Baer v. Commissioner

6 T.C. 1195, 1946 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 175
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedMay 28, 1946
DocketDocket No. 7878
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 6 T.C. 1195 (Baer 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
Baer v. Commissioner, 6 T.C. 1195, 1946 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 175 (tax 1946).

Opinion

OPINION.

Black, Judge-.

The Commissioner has determined a deficiency in petitioner’s income tax for the year 1941 of $6,070.48. The deficiency is due to an addition to the net income reported on the return filed by-petitioner of “partnership income” of $31,092.75. Against this addition of income respondent has allowed petitioner additional deductions for taxes amounting to $11,633.01. The Commissioner explained this latter adjustment in his deficiency notice as follows:

Taxes paid during the year 1941 to the Zurich Kantonal Government in the amount of $11,633.01, not claimed on your return, has been allowed as a deduction.

The petitioner alleges that respondent erred as follows:

a) A finding that during the entire year 1941 petitioner was a resident of the United States.
b) The inclusion of petitioner’s share of the net profit of the firm of Julius Baer & Company of Zurich, Switzerland, for the entire year 1941.

We adopt the facts as stipulated as our findings of fact. They may be summarized as follows:

The petitioner is an individual and duly filed his income tax return for the year 1941 with the collector of Internal Revenue for the second district of New York. This return was filed in the name of Walter J. Baer, whose address was given as “c/o Baer Custodian Corporation, 67 Wall Street, New York, New York.” It was signed by Ellen Baer, as attorney in fact for petitioner, and was filed on or about March 15, 1942. In this income tax return petitioner claimed a personal exemption as head of a family and credit for dependents based upon the status of a resident alien for the entire year. This claim for personal exemption has been allowed in full by the Commissioner in his determination of the deficiency.

The petitioner, during the taxable year, as well as at the present time, was a citizen of Switzerland and prior to October 1940 resided at Zurich, Switzerland. During the taxable year he was a member of the partnership of Julius Baer & Co., Zurich, Switzerland.

On October 30, 1940, petitioner, together with his wife and four sons, came to the United States under the immigration quota. On his application for immigration visa he stated “That my purpose in going to the United States is immigration, and I intend to remain permanently.”

On November 30, 1940, petitioner wrote a letter to the Department of Justice, Washington, D. C. In this letter, which was written after his arrival in the United States, petitioner stated that it was the intention of his brother and himself to establish the banking house of Julius Baer & Co., a partnership, of Switzerland, in the United States and that because of this and world conditions at the time it would be necessary for him to return temporarily to Switzerland, probably for several months only.

Petitioner resided in New York City, together with his family, from October 30, 1940, to July 12, 1941, on which latter date he and his family left the United States for Zurich, Switzerland. On April 23, 1941, he took out his first papers, indicating an intention of becoming an American citizen.

Upon his departure for Switzerland petitioner obtained a reentry permit which was good for one year, but was not used. In his application for reentry permit, dated June 25, 1941, petitioner stated his address in the United States was 12 East 86th Street, New York City; that his temporary address abroad would be Zurich, Switzerland; that his proposed absence would be one year; and that his reason for going abroad was “business.”

On March 23, 1942, petitioner executed an application for a six-month extension-of reentry. In this application petitioner stated that it was his intention to return to the United States for a further residence as soon as possible. It has been stipulated that “subsequent to his departure in July, 1941, petitioner maintained no domicile or place of business in the United States and has continuously remained in Switzerland since his departure from the United States in 1941.”

In the statement attached to the notice of deficiency the Commissioner has allowed as a deduction the. amount of $11,633.01 as taxes paid during the year 1941 to the Zurich Kantonal Government, based upon his determination that the petitioner was a resident alien during the entire year 1941. If the Court should hold that the petitioner was a resident alien from January 1 to July 12, 1941, and a nonresident alien from July 13 to December 31, 1941, then only $5,945.02 of the above stated amount of $11,633.01 should be allowed as a deduction, since said amount of $5,945.02 represents the amount of taxes paid to the Zurich Kantonal Government from January 1 to July 12, 1941, and the remaining amount of $5,687.99 represents the amount of taxes paid to the Zurich Kantonal Government from July 13 to December 31,1941.

Petitioner does not deny that he became a resident alien when he, his wife, and his four children came to the United States in October 1940 under the immigration quota laws of the United States. He concedes that he remained a resident here until July 12, 1941, when he and his family departed for Zurich, Switzerland, under the circumstances detailed in our findings of fact. He claims, howevei, that from'the time of his departure on the date mentioned lie ceased to be a resident of the United States. Therefore, his share of the income of the banking firm of Julius Baer & Co., Zurich, Switzerland, after July 12, 1941, is not taxable income to him because it was income of a nonresident alien earned without the United States. The amounts of income are not in dispute.

Respondent contends that, although petitioner and his family departed from the United States July 12,1941, and remained in Switzerland throughout the remainder of the year and have remained there since, nevertheless, petitioner and his family were residents of the United States when they departed and that there is nothing to show that they intended to change their residence from the United States to Switzerland during the taxable year, but that, on the contrary, the facts show that at least during the taxable year 1941 petitioner intended that the stay of himself and family in Switzerland should be temporary.

We think the facts, which have all been stipulated, support respondent. The income of a resident alien of the United States, wherever earned, is taxable to him in the United States. See Federico Stallforth, 30 B. T. A. 546. Therefore, if petitioner was a resident of the United States throughout the year 1941, then his entire income from the Partnership of Julius Baer & Co. of Zurich, Switzerland, must go into his gross income. Petitioner concedes this, but, as we have already stated, he contends that his residence in the United States terminated July 12, 1941. Place of residence is a question of fact. Mertens Law of Federal Income Taxation, vol. 8, sec. 45.09, under the heading “Factors in the Determination of ‘Residence,’ ” says:

A person’s residence, when established, is presumed to continue until shown to be changed.

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Bluebook (online)
6 T.C. 1195, 1946 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 175, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/baer-v-commissioner-tax-1946.