Gantner v. Commissioner

91 T.C. No. 47, 91 T.C. 713, 1988 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 125
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedSeptember 29, 1988
DocketDocket No. 2222-86
StatusPublished
Cited by42 cases

This text of 91 T.C. No. 47 (Gantner 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
Gantner v. Commissioner, 91 T.C. No. 47, 91 T.C. 713, 1988 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 125 (tax 1988).

Opinion

WELLS, Judge:

Respondent determined deficiencies in and additions to petitioners’ 1980 and 1981 Federal income taxes as follows:

_Additions to tax1_
Year Deficiency Sec. 6651(a)(1) Sec. 6653(a) Sec. 6653(a)(1) Sec. 6653(a)(2)
1980 $63,027.02 $4,848.79 $5,241.60 --- ---
1981 4,433.00 --- --- $248.10 (1)

150 percent of the interest due on $4,433

Respondent also determined that petitioners are liable for the increased rate of interest pursuant to section 6621(c).2

After settlement by the parties of several issues, the following remain for our decision: (1) Whether a loss on the sale of stock options should be disallowed pursuant to the wash-sale provisions of section 1091; (2) whether deductions and investment credits relating to computer equipment are allowable; (3) whether deductions for an office in petitioners’ residence are allowable; (4) whether other business expenses for 1981 are allowable; and (5) whether there was an underpayment of petitioners’ 1980 income tax attributable to tax-motivated transactions so that petitioners are hable for the increased rate of interest pursuant to section 6621(c).

FINDINGS OF FACT

Some of the facts have been stipulated and are so found. The stipulation and attached exhibits are incorporated herein by this reference. Petitioners resided in Bloomington, Minnesota, when they filed their petition.

During 1980 and 1981, petitioner David E. Gantner (petitioner) was president and a shareholder of the North Star Driving School, Inc. (North Star). North Star was in the business of selling driving lessons, and it provided students with classroom instruction and behind-the-wheel training. During the years in issue, petitioner also was president of the Driving School Association of the Americas (DSAA), a trade association consisting of approximately 225 dues-paying members, but in effect representing approximately 3,300 driving schools in the United States and Canada. Petitioner’s activities in DSAA required only a “token amount” of his time, including attendance at two or three meetings per year of the board of directors. Petitioner also served as a delegate to international driving instruction conventions held in Germany and Austria in 1980 and 1981, respectively.

Petitioner and Lee Whited each owned 50 percent of the stock of North Star, and each received compensation from North Star in the amounts of $37,874 and $38,369 in 1980 and 1981, respectively. Petitioner generally was responsible for the business aspects of North Star such as payroll, other disbursements, and marketing, and Mr. Whited generally was responsible for the operational aspects such as hiring, training, and supervising the driving instructors. The majority of North Star’s students were of high school age, so the principal activities of the driving school took place from about 3 p.m. until the early evening hours. Petitioner usually performed his duties for North Star during the afternoon and early evening hours, as well as on weekends. Also, driving instructors sometimes would stop by petitioner’s home at night to drop off receipts collected from the students and to pick up contracts that petitioner had brought to them from the North Star office.

In addition to his duties with North Star and DSAA, petitioner also devoted a substantial part of the morning and early afternoon hours on weekdays to monitoring the stock market. Those times comported with the hours during which the New York Stock Exchange and the American Stock Exchange were open — 9 a.m. until 3 p.m., Minnesota time. During 1980, petitioner’s stock market transactions consisted of purchases and sales of only call options for stock; he neither acquired nor sold actual shares of stock.

Petitioner was not a licensed broker, so he purchased the stock options through the Minneapolis office of the brokerage firm Shearson Loeb Rhoades, Inc. (Shearson). His account statements from Shearson reflect the following activity in 1980:

Sales Purchases Sales Purchases
January 3 3 May 1 3
March 4 2 June 4 4
April 0 1 July 7 5
Sales Purchases Sales Purchases
August 10 5 November 5 3
September 6 8 December 3 2
October 6 6 Year total 49 42

Petitioner bought 1,330 options in his 42 purchase transactions and sold 1,255 options in his 49 sales transactions. 3 In 1980, petitioner’s net sales proceeds from stock options (after commissions) amounted to $1,043,978.76, and his total purchases (including commissions) amounted to $871,408.49.

Due to the high volume of his trading activity, petitioner received a 30-percent discount on commission fees from Shearson. In fact, one of the two Shearson brokers used by petitioner in 1980 described petitioner as “the most active customer I’ve ever had.” Petitioner did not rely on brokers for recommendations to buy or sell options; he depended on the brokers only for execution of the trades and for information, e.g., the most current market prices.

The majority of petitioner’s 1980 purchases and sales of call options were for stock in Tandy Corp. (Tandy). Included among petitioner’s purchases were the following calls for Tandy at $100 per share, expiring in January 1981 (JAN 100s):4

Date purchased Number Cost
11/20/80 15 $15,979.35
11/20/80 35 38,160.29
12/02/80 50 36,260.06

On December 3, 1980, petitioner bought 100 JAN 100s at a cost of $61,063 and sold 100 JAN 100s for $51,490. On his 1980 tax return, petitioner reported a loss of $38,909.70 from the sale of the Tandy options. The loss was computed using a cost basis of $90,399.70 (toteil cost of the purchases on November 20 and December 2) and a sales price of $51,490.

In the notice of deficiency, respondent disallowed that loss for 1980 based upon the wash-sale provisions. Respondent added the amount of the disallowed loss to the basis of the options purchased on December 3, 1980, and allowed petitioner an increased 1981 loss upon the disposition and expiration of the Tandy options in January 1981.

In addition to his stock option trades, petitioner purchased and sold commodities futures through a “managed account” administered by Shearson’s Chicago office. The managed account gave the broker in Chicago discretionary authority to make trades for the account without any participation by petitioner in the decisions. Petitioner’s use of such a discretionary account for his commodity transactions was in direct contrast to his stock option account in which he alone made the decisions to buy or sell.

Among petitioner’s commodity transactions in 1980 were straddles using gold contracts.

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Bluebook (online)
91 T.C. No. 47, 91 T.C. 713, 1988 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 125, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gantner-v-commissioner-tax-1988.