Bailey v. Commissioner

60 T.C. No. 48, 60 T.C. 447, 1973 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 106
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedJune 18, 1973
DocketDocket No. 643-72
StatusPublished
Cited by47 cases

This text of 60 T.C. No. 48 (Bailey 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
Bailey v. Commissioner, 60 T.C. No. 48, 60 T.C. 447, 1973 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 106 (tax 1973).

Opinion

SimpsoN, Judge:

The respondent determined a deficiency of $783.85 in the petitioner’s Federal income tax for the year 1967. The sole issue for decision is whether a training stipend received by the petitioner is a fellowship grant under section 117(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954.1

FINDINGS OF FACT

Some of the facts have been stipulated, and those facts are so found.

The petitioner, George L. Bailey, was a resident of Brookline, Mass., at the time his petition was filed in this case. He filed his Federal income tax return for the year 1967 with the district director of internal revenue, Boston, Mass.

The petitioner is a medical doctor and in 1966 completed his residency in internal medicine. During the last year of such residency, the petitioner decided to narrow his medical specialty to nephrology and renal disease. The petitioner applied to, and was accepted in, the cardiorenal training program at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (the hospital). There, he hoped to learn both the procedures of hemodialy-sis and the laboratory disciplines involved in transplantation, immunology, and renal disease in general, and to secure additional training in research techniques and the basic sciences. In addition to his acceptance in the program, the petitioner was appointed a research fellow at Harvard Medical School. Such appointment enabled the petitioner to do research and experiment with human beings.

The hospital is affiliated with Harvard Medical School and is an organization described in section 501(c)(3) which is exempt from tax under section 501(a). Its three main functions are patient care, teaching, and research. The senior staff members of the cardiorenal section, headed by Dr. John P. Merrill, were recognized as the foremost authorities in nephrology.

The cardiorenal training program was funded in large measure through a training grant (the NIH grant) awarded by the National Institutes of Health, which is part of the Public Health Service of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and which is an instrumentality of the United States. In accordance with the general policy of the Public Plealth Service, the NIH grant was awarded to assist the hospital in establishing and improving training opportunities for individuals interested in careers in research, teaching, administration, and services in the health sciences. The specific object of the cardiorenal program at the hospital was to train graduates in the general area of tissue transplantation, with particular reference to kidney allografting. The funds received by the hospital under the NIH grant were used to obtain equipment, to pay salaries of hospital personnel, such as instructors, technicians, and secretaries, and for trainee stipends. With respect to such stipends, the hospital was free to select persons whom it deemed best fit into the training program, subject to the final approval of NIPI. Plowever, not all the trainees in the program received financial support from NIH. In 1967, of the trainees who participated in the program, four received support from outside sources, while only the petitioner and one other doctor received support from funds allocated in the NIH grant.

The petitioner entered the program in July 1966. During the first 6 months of 1967, his training took place in the hospital, where he accompanied Dr. Merrill and Dr. Constantine Hampers, the head of the hemodialysis program, on their daily patient rounds. As a part of such activity, he transcribed the observations and recommendations of the senior staff onto the charts of the patients, so that the residents and interns, who were primarily responsible for the daily care of such patients, would be apprised of the instructions of the senior staff. Although it would have been more efficient for the senior staff to transcribe their observations and recommendations themselves, the petitioner was asked to do so to develop his facility to observe, diagnose, prescribe treatment, and communicate with those actually caring for patients undergoing hemodialysis or transplantations. As his training progressed, the petitioner made suggestions to the senior staff on the status and treatment of their patients; however, throughout this phase of the training program, the notes transcribed reflected the decisions of the senior staff and were made only at their direction. Dialysis, observation, and treatment notes written by the petitioner appear on the charts of 22 of the 33 patients admitted to the hospital for kidney transplants in 1967.

During his training in the hospital, the petitioner also learned the procedure involved in hemodialysis, attended conferences, and assisted Dr. Hampers when he established a home dialysis program for the three or four patients undergoing such treatment. However, aside from the daily rounds made with and under the supervision of the senior staff, the petitioner neither saw nor treated patients, was never on call, and had no routine duties. Although medical students accompanied the petitioner and the senior staff on their daily rounds, and thereby received practical instruction in hemodialysis and transplantation, the petitioner conducted no formal classes for medical students in 1967.

From the middle of July 1967 through the end of that year, the petitioner, with the permission of Dr. Merrill, spent all his time in training, in laboratory techniques and research at the Harvard Tissue Immunology Laboratory (the laboratory). The laboratory was affiliated with Harvard Medical School, but was not affiliated with the hospital — it was located in a different part of the greater Boston area and was funded by a grant from the U.S. Army. Under the guidance of Dr. Edward Hager, the director of the laboratory, and Dr. Hampers, the assistant director, the petitioner studied transplant immunology with mouse tumors and also performed some research. Although the results of such research were published by the petitioner, he was not expected to aid in the research project of the laboratory, was not required to keep regular hours while assigned there, and received no part of his stipend from the grant supporting the laboratory’s research. In 1967, three technicians and a secretary were employed at the laboratory, in addition to Dr. Hager and Dr. Hampers, and no trainee in the hospital’s cardiorenal program, other than the petitioner, was assigned there during such year.

With respect to the stipend received by the petitioner in 1967, the general policy of the Public Health Service was that a postdoctoral trainee with no relevant postdoctoral experience received $6,000 a year, a trainee with 1 year of such experience received $6,500, and a trainee with 2 years of such experience received $7,000. A trainee with 3 or more years of relevant postdoctoral experience could be designated as a “special trainee,” in which case, he could receive a stipend in excess of $7,000 resulting from negotiations with the Public Health Service awarding unit or based upon a specific guideline of such unit. An additional $500 dependency allowance was provided for each dependent spouse and child of a trainee and for each dependent relative who received more than half of his support from the trainee.

For the period July 1, 1966, through June 30, 1967, the petitioner received a stipend of $6,500, plus a dependency allowance of $500 for the support of his mother. He also contributed to the support of a teenage sister.

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Bluebook (online)
60 T.C. No. 48, 60 T.C. 447, 1973 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 106, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bailey-v-commissioner-tax-1973.