Cato v. Commissioner

99 T.C. No. 33, 99 T.C. 633, 1992 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 89
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedDecember 22, 1992
DocketDocket No. 9438-90
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 99 T.C. No. 33 (Cato 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
Cato v. Commissioner, 99 T.C. No. 33, 99 T.C. 633, 1992 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 89 (tax 1992).

Opinion

OPINION

Cohen, Judge:

Respondent determined the following deficiencies in, and additions to, petitioners’ Federal income taxes:

Additions to tax
Year Deficiency Sec. 6653(a)(1) Sec. 6653(a)(2) Sec. 6653(a)(1)(A) Sec. 6653(a)(1)(B) Sec. 6651 Sec. 6661
1985 $34,252 $1,713 1 $8,563
1986 20,852 $1,043 2 5,213
1987 16,019 801 3 $801 4,005
1988 16,229 4,057

Unless otherwise indicated, all section references are to the Internal Revenue Code in effect for the years in issue, and all Rule references are to the Tax Court Rules of Practice and Procedure.

The deficiencies in tax for 1985, 1986, 1987, and 1988 are based upon respondent’s determination that petitioners could not exclude Supplemental Security Income (ssi) payments from gross income under section 131 and that they did not report rental income. The deficiency for 1985 is also based on respondent’s disallowance of Schedule C expenses. The additions to tax under sections 6653(a) and 6661 were conceded by respondent for 1986, 1987, and 1988, leaving those additions to tax in dispute only for 1985. With respect to the remaining additions to tax, petitioners presented neither evidence nor argument. Certain adjustments in the statutory notice were not contested by petitioners or were subsequently abandoned by them.

After concessions by the parties and abandonment of certain issues by petitioners, the issues for decision are:

(1) Whether SSI payments received by Bobby L. Cato (petitioner) in 1986, 1987, and 1988 for caring for developmentally disabled children in his small family home care facility are excludable from income under section 131; and

(2) whether foster care receipts from the operation of petitioner’s small family home care facility are subject to self-employment tax for the years at issue.

These issues have not heretofore been decided.

Background

This case was submitted fully stipulated pursuant to Rule 122; the stipulated facts are incorporated as our findings by this reference. Some of the facts set forth herein are based upon examination of the exhibits and were not set out in the stipulation.

Petitioners were residents of the State of California when they filed their petition. Petitioner ran a foster care facility licensed by the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) as a Small Family Home (SFH) during the years in issue. Petitioner’s SFH housed developmentally disabled children.

A developmentally disabled child is defined as one suffering from substantial and continuing handicaps, such as mental retardation, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and autism. The State of California uses private nonprofit community agencies to coordinate the administration of foster care services to developmentally disabled individuals. These private nonprofit agencies are referred to as regional centers. Regional centers are State-licensed nonprofit corporations that qualify under section 501(c)(3) as exempt from tax under section 501(a). The regional centers are under the supervision of the CDSS.

Among the services provided by regional centers are placement of developmentally disabled children into foster care facilities and coordination of foster care reimbursements to these care facilities. Regional centers use only licensed care facilities for placement of the developmentally disabled children. Licensing is administered by the CDSS. One category of licensed care facilities used by regional centers is the SFH. SFH’s are defined as those in which the owner/operator resides in the care facility. The relationship between the owner/operator of the SFH and the regional center is based on a contract that provides for a specified level of care for the foster children placed at the SFH.

The regional center pays the owner/operator of each SFH a legislatively mandated reimbursement amount for the care of foster children placed at the SFH; the amount is not negotiable between the SFH and the regional center. The reimbursement is determined by the California legislature, with the recommendation of the State Department of Developmental Services. The reimbursement amount is calculated by estimating the cost of care for each child, considering the intensity of staffing needed for a facility to provide for the needs of a developmentally disabled child. Developmentally disabled children are matched with an SFH that provides the specific level of care needed. A specific SFH receives the same reimbursement amount for each child placed with it, and that amount is paid monthly.

The regional centers receive their operating budgets from the State of California; budgeted amounts are paid from the State’s general treasury revenues. The operating budget is determined by the number of individuals to be placed by the regional centers, the type of care required, and the estimated cost for such care.

The regional centers also receive funds from outside sources. If such funds are received on behalf of a particular child, they are segregated and deposited in a separate trust account for the benefit of that child. The Social Security Administration (SSA) is one such outside source. The SSA pays SSI to regional centers on behalf of certain children; the children must be developmentally disabled to receive SSI funds. The regional centers are designated as the third-party payee of the child’s SSI entitlement in those cases.

If the regional center becomes a third-party payee for SSI funds on behalf of a developmentally disabled child, these funds are deposited on a monthly basis directly into the child’s separate trust account by the SSA. The regional centers then make payments, by check, equal to the entire trust balance, from the child’s trust account to the care facility housing the child. The regional centers reduce the amount of their standard monthly reimbursement check to that same care facility by the amount of the trust fund payments. Thus, each SFH will receive two checks from the regional centers, one representing funds from their foster child’s trust account balance and one representing California’s contract monthly reimbursement amount less the amount paid from the child’s trust account for that month.

If the regional center is not designated as a third-party payee on the ssi entitlement, the regional center is still responsible only for the amount by which the mandated monthly reimbursement amount exceeds the child’s SSI entitlement.

At the end of each calendar year, the regional centers issue Forms 1099 to the care facilities. The total Federal and State moneys that the regional centers transfer during the year are included in the Forms 1099.

The children in petitioner’s sfh were placed there by two different regional centers in California, the South Central Los Angeles Regional Center and the Harbor Regional Center (the regional centers). The SFH was located at 628 East 135th Street, Los Angeles, California.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
99 T.C. No. 33, 99 T.C. 633, 1992 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 89, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cato-v-commissioner-tax-1992.