Duffy v. United States

343 F. Supp. 4, 29 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 982, 1972 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14238
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Ohio
DecidedApril 12, 1972
Docket6946
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 343 F. Supp. 4 (Duffy v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Duffy v. United States, 343 F. Supp. 4, 29 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 982, 1972 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14238 (S.D. Ohio 1972).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

PORTER, District Judge.

This is a tax refund case involving a Clifford trust (one with a lease-back). Two questions are presented. One, under the facts stipulated, did the taxpayer-lessee properly claim the rent as a deduction? Two, is the income of the trust taxable to the grantors?

Taxpayers purchased the land and building at 155 West McMillan Street, Cincinnati, Ohio, on July 31, 1962. On February 26, 1963, they executed a trust agreement, a copy of which is set out in the appendix. The trust agreement was with The Provident Bank and conveyed the property to the trustee in trust for the benefit of their four children. The trust was irrevocable for a period of ten years and thirty days. The Bank was sole trustee and was given complete powers. The duties of the trustee were spelled out and included the duty “to accumulate the income from each of the trusts for the beneficiaries thereof, unless expenditures of said income shall, in the sole discretion of the trustee, become necessary for the education, maintenance or welfare of such beneficiaries.” The trust was amendable by joint action of the grantors upon expiration of the period of ten years and thirty days (id. If 7).

The same day the trust agreement was executed the Bank leased the building back to plaintiff, F. Paul Duffy, a doctor, for an office. He claimed the lease payments as business deductions under 26 U.S.C. § 162. This was disallowed.

Under 26 U.S.C. § 162(a) (3) deductions are allowed for all ordinary and necessary expenses paid or incurred during the taxable year in carrying on any trade or business, including rentals or other payments required to be made as a condition to the continued use or possession, for the purposes of the trade or business, of property to which the taxpayer has not taken or is not taking title, or in which he has no equity.

As noted, it has been stipulated that the taxpayer, Dr. Duffy, uses the leased building for his professional use. However, the government contends the expenses claimed as a deduction are not “necessary.”

The two major cases involving similar facts are Skemp v. C. I. R., 168 F.2d 598 (7 Cir., 1948) and Van Zandt v. C. I. R., 40 T.C. 824 (1963). Van Zandt concerned a taxpayer who also owned a building which was used for his medical practice. He created two ten-year trusts for the benefit of his children, naming himself as trustee. He then conveyed the property by deed to the trustee, and as trustee leased the property back to himself. In that case it was held that there was no independent trustee. The grantor himself was the trustee. “For this reason and no other the petitioner has failed to bring himself within the ambit of those three decisions. [Skemp, supra; Brown v. C. I. R., 180 F.2d 926 (3 Cir., 1950); and Felix v. C. I. R., 21 T.C. 794 (1954).]” Van Zandt v. C. I. R., supra, at 830.

*6 Van Zandt also held that where a sale and lease-back does not serve a utilitarian purpose, but is in reality a camouflaged assignment of income, the expenses are not considered “ordinary and necessary.”

Skemp, supra, has a fact pattern very similar to Brown and Felix. In Skemp the taxpayer was a physician who owned a two-story building in which he conducted his medical practice. He created a trust for the benefit of his wife and children by conveying the building to the LaCrosse Trust Company as sole trustee. The trust was made irrevocable for twenty years duration unless the settlor and his wife were to die, in which case the trust would terminate. The taxpayer retained no significant control over the trust but did reserve the right to rent the building. Thereafter the taxpayer leased the building for his medical practice from the trust company. He then deducted the lease payment as a business expense.

The Court held in Skemp that unless a violation of the fiduciary duty can be imputed to the trustee, the taxpayer had a legal obligation to pay the rental. The trustee was duty bound to exact rent from the taxpayer and the taxpayer was duty bound to pay it. The Court held that this arrangement creates the same situation as if the taxpayer has rented a place to practice wholly apart from the trust property. In Skemp it was found that the taxpayer had irrevocably divested himself of all title and right to the property and could only occupy it upon the payment of rent, thus reflecting the change in the taxpayer’s economic status. Thus, the taxpayer hr as allowed the deduction.

Oakes v. C. I. R., 44 T.C. 524 (1965) recognized a line of demarcation between Van Zandt and Skemp, Brown and Felix. The Oakes case involved facts similar to Skemp where the physician created a trust for his children. Certain land and a building owned by the taxpayer were conveyed to the trustee, a bank. Then the taxpayer leased back the building and subsequently deducted the rental payments as business expenses under § 162 (a).

Oakes stated that while the line of demarcation might be thin between the Skemp, Brown and Felix cases on one side and Van Zandt on the other, a difference nevertheless exists. One of the pivotal factors is the actual independence of the trustee. In Van Zandt the trustee was the grantor (or taxpayer) himself, but in Oakes like Skemp, Brown and Felix, the control and ownership passed from the grantor to a bank as an independent trustee.

Oakes went on to hold that where a grantor gives business property to a valid irrevocable trust over which he retains no control and then leases it back, it is not necessary to inquire as to whether there was a business reason for making the gift. There is none. Under such circumstances, the test of business necessity should be made by viewing the situation as it exists after the gift is made.

In the instant case the joint stipulation of facts which contains the trust agreement shows that there was (1) an irrevocable trust for ten years and thirty days; (2) an independent trustee as sole trustee with complete powers; (3) a valid deed conveying the property to the trustee; (4) a written lease-back arrangement; and (5) no retention by the grantor of any significant control over or interest in the trust during the taxable years we are here concerned with.

We conclude that the instant case is like the Skemp ease and therefore controlled by it. That does not end the discussion, however, because the United States has found the taxpayers to be the owners of the property and, in the alternative to disallowing the rent as a deduction, has treated such rent as income to the taxpayers.

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343 F. Supp. 4, 29 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 982, 1972 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14238, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/duffy-v-united-states-ohsd-1972.