Falk v. Commissioner

15 T.C. 49, 1950 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 121
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedJuly 31, 1950
DocketDocket No. 20097
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 15 T.C. 49 (Falk 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
Falk v. Commissioner, 15 T.C. 49, 1950 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 121 (tax 1950).

Opinion

OPINION.

Leech, Judge:

The first issue is the propriety of respondent’s dis-allowance of deductions by petitioner in his income tax returns for the two years before us of the cost of his room and board in Washington, D. C., during his employment there in those years in several of the Government war agencies. It appears that respondent has allowed petitioner the deduction of his cost of travel between Pittsburgh and Washington, and the disallowances relate only to the cost of hotel rooms and meals.

In Commissioner v. Flowers, 326 U. S. 465, it was ruled that an expense of this character to be deductible must be incident to and required by the employment. In the present case, it can not be argued that the petitioner’s expenses in Washington were required by his business carried on in Pittsburgh and Schellsburg, Pennsylvania. Nor did petitioner’s employment in Washington by the Government require him to maintain his home in Pittsburgh. For the purposes of his Government employment, his place of business was Washington, D. C. The case of Ney v. United States, 77 Fed. Supp. 1005, affd., 171 Fed. (2d) 449, certiorari denied, 336 U. S. 967, appears to have arisen upon substantially identical facts to those here involved. There the taxpayer was denied the deduction of expenses for hotel rooms and board in Washington during performance of services for the Government in one of the war agencies. He had large business interests in Arkansas and, during the term of his Government employment, continued to maintain his residence in that state to which he made trips at intervals to attend to his personal business affairs. Relief was also den ied under substantially similar circumstances in the case of S. M. R. O'Hara. 6 T. C. 841. See also Robert F. Green, 12 T. C. 656. Respondent is sustained in his disallowance of the deductions taken.

The second issue is upon respondent’s action in including in petitioner’s income all the net income of a trust designated as the “Maurice Falk, Trustee Special” in excess of $5,000, ttie minimum amount payable from such income to petitioner’s sister under the trust.

The terms of the trust under which this question arises are set out in our findings of fact. Petitioner contends that under the terms of the trust, read in the light of certain directions and injunctions by the donor, petitioner’s father, to the petitioner, and to which petitioner agreed, it was the donor’s intention to impose upon petitioner a legal duty to cause distributions of net income by the trustee to charitable and educational institutions, and that the performance by the petitioner of this duty was subject to review and enforcement by a court oi equity.

It is argued by petitioner that the statements of the donor to petitioner as to his intentions, desires and purposes in establishing the trust having been made to petitioner and agreed to by him at a time when the trust was subject to revocation by the donor and the denial of any benefit to petitioner, a resulting or constructive trust arose under which petitioner was required to use a proper discretion in directing the disbursement of the income of the trust in accordance with the purposes expressed by the donor.

We have examined carefully the provision of the deed of trust in the light of the surrounding circumstances as established by the record, and have accepted the testimony by petitioner as to the statements made to him by his father with respect to the trust. We do not, however. find it possible to agree with petitioner that the intention of the grantor was to impose upon petitioner a legal duty with respect to distributions to charitv under section 2 of Article Second of the trust deed. The wording of that section is unambiguous. The direction of the trust instrument is to the trustee. The petitioner is nowhere required to designate any particular portion of income to any particular charity. The direction is merely that the trustee shall pay income in such amounts and to such educational and charitable institutions as the petitioner may direct. The gist of petitioner’s testimony is that his father, the donor, expressed to him his purpose that through the trust the petitioner maintain the family reputation in the future for public generosity that it had borne in the past.

Had it been the intention and purpose of the donor that any definite portion of the income of the trust be contributed to charity, it would have been a simple matter to so provide, and petitioner admits that the donor never expressed a desire or gave a direction to him to distribute any definite amount.

During his lifetime, the donor had made a practice of joining with his brother Maurice in charitable donations, and petitioner’s testimony is that his promise to his father was that he would take his place with his uncle Maurice and constitute the “team” theretofore formed by the donor and his brother Maurice.

The trust instrument was obviously drawn with legal precision and care. The income of the trust is put under the control and direction of the petitioner, without express limitation other than a minimum payment of $5,000 per annum from the trust income to his sister.

Considering all the surrounding circumstances and the manifest pride of the donor in the reputation of his family for giving to charity in Pittsburgh and vicinity, we think the natural conclusion to draw from the terms of the instrument and the testimony of the petitioner as to statements to him by bis father that it was the desire and purpose oi the father to make it possible for the petitioner, his son, as an individual, to maintain the reputation of the family, and that the trust was created for the purpose of providing the funds from which the petitioner could make charitable donations in the future as the donor, his father, had made in the past. A purpose of the donor to have his son, petitioner, receive personally the public gratitude from giving to public charity is more easily to be reconciled with the provisions of the trust instrument and the statements to petitioner by the donor than a purpose to create a charitable fund which the petitioner was legally bound to distribute for charitable purposes. Under the latter conception, any designations of income to charity would come primarily from the donor and would serve merely to enhance the reputation of his generation of the family instead of the reputation of the new generation.

Counsel for petitioner has cited various decisions relating to constructive and resulting trusts. We do not think these are applicable here. They involve facts where the beneficiary of the constructive trust and his interest were identified. Thus a resulting trust was held to exist in In re Washington's Estate. 220 Pa. 204: 69 Atl. 747, where an absolute bequest under the terms of the will was made to an aunt with a definite understanding that the bequest was to be used for the support of herself and two younger sisters. In that case this understanding was established by a letter written by the aunt shortly after the receipt of the bequest, stating that the testatrix by the will had vested the title in her alone only because she was better able to conserve the property and obtain the greatest return for the benefit of the three.

We have no such condition here.

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Related

Falk v. Commissioner
15 T.C. 49 (U.S. Tax Court, 1950)

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Bluebook (online)
15 T.C. 49, 1950 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 121, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/falk-v-commissioner-tax-1950.