Rev. Rul. 54-453

The following price indexes for July 1954, published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on September 3, 1954, for use by department stores employing the retail inventory and elective inventory methods, are accepted by the Internal Revenue Service pursuant to Treasury Decision 5605, C.B. 1948-1, 16, and Mimeograph 6244, C.B. 1948-1, 21, for appropriate application to inventories for taxable years of 12 months ended on June 30, 1954, and July 31, 1954.

Indexes are given on a national basis for the store total, for 20 major groups of departments, and for two special group combinations. The store total includes all departments in the store, both those listed in the groups and those not specifically listed, except for candy, foods, liquor, tobacco, and paints and wallpaper. Contract departments are also excluded.

Effective with the July 1954 Department Store Inventory Price Index, the revision program which began in 1952 has been completed. The final change, that of the necessary adjustments in the departmental grouping to make them conform with the new departmentalization plan of the Controllers' Congress of the National Retail Dry Goods Association, was incorporated into the July 1954 index. These adjustments were minor and had practically no effect on index for the 20 departments.

The Controllers' Congress of the National Retail Dry Goods Association has revised its system of numbering the departments in its `Manual of Departmental Merchandise Content for Departmentized Stores.' For taxpayer employing the new numbering system, table II shows the department or departments to which each of the 20 group indexes is applicable: