Alling v. Commissioner

102 T.C. No. 10, 102 T.C. 323, 1994 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 11
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedFebruary 24, 1994
DocketDocket Nos. 6197-84, 15748-84, 29586-84, 31737-84, 37132-84, 5676-85, 29996-85, 41809-85, 39519-86, 45975-86, 29527-87, 27523-88, 5214-89, 22733-90
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 102 T.C. No. 10 (Alling v. Commissioner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Tax Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Alling v. Commissioner, 102 T.C. No. 10, 102 T.C. 323, 1994 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 11 (tax 1994).

Opinion

OPINION

Tannenwald, Judge:

The parties having settled all but one issue, this case comes before the Court fully stipulated under Rule 1222 by certain petitioners, on the issue of the tax treatment of the gains in the years involved herein from commodity tax straddles where the losses from those strad-dies were improperly deducted in the previous year but cannot be disallowed due to the statute of limitations.

The transactions in question were of the same type and essentially the same transactions at issue in Fox v. Commissioner, 82 T.C. 1001 (1984) (Fox transactions), and all involved the Arbitrage Management Investment Co. (AMIC).

Petitioners with respect to whom this issue is to be resolved, their residences at the time of filing of their petitions, and the years and amounts of the deficiencies determined against them by respondent are as follows:

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In accordance with the stipulation of the parties, the findings of fact adopted by the Court in Fox v. Commissioner, supra, are incorporated by reference, including the fact that the transactions involved herein were not entered into primarily for profit purposes as required by section 165. To facilitate understanding of our analysis, further facts stipulated by the parties are hereinafter set forth.

The off exchange market in which the trades at issue were executed was unique and specialized and was created and administered by a brokerage firm known as AMIC. The AMIC market was characterized by features unusual for options markets, such as tying options to specific Treasury bills, trading primarily in put options, and trading only in vertical put option spreads.

Trading by customers of AMIC in over-the-counter Treasury bill options displayed distinct patterns: (1) Trading was markedly seasonal; i.e., the bulk of all trades was executed in November, December, and then in January of the following year; (2) the customers of AMIC commonly engaged in identical trading sequences; and (3) very few customers realized net economic profits on their transactions in vertical put options.

At all times relevant to these cases, AMIC executed trades almost exclusively between and among its own customers and not with outside parties.

The basic tax strategy, or template, generally utilized in the AMIC market was comprised of a series of transactions, as follows:

(1) In the fall of the initial year (year I), the participant establishes a spread comprised of a long T-bill put option (for example, long 97.75, expiration 3/28/793) and a short T-bill put option (for example, short 97.625, expiration 3/28/79). This is commonly referred to as the initiation step.

(2) Later that same year, the participant closes the long T-bill put option position (the long 97.75, expiration 3/28/79) through offset using a short T-bill put option (short 97.75, expiration 3/28/79) and simultaneously establishes a new, slightly different long position (for example, long 98.8125, expiration 3/28/79). This is commonly referred to as the “switch” step. For tax purposes and brokerage accounting, the short position described in this paragraph (2) closed the long position referred to in paragraph (1) (long 97.75, expiration 3/28/79) and the short position of paragraph (1) together with the long position in this paragraph (2) (short 97.625, expiration 3/28/79) comprise a new, slightly different spread position.

(3) Early the next year (year II), the long and short position remaining open would be closed out for tax and accounting purposes. This is commonly referred to as the closeout step.

(4) This trading strategy would typically result in claimed ordinary losses on the long puts in both year I and year II and short-term capital gains on the short puts in year II.

(5) This trading strategy would usually be repeated in the fall of year II, although there would be a break between series (spring and summer) and, thus, no transactional link or relationship to the prior series of trades.

Each disposition of a long or short position in a series of Fox spread transactions has been treated as a separate transaction for purposes of recognition of loss and gain. Generally, each Fox trading series was comprised of one initiation spread (paragraph (1)), a switch (paragraph (2)), both at the end of the initial year, and a liquidation early in the next taxable year (paragraph (3)). See Fox v. Commissioner, 82 T.C. at 1003 (1978-79 series).

A variation of the above-described strategy involved an option spread series in which no switch was utilized. Both the long and short legs would be closed simultaneously. A participant would claim losses in year I based on the use of the trade date for reporting losses, while gains would be included in year II based on the position that gains are reportable on the settlement date.

A separate strategy and series involved the use of T-bond options to generate putative short-term and long-term losses and gains.

Generally, with respect to a spread series (see paragraphs (1) — (5) above for a description of the components), losses realized late in the year would be claimed in year I of the spread series, while gains realized early in the year from that same spread series would be included in year II. The trading sequence described in paragraphs (1) to (3) would comprise spread series No. 1. In year II, all petitioners involved herein began a new spread series, which for purposes of this example would be spread series No. 2. Petitioners claimed losses from spread series No. 2 in year II (the first year of spread series No. 2) and included gains in year III (the second year of spread series No. 2).

The issue in this case is whether petitioners may exclude gain from the second leg of straddles in a year not barred by the statute of limitations in the amount of the losses from the first leg of such straddles which they deducted in a year which is so barred.4

Resolution of this issue involves an examination of two questions: (1) Is section 108(c) of the Deficit Reduction Act of 1984, Pub. L. 98-369, 98 Stat. 494, 630, as amended by section 1808(d) of the Tax Reform Act of 1986, Pub. L. 99-514, 100 Stat. 2817 (hereinafter section 108(c)), dispositive of the issue before us; (2) aside from section 108(c), does the “duty of consistency” doctrine apply to petitioners and, if it does, to what extent have the elements of that doctrine5 been satisfied; and (3) to what extent is the result herein impacted by alleged inconsistent action by respondent. For the most part, the parties have devoted their attention to the application of the “duty of consistency” doctrine to petitioners, with the role of section 108(c) relegated to secondary consideration.

We think that the disposition of this case turns, at least in the first instance, upon the scope of section 108(c), and it is that problem to which we first turn our attention. Before doing so, we think it important to note what is not involved herein.

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Bluebook (online)
102 T.C. No. 10, 102 T.C. 323, 1994 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 11, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/alling-v-commissioner-tax-1994.