach the question of this California excise tax because if the federal tax is included in gross receipts a deduction of the state tax would not qualify petitioner as a growth corporation under Section 435(e).

The decision of the Tax Court is affirmed.

. Under Section 3150 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1939, 26 U.S.C.A. § 3150 . The amount of this tax was unchanged during the period of 1946-1949.

. It appears that the petitioner, both in its income tax returns and its reports to its stockholders, treats what it calls its “gross sales”, as the amount from which is subtracted the amount of the tax with the other allowable deductions to determine its net income.