Fabens v. Commissioner

62 T.C. No. 89, 62 T.C. 775, 1974 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 49
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedSeptember 10, 1974
DocketDocket No. 984-72
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 62 T.C. No. 89 (Fabens 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
Fabens v. Commissioner, 62 T.C. No. 89, 62 T.C. 775, 1974 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 49 (tax 1974).

Opinion

SteeRett, Judge:

Respondent asserted a deficiency of $17,578 in petitioner’s income tax for the calendar year 1969. The only aspect of the deficiency that remains in dispute concerns the deductibility of fiduciary commissions, amounting to $53,894.67, which petitioner paid to Bankers Trust Co. on June 16, 1969, upon termination of a trust accoimt. What portion of that commission expense is allocable to tax-exempt income and therefore not deductible is the question before us.

FINDINGS OF FACT

Augustus J. Fabens (hereinafter petitioner) is an individual with legal residence in Boston, Mass. He filed his individual income tax return for the taxable year 1969 with the district director of internal revenue in Andover, Mass. The facts of this case have been presented by a stipulation and attached exhibits which are incorporated herein by this reference.

During the period April 9,1953, through June 16, 1969, petitioner maintained securities in a trust account with Bankers Trust Co., 16 Wall Street, New York, N.Y. Upon termination of the trust on June 16, 1969, petitioner paid Bankers Trust Co. the following fiduciary-commissions :

1. Receiving commission based on capital appreciation of assets sold, redeemed, and collected_ $717. 31
2. Receiving commission based on capital increase of assets distributed _18, 401.12
3. Paying commission based on market value at date of distribution, administrative expenses, and assets remaining on band_ 31, 576. 30
4. Trustee’s annual principal commission (based on tbe then current market value of the fund)_ 1, 279. 42
5. Trustee’s annual income commission (based on income collected for the period 5/3/68-6/1/69)_ 1,920.52
Total fiduciary commissions due and paid Bankers Trust Co. upon termination of trust agreement in June 1969_ 53, 894. 67

These amounts were claimed as a deduction on petitioner’s tax return for the year 1969. The respondent disallowed as a deduction $15,667 of the aforesaid sum of $53,894.67.

The parties stipulated other relevant information as follows:

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The market value of the assets (all of which were nonmunicipal bond holdings) held by Bankers Trust Co. at the date of distribution to the petitioner was $2,516,010.27.

OPINION

The fiduciary commissions that petitioner paid on June 16, 1969, were incurred for the administration of a trust account that included both municipal bonds and taxable securities. The commissions consisted of receiving and paying commissions of $50,694.73 ('hereinafter termination commission), an annual principal commission of $1,279.42, and an annual income commission of $1,920.52. Each of these commissions was computed in accordance with New York statutory law, N.Y. Civ. Prac. Law sec. 8005 (McKinney 1963), and N.Y. Surr. Ct. Pro. Law sec. 2308 (McKinney 1967), and deducted in toto by petitioner on his 1969 tax return.

It is well established that section 212 of the Internal Revenue Code of 19541 permits the deduction of a fiduciary’s commissions to the extent that they are incurred or paid for the production of income or for the management, conservation, or maintenance of trust assets. Sec. 1.212-1 (i), Income Tax Regs. Such an expense is deductible in the year paid even though it is incurred for the production of income which will or may he realized in a subsequent year. Secs. 1.212-1 (b) and 1.212-1 (a) (1), Income Tax Regs.

However, section 265(1) limits the deductibility of expenses otherwise allowable under section 212 to those incurred in whole or in part for the production of taxable income. Setting forth in general terms this limitation on deductibility, section 1.265-1 (c), Income Tax Regs., provides: “If an expense or amount otherwise allowable is indirectly allocable to both a class of nonexempt income and a class of exempt income, a reasonable proportion thereof determined in the light of all the facts and circumstances in each case shall be allocated to each.”

In computing a deficiency in petitioner’s 1969 income tax, respondent allocated a portion of the annual principal and the annual income commissions to tax-exempt income in the ratio of exempt ordinary income to total ordinary income realized during 1969. Consequently 36.49 percent2 of those commissions was disallowed as a deduction. In apportioning the termination fee, respondent allocated it pro rata among all items of tax-exempt and taxable income realized over the life of the trust, including net capital gains, thereby arriving at a nondeductible percentage of 28.57.3

Petitioner concedes in his brief that the annual income commission was correctly allocated by the respondent, but he objects to the basis on which the other two commissions were allocated. According to him, the termination fee and the annual principal commission are assignable to exempt income in a ratio where the numerator is exempt ordinary income received over the life of the trust and the denominator is the sum of: (1) Total ordinary income received over the life of the trust; (2) net capital gains realized over the same period; and (3) appreciation in the value of the trust’s corpus as of the trust’s termination date that would have been taxable as capital gain if it had been realized. On that basis, the nondeductible percentage would be reduced to 9.54.4

Alternatively, petitioner proposes a nondeductible fraction identical to his primary suggestion, outlined above, except that the numerator would be reduced by the net capital loss incurred on sales and dispositions of municipal bonds during the life of the trust. This alternative proposition requires only brief comment because it obviously would produce a result incongruous with the statute. The statutory objective is to allocate indirect expenses between tax-exempt and taxable income, which is not the same as an allocation between income associated with municipal bonds and income not associated with municipal bonds. The difference lies in the fact that gains and losses from capital transactions involving municipal bonds are generally subject to tax, Willcuts v. Bunn, 282 U.S. 216 (1931), while interest income from municipal bonds is typically tax-exempt.

The trust assets had a fair market value at termination of $2,516,-010.27, of which $1,476,023 represented unrealized appreciation. The crux of petitioner’s principal proposal is that unrealized appreciation affected the computation of both the termination fee5 and the annual principal commission,6 and so the $1,476,023 should be included in the denominator of the nondeductible fraction in order to obtain a reasonable disallowance as required by section 1.265-1 (c), Income Tax Begs.

Before turning our attention to what is a reasonable allocation under section 1.265-1 (c), Income Tax Begs., it is essential to consider the complete statutory picture.

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Related

Baker v. Commissioner
1990 T.C. Memo. 107 (U.S. Tax Court, 1990)
Estate of O'Connor v. Commissioner
69 T.C. 165 (U.S. Tax Court, 1977)
Fabens v. Commissioner
62 T.C. No. 89 (U.S. Tax Court, 1974)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
62 T.C. No. 89, 62 T.C. 775, 1974 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 49, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fabens-v-commissioner-tax-1974.