Carstairs v. United States

75 F. Supp. 683, 36 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 1282, 1936 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1098
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedJanuary 15, 1936
DocketNo. 17522
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 75 F. Supp. 683 (Carstairs v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Carstairs v. United States, 75 F. Supp. 683, 36 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 1282, 1936 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1098 (E.D. Pa. 1936).

Opinion

KIRKPATRICK, District Judge.

This action is to recover $7,161.93 collected from the estate of Charles S. Car-stairs, as additional income tax and interest for the year 1928. The trial was to the Court without a jury.

In his return for the decedent for 1928 the Executor, among other items, excluded [684]*684from gross income $29,166.66 of earned income received in 1928 .from sources without the. United States; deducted from gross income $7,305.03 of New York State income tax paid in 1928 on foreign income received in 1927; and credited against the federal tax part of a British income tax of $1,185.-13 accrued and paid in 1928 on foreign income received in 1927. The Commissioner of Internal Revenue disallowed such exclusion, deduction and credit and levied the additional tax and interest in suit.

I. The first question is whether $29,166.-66 earned income received by the decedent in 1928 from sources without the United States should have been excluded from gross income for that year. The relevant statute is Sec. 116(a) of the Revenue Act of 1928, 26 U.S.C.A. Int.Rev.Acts, page 386, which provides “ * * * the following items shall not be included in gross income and shall be exempt from taxation under this title:

“(a) Earned Income from Sources Without United States. In the case of an individual citizen of the United States, a bona fide nonresident of the United States for more than six months during the taxable year, amounts received from sources without the United States * * * ; but such individual shall not be allowed as a deduction from his gross income any deductions properly allocable to or chargeable against amounts excluded from gross income under this subsection.”

Was the decedent a “bona fide nonresident of the United States for more than six months during the taxable year”? Physically he was in the United States from January 1 to February 24, on which date .he sailed 'for England where he remained until July 9, the date-of his death.

For purposes of the income tax, residence is not the same thing as' domicile. This is well settled as to taxability, particularly with respect to resident and nonresident aliens. See Bowring v. Bowers, 2 Cir., 24 F.2d 918, and Regulations 74, Art. 1022. And I see no reason why residence should mean one thing in that connection and something else where it determines an exemption, nor why it should have a special and peculiar meaning in this particular exemption clause. If, as the defendant contends, ¡he Committee Report shows that this clause was inserted in relief of salesmen and foreign representatives of American firms, travelling abroad'solely for the purposes of their business, it is difficult to see why the statute did not say so, instead of carefully specifying bona fide nonresidents, thus excluding by omission residents of this country abroad for a specific and temporary purpose and accomplishing a result the opposite of that which the defendant says was intended.

But residence means something other than mere physical presence in a particular place. Of course, physical presence for some substantial part of the time is necessary and it may sometimes be a controlling factor (a man who has never been in England cannot have a residence there), but a factor at least equally important is the state of mind of the subject of the inquiry. To ascertain that, his prior and subsequent life is all inore or less relevant and for that purpose the evidence offered in this case of the decedent’s occupation, ownership of houses, business and customary modes of living dating back to-1905 arid appearing in the stipulation, as well as the evidence of the passports and other declarations appearing in the testimony is admitted and considered.

This evidence showed that soon after 1900 Mr. Carstairs, an American citizen, who lived in New York during his earlier life and retained his New York domicile, removed to England to found and take charge of the British establishment of M. Knoedler & Company, art dealers, and from then on until his death he lived in England and on the Continent, making a business trip to the United States for a couple of months or so every winter. He had a house in London, at 3 Chesterfield Street, where he lived with his family, a country place in England, near Rye, and a housekeeping apartment in Paris, where Knoedler & Company also had a place of business. When the decedent came to New York for his yearly trips he stayed at a hotel until perhaps 1920, after which he lodged with his son Carroll at a bachelor apartment at 24 East 62nd Street, and after Carroll’s marriage about 1924 he kept the apartment jointly with his brother James Carstairs. The decedent’s wife when she came with [685]*685him to New York stayed at a hotel. His son Carroll was in the British army during the war.

In his customs declarations when he entered the United States the decedent described himself as a nonresident, as did his son Carroll until he married and became a resident of the United States. In his passport application in 1927 the decedent stated that he had resided “outside the United States at the following places for the following periods: England — with yearly trips to U. S. A. from 1906 to date”; and in his 1925 application that he had “resided outside the United States at the following places for the following periods: England and travel, from 1905 to date.” To the latter application was attached an “affidavit to explain protracted foreign residence,” in which the decedent stated, among other things: “Since establishing a residence abroad I have made the following visits to the United States: About yearly visits to the United States.”

I think it clear that, regardless of his physical whereabouts during the first seven weeks of the year 1928, Mr. Carstairs was a bona fide nonresident of the United States from January 1, 1928, until he died on July 9, 1928, a period of more than six months and that the executor was right in excluding from his gross income the sum earned and received from sources without the United States.

II. The Executor made another deduction which we consider next. During 1928 the decedent paid an income tax of $7,477.-77 to the State of New York based upon his 1927 income. His income during that year had been $271,009.02 of which almost all (actually, $264,748.42) was earned abroad and therefore not included in his gross income as returned for the federal tax. Consequently, almost all of the New York tax (actually $7,305.03) was computed and paid upon income earned from foreign sources. It was this latter amount which was deducted by the executor from his net income in the questioned return for 1928.

The last clause of Sec. 116(a) says “but ■such individual shall not be allowed as a deduction from his gross income any deductions properly allocable to or chargeable against amounts excluded from gross income under this subsection.” The question is, was the deduction which was taken for the New York income tax a deduction “properly allocable to or chargeable against” Mr. Carstairs’ foreign earnings for 1927 which he had excluded on his federal return ?

It appears in the agreed statement of facts that the New York tax was “attributable to and allocable to” the exempt portion of his income but I do not think that the stipulation was intended to foreclose the issue.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Brewster v. Commissioner
67 T.C. 352 (U.S. Tax Court, 1976)
Cornman v. Commissioner
63 T.C. 653 (U.S. Tax Court, 1975)
Hartung v. Commissioner
55 T.C. 1 (U.S. Tax Court, 1970)
Roig Commercial Bank v. Buscaglia
74 P.R. 919 (Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, 1953)
Downs v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE.
166 F.2d 504 (Ninth Circuit, 1948)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
75 F. Supp. 683, 36 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 1282, 1936 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1098, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carstairs-v-united-states-paed-1936.