Giordano v. Commissioner

63 T.C. 462, 1975 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 202
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedJanuary 15, 1975
DocketDocket Nos. 2287-73, 7202-73, 8177-73
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 63 T.C. 462 (Giordano 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
Giordano v. Commissioner, 63 T.C. 462, 1975 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 202 (tax 1975).

Opinion

OPINION

Scott, Judge:

Respondent determined deficiencies in petitioners’ Federal income taxes for the calendar years 1968, 1969, 1970, and 1971 in the amounts of $1,881.45, $887.14, $714.56, and $4,777.42, respectively.

Petitioners John C. Giordano and Nancy J. Giordano filed joint Federal income tax returns for the calendar years 1969, 1970, and 1971, and petitioner John C. Giordano, hereinafter referred to as petitioner, filed an individual Federal income tax return for the calendar year 1968.

Numerous adjustments were made in each of these years in respondent’s notices of deficiency, and among these adjustments was a disallowance of claimed deductions by petitioner for alimony payments in the amount of $5,200 for each of the years to the extent of $4,600 in the years 1968 and 1970 and to the extent of $4,160 for each of the years 1969 and 1971. Also among the adjustments was a disallowance by respondent in the amount of $494 in 1969 and $80 in 1970 claimed by petitioner as an amount paid to an entity designated, “Organization of Organizations, Inc.” and sometimes referred to as “Triple-0.”

More than 30 days after an answer had been filed in each of the above-entitled cases, respondent filed, pursuant to the provisions of Rule 121 of the Rules of Practice and Procedure of this Court, a motion for summary judgment requesting an adjudication in his favor of the issues with respect to petitioner’s deduction for alimony payments and deductions for payments to the Triple-O.

Petitioner filed a reply to respondent’s motion for summary judgment in which he recited that Triple-O had been ruled by respondent to be a tax-exempt organization under section 501(c)(4), I.R.C. 1954,1 and that respondent had ruled that such an organization may establish a charitable fund, contributions to which are deductible. Petitioner further stated that the contributions which he made in the years 1969 and 1970 were of a type which were allowable deductions under respondent’s ruling with respect to Triple-O. Respondent attached no affidavit or other information to his motion for summary judgment with respect to the deductions claimed by petitioner for contributions to Triple-O. Therefore respondent relied on the nature of the statement contained in petitioner’s tax returns as filed respecting the deductibility of this item. In this state of the record, in our view a factual issue has been shown to exist with respect to the correctness of respondent’s disallowance of petitioner’s claimed deductions to Triple-O and therefore this issue is not one properly to be decided under a motion for summary judgment. Respondent’s motion for summary judgment with respect to this issue is denied.

Respondent in support of his position that there is no issue of fact to be litigated with respect to the deduction by petitioner of alimony payments, attached to his motion copies of a complaint signed by Dorothy Giordano, petitioner’s former wife, seeking a divorce, answer thereto, a stipulation signed by Dorothy and petitioner, and the final judgment in divorce granting Dorothy a divorce from petitioner. At the trial petitioner conceded that the copies of the documents attached to respondent’s motion were true copies of the original documents and that these documents were in connection with a divorce obtained by his former wife, Dorothy, the final decree being entered on July 25,1968.

In the complaint, Dorothy asked for the custody and control of the minor children of the parties, Michael age 10, and Mitchell age 8, and for maintenance for the children and for alimony for herself, as well as an absolute divorce. Insofar as here pertinent the stipulation between the parties provided as follows:

1. That the care, custody and control of the children of the marriage, Michael, of 10 years and Mitchell of 8 years, be in the Plaintiff, Dorothy Giordano, with reasonable visitation rights to the Defendant, John Giordano, Jr.
2. That the Defendant, John Giordano, Jr. pay to the Plaintiff, Dorothy Giodano, [sic] twenty (20) percent as alimony and eighty (80) percent as child maintenance of the following amounts as each may be applicable:
When Defendant be employed as Flight Engineer, the payment to be made per week shall be $100.00;
When employed as schedule airline mechanic, the payment to be made per week shall be $65.00;
When employed in other capacity receiving less pay than as Flight Engineer or airline mechanic, the payment to be made per week shall be $45.00.

The stipulation is dated May 14, 1968. The final judgment in divorce entered in the Circuit Court of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida in and for Dade County on July 25, 1968, grants an absolute divorce to Dorothy and restores to each party the rights of a single person. This judgment provides that—

the stipulation agreed to by and between the Parties to this cause, designated as Plaintiff’s Exhibit 1, dated May 14,1968, a conformed copy of which is hereto attached is hereby ratified, approved and confirmed by the Court and made part and portion of this Judgment Decree, and the Parties hereto are ordered and directed to comply therewith.

Petitioner in his answer to respondent’s motion and in his argument at the trial alleges that there is a factual issue with respect to the payments which he made to Dorothy during the years here in issue since it was the intent of the parties that the payments all be made to Dorothy as alimony. Petitioner, in Addendum to Petitioner’s Current Notice of Objection, filed with this Court on November 22, 1974, makes the following statement:

7B.. That when prior to May 14th 1968 the petitioner and former-wife Dorothy Giordano drew-up the original schedual [sic] of minimum weekly payments to be paid by the petitioner to Dorothy Giordano the original agreement contained no mention of child support.
7C.. That when arrising [sic] out of the aforesaid agreement on May 14th 1968 the attorneys representing the aforesaid parties there-upon produce an official written wording of the terms of the original agreement, that thereof it again contained no mention of child support.
7D. .That when just prior to the signing of the aforesaid officially worded instrument one of the attorneys there-upon proposed amending the subject instrument for the sole expressed purpose of reducing the petitioner’s payments by the amount of an agreeable percentage for such instance as when the two children involved became of legal age and/or such instance as when the divorced wife re-married.
7E. .That there-upon on that basis the phrase mentioning per-centages and mentioning child-support was drafted into the finalized divorce stipulation with the sole understanding that all payments would still be made exclusivly [sic] to only Dorothy Giordano.
7F.

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Bluebook (online)
63 T.C. 462, 1975 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 202, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/giordano-v-commissioner-tax-1975.