Whether subsidies paid to corporations in money or in the form of grants of land or other physical property constitute taxable income has also concerned the Court. In Edwards v. Cuba Railroad Co.[30] it ruled that subsidies of lands, equipment, and money paid by Cuba for the construction of a railroad were not taxable income but were to be viewed as having been received by the railroad as a reimbursement for capital expenditures in completing such project. On the other hand, sums paid out by the Federal Government to fulfil its guarantee of minimum operating revenue to railroads during the six months following relinquishment of their control by that government were found to be taxable income. Such payments were distinguished from those excluded from computation of income in the preceding case in that the former were neither bonuses, nor gifts, nor subsidies; "that is, contributions to capital."[31]
GAINS IN THE FORM OF REAL ESTATE; WHEN TAXABLE AS INCOME
When through forfeiture of a lease in 1933, a landlord became possessed of a new building erected on his land by the outgoing tenant, the resulting gain to the former was taxable to him in that year. Although "economic gain is not always taxable as income, it is settled that the realization of gain need not be in cash derived from the sale of an asset. * * * The fact that the gain is a portion of the value of the property received by the * * * [landlord] does not negative its realization. * * * [Nor is it necessary] to recognition of taxable gain that * * * [the landlord] should be able to sever the improvement begetting the gain from his original capital." Hence, the taxpayer was incorrect in contending that the amendment "does not permit the taxation of such [a] gain without apportionment amongst the states."[32] Consistently with this holding the Court has also ruled that when an apartment house was acquired by bequest subject to an unassumed mortgage, and several years thereafter was sold for a price slightly in excess of the mortgage, the basis for determining the gain from that sale was the difference between the selling price, undiminished by the amount of the mortgage, and the value of the property at the time of the acquisition, less deductions for depreciation during the years the building was held by the taxpayer. The latter's contention that the Revenue Act, as thus applied, taxed something which was not revenue was declared to be unfounded.[33]
GAINS IN THE FORM OF BEQUESTS; WHEN TAXABLE AS INCOME
As against the argument of a donee that a gift of stock became a capital asset when received and that therefore, when disposed of, no part of that value could be treated as taxable income to said donee, the Court has declared that it was within the power of Congress to require a donee of stock, who sells it at a profit, to pay income tax on the difference between the selling price and the value when the donor acquired it.[34] Moreover, "the receipt in cash or property * * * not [being] the only characteristic of realization of income to a taxpayer on the cash receipts basis," it follows that one who is normally taxable only on the receipt of interest payments cannot escape taxation thereon by giving away his right to such income in advance of payment. When "the taxpayer does not receive payment of income in money or property, realization may occur when the last step is taken by which he obtains the fruition of the economic gain which has already accrued to him." Hence an owner of bonds, reporting on the cash receipts basis, who clipped interest coupons therefrom before their due date and gave them to his son, was held to have realized taxable income in the amount of said coupons, notwithstanding that his son had collected them upon maturity later in the year.[35]
DIMINUTION OF LOSS, NOT INCOME
Mere diminution of loss is neither gain, profit, nor income. Accordingly, one who in 1913 borrowed a sum of money to be repaid in German marks and who subsequently lost said money in a business transaction cannot be taxed on the curtailment of debt effected by using depreciated marks in 1921 to settle a liability of $798,144 for $113,688, the "saving" having been exceeded by a loss on the entire operation.[36]
DATES APPLICABLE IN COMPUTATION OF TAXABLE GAINS
With a frequency that for obvious reasons is progressively diminishing, the Court has also been called upon to resolve questions as to whether gains, realized after 1913, on transactions consummated prior to ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment are taxable, and if so, how such tax is to be determined. The Court's answer generally has been that if the gain to the person whose income is under consideration became such subsequently to the date at which the amendment went into effect; namely, March 1, 1913, and is a real and not merely an apparent gain, said gain is taxable. Thus, one who purchased stock in 1912 for $500 could not limit his taxable gain to the difference between $695, the value of the stock on March 1, 1913 and $13,931, the price obtained on the sale thereof in 1916; but was obliged to pay tax on the entire gain, that is, the difference between the original purchase price and the proceeds of the sale.[37] Conversely, one who acquired stock in 1912 for $291,600 and who sold the same in 1916 for only $269,346, incurred a loss and could not be taxed at all, notwithstanding the fact that on March 1, 1913, his stock had depreciated to $148,635.[38] On the other hand, although the difference between the amount of life insurance premiums, paid as of 1908, and the amount distributed in 1919, when the insured received the amount of his policy plus cash dividends apportioned thereto since 1908, constituted a gain, that portion of the latter which accrued between 1908 and 1913 was deemed to be an accretion of capital and hence not taxable.[39]