California & Hawaiian Sugar Refining Corp. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

Petitioner is a so-called California cooperative marketing association organized under the California Agricultural Code, hereinafter called the cooperative. The members of the cooperative are thirty producers of ■ raw sugar in the Hawaiian Islands, who transferred title of their sugar to the cooperative for processing and sale under a contract hereafter considered. The contract was made long before the enactment of the processing tax here considered and the case presents no question of tax avoidance.

The cooperative seeks a review of decisions of the Tax Court granting motions to dismiss the cooperative’s proceeding for a refund of processing taxes, imposed by the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933, 7 U.S.C.A. § 601 et seq., and held invalid in United States v. Butler, 297 U.S. 1 , 56 S.Ct. 312 , 80 L.Ed. 477 , 102 A.L.R. 914 . One sought refund of taxes upon the processing of raw sugar transferred to it by the contract and the other a refund of such taxes on processing jute bought from other persons and made into bags to contain the refined sugar. The Tax Court held that the petitions before it showed on their faces that the cooperative was not entitled to a refund on either…