Masonry Magazine March 1970 Page. 42
Taxes
(Continued from page 40)
If the tax is paid in one year, it is figured under a 7-year forward averaging provision. Any portion of the distribution which is eligible for capital gains treatment is not included in the computation. Also not included is any salary received by the employee from the employer in the year of the lump-sum distribution.
H.R. 10 Plans. The new lump-sum distribution rules do not affect distribution from self-employed retirement plans (H.R. 10 plans) that are paid to the owner-employee. However, any regular employees who are covered by H.R. 10 plans are subject to the new rules because in the past they had been subject to the same lump-sum distribution provisions as were employees of corporate employers.
The 5-year averaging procedure permitted to owner-employees of lump-sum distributions from an H.R. 10 plan has not been changed.
CREDIT LIFE INSURANCE
In order to finance part of the cost of constructing a drive-in theater, the taxpayer applied to the Small Business Administration for a loan. In order to obtain the loan, the taxpayer had to assign to the SBA a life insurance policy on his life. The assignment was made, and for the next 5 or 6 years the taxpayer made all required payments of principal and interest on the loan and he paid premiums on the life insurance policy.
Because the taxpayer claimed the premium payments as a business expense deduction on his tax returns and the Commissioner disallowed them on the ground that they were a personal living expense, a court case resulted.
The Tax Court agreed with the Commissioner. Payment of the premiums benefited the taxpayer. Under the assignment of the policy, the proceeds of the policy, in the event of the taxpayer's death, would have been used to discharge the remaining principal of the loan, thereby indirectly augmenting his estate by eliminating a claim that it would otherwise have to pay.
The Court found no doubt that the taxpayer was the indirect beneficiary under the insurance policy. The premiums were not deductible as business expenses but were a nondeductible personal living expense. (Hanson v. Commissioner, T. C. Memo 1970-15.)
First London Bridge Construction
The first construction contract in the massive job of rebuilding historic London Bridge in this young resort city on the lower Colorado River has been awarded by McCulloch Properties, Inc., to M. M. Sundt Construction Company of Tucson, Arizona.
The $1,660,963 contract calls for construction of the steel-reinforced concrete superstructure of the bridge, with work starting November 1 of last year and completion scheduled for December 31, 1970.
Aflixing of London Bridge granite stones to the superstructure is scheduled to begin this April.
Nearly $5 million, including the contract awarded today, will be invested in the London Bridge project during the coming year, according to Robert P. McCulloch, Jr., executive vice president of MeCulloch Properties, Inc., a subsidiary of MeCulloch Oil Corporation and the principal planning and development firm for Lake Havasu City.
Purchased by McCulloch Oil Corporation for $2,460,000, London Bridge is being rebuilt here in its original form as the centerpiece of an international resort complex
Using an old English feathered quill, Robert P. McCulloch, Jr., at right, executive vice president of McCulloch Properties, Inc., signs first construction contract for rebuilding historic London Bridge at Lake Havasu City, Arizona. The $1.6 million contract was awarded to M. M. Sundt Construction Company of Tucson, Arizona, represented by Ted Jones, left, assistant manager of the firm's heavy engineering department, and H. Wilson Sundt, executive vice president, center. Excavation is already under way for the bridge and the waterway it will span.
of hotels, shops and restaurants expected to make Lake Havasu City one of the nation's foremost all-year resort and tourist centers.
Over 42 million pounds of granite stones dismantled from London Bridge, about 20 per cent of the total stonework involved, have been delivered 10,000 miles from the River Thames to Lake Havasu City, where they await meticulous repositioning in the gigantic engineering task of re-creating the ancient bridge in its original form.
Weighing from one-half ton to over seven tons each, the stones will be fastened to the superstructure and to their neighboring stones by stainless steel cramps and dowels and bonded with concrete.
Special Sling for Huge Slabs
"Moving a 10-ton stone is delicate work," says Val Burke (right). production foreman of Plasticrete's hugh Newington, Conn, facility-one of the largest precast concrete manufacturing plants in Conn. He is shown here with safety inspector David Kaufman (center) examining a new type of sling from Eezee Lift Sling Co., New York City. This sling provides a "soft lift" for the 19,500 lb., 38 ft. long corner slab before shipment to a New York City Park Avenue skyscraper. With a 13 acre yard full of giant monoliths and more than a score of tractor-trailers hauling them to sites all over the East-Burke has to be as careful as a candler in a hatchery.
masonry
• March, 1970