Bickel v. Commissioner

1966 T.C. Memo. 202, 25 T.C.M. 1037, 1966 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 82
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedSeptember 19, 1966
DocketDocket No. 2731-65.
StatusUnpublished

This text of 1966 T.C. Memo. 202 (Bickel 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
Bickel v. Commissioner, 1966 T.C. Memo. 202, 25 T.C.M. 1037, 1966 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 82 (tax 1966).

Opinion

Floyd Gilbert Bickel, II, and Mary M. Bickel v. Commissioner.
Bickel v. Commissioner
Docket No. 2731-65.
United States Tax Court
T.C. Memo 1966-202; 1966 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 82; 25 T.C.M. (CCH) 1037; T.C.M. (RIA) 66202;
September 19, 1966
Oliver W. Schneider, 7701 Forsyth Blvd., Clayton, Mo., and Donald H. Whaley, for the petitioners. Leonard A. Hammes, Jr., for the respondent.

SCOTT

Memorandum Findings of Fact and Opinion

SCOTT, Judge: Respondent determined deficiencies in petitioners' income tax for the calendar years 1961 and 1962 in the amount of $2,962.81 and $197.85, respectively.

Some of the issues raised by the pleadings have been disposed of by the parties, leaving for our decision the following:

(1) Whether all or any portion of the amount expended by petitioners in 1961 for a world tour for themselves and their children is deductible as an ordinary and necessary business expense.

*83 (2) Whether petitioners are entitled to deduct as ordinary and necessary business expenses in 1961 and 1962 automobile expenses in excess of the amount allowed by respondent.

(3) Whether an amount of $200 received by petitioner Mary M. Bickel for cost and maintenance of uniforms is includable in her income and if so whether this same amount or any portion thereof is deductible by her as an ordinary and necessary business expense.

Findings of Fact

Some of the facts have been stipulated and are found accordingly.

Petitioners, husband and wife who resided during the calendar years 1961 and 1962 in Ladue, Missouri, filed joint Federal income tax returns for each of those years with the district director of internal revenue at St. Louis, Missouri.

Floyd Gilbert Bickel II (hereinafter referred to as petitioner) is a dentist. He has been engaged in the practice of dentistry in St. Louis, Missouri for approximately 30 years.

Petitioner during the years 1961 and 1962 and for sometime prior thereto, operated a dental clinic of which he was the director. The clinic employed two or three full-time dentists in addition to petitioner and five dental assistants. One of the dental assistants*84 employed by the clinic during the year 1961 was petitioner's daughter, Wanda. Mary M. Bickel (hereinafter referred to as Mary) was employed by her husband's dental clinic during the years here involved as office manager.

Petitioner's clinic maintained office hours from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. on Monday through Friday and from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday.

The clinic was engaged in the practice of dentistry in all forms, but its special emphasis was on pain control. Approximately one-half of the patients who come to petitioner's dental clinic are on referrals from other dentists. Most dental offices do not do operative dentistry as distinguished from dental surgery using a general anesthesia as did petitioner's dental clinic. Also, petitioner's dental clinic used other methods of pain control including hypnosis which is not generally used by dental offices for operative dentistry.

In order to keep other dentists aware of his work in connection with pain control so as to obtain referrals from them, petitioner, prior to the years here involved, as well as in these years, gave lectures on pain control in dentistry. He has published articles dealing with pain control in dentistry*85 and has belonged to a number of professional dental organizations. He organized the Missouri State Dental Society of Anesthesiology and has been its president. During the years he has been engaged in the practice of dentistry he has regularly attended local, State, and national meetings of various organizations of dentists. He has also taken a number of post graduate courses during the years he has been in practice in order to improve his skills as a dentist. It has been petitioner's general custom, in giving lectures, to use photographic slides in his presentation.

Sometime in 1959 or 1960 petitioner and his wife began discussing and planning for a world tour for themselves and their two children. By November 10, 1960, the plans for this trip had progressed to the point that petitioner issued a check in the amount of $1,500 to the Foster Travel Agency (hereinafter referred to as Foster) through whom the plans were being made. The trip as arranged by Foster for petitioners and their two children was for the period June 3, 1961, through September 2, 1961. Petitioners' daughter was 22 years old in 1961, and their son was 16 or 17 years of age.

The trip which was arranged for petitioners*86 by Foster consisted of two parts. The first part of the trip which covered the period June 3, 1961, through August 7, 1961, was a regular package tour, known as the Bali-Hi World Tour. This tour is conducted by SITA World Travel, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as SITA), which company is represented in St. Louis by Foster. The Bali-Hi World Tour is open to the general public. This tour was advertised in 1961 for departures from Honolulu on 26 different dates, at least one departure being scheduled in each month of the year and two or more in all of the months except May, November, and December. The tour includes transportation, lodging, sight-seeing tours with guides, and some meals. Prior to August 10, 1960, Foster sent the literature with respect to the Bali-Hi World Tour to petitioner and under date of August 10, 1960, that agency submitted to petitioner a suggested private tour through Europe for him and his family.

On October 3, 1960, Foster wrote to SITA for precise information as to specific dates when the Bali-Hi World Tour which was scheduled to depart on June 3, 1961, would be in the various cities covered by the tour. Petitioner had requested Foster to obtain information*87 as to when the tour would be in Djakarta and Bali, stating that he might want to schedule meetings in those cities. On January 23, 1961, Foster inquired from SITA as to the dates when the tour would be in Tokyo, Bangkok, and Bali, stating that they must know the dates soon "so as to start scheduling meetings." On February 16, 1961, Foster wrote SITA for the dates the tour would be in Manila, Djakarta, and Bali, stating "Must schedule meeting so need precise information."

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Related

Sutter v. Commissioner
21 T.C. 170 (U.S. Tax Court, 1953)
Duncan v. Commissioner
30 T.C. 386 (U.S. Tax Court, 1958)
Reed v. Commissioner
35 T.C. 199 (U.S. Tax Court, 1960)
Hoover v. Commissioner
35 T.C. 566 (U.S. Tax Court, 1961)

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Bluebook (online)
1966 T.C. Memo. 202, 25 T.C.M. 1037, 1966 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 82, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bickel-v-commissioner-tax-1966.