United States v. Portland Cement Company of Utah

BREITENSTEIN, Circuit Judge.

We have again the problem of how to determine, for the purpose of fixing the depletion allowance granted by federal income tax statutes, the income from the mining of a unique mineral for which no market exists and which is first salable commercially as a finished product, cement. In the absence of sales of the mineral the gross income from mining must be determined constructively. The question is how to do this. The trial court adopted the substitute-materials method of the taxpayer and rejected the proportionate-profits method of the government. We must decide…