Farr v. Commissioner

11 T.C. 552, 1948 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 65
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedOctober 7, 1948
DocketDocket No. 11725
StatusPublished
Cited by57 cases

This text of 11 T.C. 552 (Farr 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
Farr v. Commissioner, 11 T.C. 552, 1948 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 65 (tax 1948).

Opinion

OPINION.

Hill, Judge-.

There are three questions which we must decide concerning the excess proceeds of $114,878.77 received by petitioner from the sale of the Wyandotte property pursuant to the assignment dated October 14,1938: First, whether they constituted a capital gain under section 117, or ordinary income under section 22 (a); second, if they constituted ordinary income, whether they represented compensation for personal services under section 107; and, third, whether petitioner is entitled to deduct $93,070.95 from such amount of $114,878.77, regardless of the character of such income.

Fii’st we shall consider whether the $114,878.77 realized by petitioner from the sale of the Wyandotte property constituted a capital gain under section 117, or ordinary income under section 22 (a). In deciding this question we must bear in mind that section 117 is a statute of partial exemption. Therefore the taxpayer must bring himself squarely within its terms and all fair doubts will be resolved against him. See Commissioner v. Hopkinson, 126 Fed. (2d) 406, 411, and Ogle v. Helvering, 77 Fed. (2d) 338, 339.

The assignment of October 14, 1938, specifically stated that petitioner’s right to excess proceeds from the sale of the Wyandotte property was in consideration for services rendered by him. So far as the record shows, the owners (at the time of the assignment) of the Wyandotte property were under no financial obligation, legal or moral, to petitioner other than for services by him in relation to the conservation and sale of such property. There is, therefore, no basis in the evidence for a finding that the consideration for the assignment in question was other than the services to such owners in respect of such property as above indicated. Therefore, we hold that the $114,878.77 of the excess proceeds received by petitioner represented compensation for services rendered. By the express language of section 22 (a),1 compensation for personal services constitutes ordinary income. Thus, such compensation may not be converted into a capital gain under section 117. See Mertens, Law of Federal Income Taxation, sec. 22.11, vol. 3, p. 703, and cases cited therein; cf. Strauss v. Commissioner, 168 Fed. (2d) 441.

It is true that the Wyandotte realty constituted a capital asset in the hands of its owners, legal and equitable, so that they realized a capital gain from its sale to E. I. duPont de Nemours & Co. The principal premise for petitioner’s contention that he is entitled to treat the $114,878.77 as a capital gain is that he received a beneficial interest in the Wyandotte property by virtue of the assignment of October 14, 1938. Then, by virtue of the doctrine of Commissioner v. Hopkinson, supra, he argues that the proceeds of such sale have the same status in his hands as in the hands of the liquidating trustees, the legal owners of the Wyandotte property. The Hophinson case held that income distributed to the beneficiary of a trust has the same status in the hands of the beneficiary as capital gain or as ordinary income as it would in the hands of the trustee. Thus, under such circumstances the beneficiary might claim income received from the proceeds, of the sale of a capital asset as a capital gain, though he in fact did not make the sale. He would stand in the shoes of the vendors and the sale would be imputed to him. We can assume that the Hophinson case announces a sound principle. However, it is not applicable to petitioner’s situation. The assignment in question did not make him the beneficiary of a trust. It is true that the Wyandotte property was the res of a so-called liquidating trust, but the assignment to petitioner did not make him a party to it, either as trustor, trustee, or beneficiary. All the assignment did for petitioner was to provide contingently for payment of compensation for his services. The assignment did not convey to petitioner an interest in the Wyandotte property. It merely provided that, if the property should be sold at a price in excess of a certain amount, the excess would be paid to him as compensation for services. It followed, of course, that if there should be no such excess he would receive no compensation for his services.

The recently decided case of Strauss v. Commissioner, supra, presents a fact situation comparable to the facts here. There the owners of a patent assigned a portion of the royalty, payments thereon to the taxpayer as compensation for past services rendered. The court determined that by this assignment the taxpayer received no legal or equitable interest in the patent. The court stated in part:

* * * The taxpayer did not receive for those services any part of the Kodachrome process itself or any right to control the disposition of that process. Rather, he obtained the enforceable promise of the owners of the process that he would be paid for his services a definite portion of the royalties they had the right to receive from the Eastman Kodak Company. That is to say, his “interest in the process” was never greater than a contract right to be paid certain ascertainable sums of money. From first to last his pay for his services was to be only in money determinable in amount by reference to a royalty agreement covering the process. * * .»

In none of the cases relied upon by petitioner to show he acquired a beneficial interest in the Wyandotte property did the court pass on a fact situation in any way comparable to the circumstances of the present case.

We thus conclude that the $114,878.77 received by petitioner from the sale of Wyandotte property may not be classed as a capital gain under section 117, but represents ordinary income under section 22 (a).

Next we must decide whether the ordinary income of $114,878.77 received by petitioner constituted compensation for personal services within the terms of section 107 of the Internal Revenue Code, as amended by section 139 of the Revenue Act of 1942.2 In determining the validity of this contention by petitioner, we are mindful that section 107 is an exemption statute and petitioner must bring himself within the strict letter of its provisions to gain the benefit of its relief. Smart v. Commissioner, 152 Fed. (2d) 333, 335; certiorari denied, 327 U. S. 804, and Lindstrom v. Commissioner, 149 Fed. (2d) 344, 346.

The provisions of section 107 require that at least 75 per cent of the total compensation received for personal services be received or accrued by the taxpayer in one taxable year. Since petitioner filed his tax returns on the cash basis and on the calendar year basis, it is necessary that he should have received at least 75 per cent of the $114,878.77 in one calendar year. We find that petitioner fails to meet this requirement.

The facts show that in 1941 petitioner actually received only $84,-878.77 from the sale of the Wyandotte property, which is less than 75 per cent of $114,878.77, the total compensation. ■ The remaining $30,000 was placed in escrow with the National Bank of Detroit in accordance with provision 5 (d) of the contract of sale. This latter sum was actually received by petitioner on July 20, 1942, on submission of documentary evidence of the discharge of the Federal Government’s tax lien.

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Bluebook (online)
11 T.C. 552, 1948 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 65, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/farr-v-commissioner-tax-1948.