Baldwin v. Commissioner

84 T.C. No. 56, 84 T.C. 859, 1985 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 82
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedMay 15, 1985
DocketDocket No. 14363-82
StatusPublished
Cited by71 cases

This text of 84 T.C. No. 56 (Baldwin 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
Baldwin v. Commissioner, 84 T.C. No. 56, 84 T.C. 859, 1985 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 82 (tax 1985).

Opinion

Swift, Judge:

In a statutory notice dated April 6, 1982, respondent determined a deficiency in petitioner’s 1979 tax liability, and additions to tax, as follows:

_Additions to tax_
Deficiency Sec. 6651(a) Sec. 6653(a) Sec. 6654(a)
$3,363 $840.75 $168.15 $140.97

Following concessions, the primary issue remaining for decision is whether petitioner provided at least one-half of his support during the years 1975 through 1978, thereby allowing him to properly compute his Federal income tax liability pursuant to the income averaging provisions set forth in sections 1301 through 1305.1 The resolution of this issue turns upon whether petitioner may properly treat amounts received as survivor’s benefits from the Social Security Administration and the Veterans’ Administration due to the death of his father as financial support that petitioner provided to himself. Respondent contends that these amounts cannot properly be treated as amounts contributed by petitioner, but are amounts received from independent sources.

Petitioner also argues that certain aspects of the income averaging provisions are unconstitutional. Also at issue herein are the additions to tax determined by respondent under sections 6651(a) (failure to file), 6653(a) (negligence), and 6654(a) (underpayment of estimated tax liability).

FINDINGS OF FACT

Some of the facts have been stipulated and are found accordingly. The pertinent facts are summarized below.

The petitioner, Brett Graham Baldwin, was a resident of Scottsdale, Arizona, at the time the petition herein was filed. Petitioner claims to have timely filed a so-called "fifth amendment return” for 1979, although respondent has no record of such a filing. Petitioner stated that he filed such a return upon the recommendation of a local "tax protester” group in Arizona, that he did so without checking the relevant legal authorities, and that he now regrets not having done more research into the truth of the group’s claims before filing such a "return.”

A letter dated January 28, 1982, was sent by respondent, advising petitioner that he may be subject to civil and criminal additions and penalties for failing to file a 1979 return. Following the issue of the statutory notice herein and of an additional letter from respondent dated April 18, 1983, petitioner filed a completed 1979 Federal income tax return on or about April 12, 1983.

From 1975 to the summer of 1978, petitioner was a full-time student at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. Petitioner graduated from Arizona State in December 1978, with a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering. At that time he was 21 years of age. Petitioner started working at a full-time job sometime in 1978, apparently prior to graduation.

Petitioner had no taxable income in 1975 and therefore did not file a Federal income tax return that year. He did file timely individual Federal income tax returns for the years 1976, 1977, and 1978. The returns filed with respect to the years 1976 and 1977 reported zero tax liability. The 1978 return reflected a Federal income tax liability of $66.

During the years 1975 through 1978, petitioner’s sole sources of support were academic scholarships from Arizona State University, Basic Educational Opportunity Grants (hereinafter referred to as beog), Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (hereinafter referred to as SEOG), National Defense Student Loans (hereinafter referred to as ndsl), Social Security survivor’s benefits, Veterans’ Administration survivor benefits, and wages received from Arizona State University’s work-study program. In the latter part of 1978, petitioner also received wages from his full-time employment.

All funds received by petitioner were nontaxable receipts to him except the wages received from the work-study program and from his full-time job which started in 1978. The beog and SEOG funds were nontaxable educational grants similar to a scholarship. The ndsl funds were loans that petitioner was required to repay. The total amounts received by petitioner from each of the above sources is set forth below:

Source 1975 1976 1977 1978
Social Security Administration $1,477 $1,818 $2,098 $1,848
Veterans’ Administration 144 324 348 256
Scholarships (ASU) 200 425 450 225
BEOG 612 975 807 313
SEOG 0 400 1,200 300
NDSL 0 100 322 822
Wages — Work-study 0 550 210 240
Wages — Full-time job 0 0 0 4,323
Total "support” $2,433 $4,592 $5,435 $8,327

On his 1979 Federal income tax return, petitioner reported that he had wage income in the amount of $18,431.92, interest income of $86, moving expenses of $893, and employee business expenses of $854. The deductions have not been questioned by respondent and are not in issue. Petitioner was single and had no dependents throughout the years 1975 through 1979.

The parties have stipulated that: (1) The amounts set forth above constitute petitioner’s total amounts of "support” during the years 1975-79, and that they were actually expended for that purpose; (2) petitioner provided over one-half of his own support for 1978 from his wage income; (3) the amounts received as academic scholarships and educational grants constitute amounts of support that petitioner did not provide for himself; and (4) that amounts received as wages and loans constitute amounts that petitioner did provide for his own support.

OPINION

The major dispute in this case concerns whether amounts received by petitioner from the Social Security Administration and from the Veterans’ Administration as survivor’s benefits constitute support provided by petitioner to himself. If, as petitioner argues, such payments qualify as support provided by himself, he may compute his income tax liability for 1979 pursuant to the income averaging provisions in sections 1301 through 1305. If either the amounts received from the Social Security Administration or the Veterans’ Administration constitute amounts of support not contributed by petitioner, he will be ineligible for income averaging with respect to 1979.

Section 1303(c)(1) provides that an individual shall not be eligible for income averaging if, for any base year,2 such individual (and his spouse, if applicable) furnished less than one-half of his support.3 There are three exceptions to this rule provided in section 1303(c)(2), none of which applies to petitioner herein.4

The social security payments in issue herein were authorized pursuant to the provisions of 42 U.S.C. sec. 402(d) et seq. (1983).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
84 T.C. No. 56, 84 T.C. 859, 1985 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 82, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/baldwin-v-commissioner-tax-1985.