Hercules Powder Company v. United States

The plaintiff seeks to recover income taxes paid for the years 1948 through 1952. It paid the taxes as capital gains taxes upon the sale of shares of its own stock.- It later concluded that the transactions were not taxable, and filed timely claims for refunds, which claims were denied.

The plaintiff is a Delaware corporation, whose stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. As of December 31, 1929, its capital structure consisted of 200,000 shares of preferred stock and 1.600.000 shares of no par value common stock. Only 114,241 shares of preferred and 598,000 shares of common stock were…