Goldman v. Commissioner

46 T.C. 136, 1966 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 112
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedApril 25, 1966
DocketDocket No. 2726-64
StatusPublished
Cited by38 cases

This text of 46 T.C. 136 (Goldman 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
Goldman v. Commissioner, 46 T.C. 136, 1966 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 112 (tax 1966).

Opinion

MulRoney, Judge:

Respondent determined a deficiency in petitioners’ 1961 income tax in the amount of $793.39.

The issues are whether petitioners are entitled to a deduction of $1,500 as a charitable contribution which consisted of bound copies of medical journals Douglas 'Goldman, who will be referred to as petitioner, contributed to a hospital, and whether they are entitled to a deduction of $71 'as charitable contributions for various amounts petitioner paid to four charitable organizations where he received raffle tickets entitling him in each instance to drawings for valuable prizes.

FINDINGS OF FACT

Some of the facts have been stipulated and they are found accordingly.

Petitioners are Douglas Goldman and his wife Evelyn K. Goldman, who live in 'Cincinnati, Ohio. They filed their joint income tax return for 1961 with the district director of internal revenue, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Petitioner is a licensed physician specializing in the practice of internal medicine and psychiatry. In 1961, in addition to his private medical practice, petitioner was employed by the State of Ohio as clinical director of Longview State Hospital, which is a hospital maintained by the State of Ohio for the treatment of the mentally ill.

Prior to the taxable year 1961, petitioner subscribed for the following medical journals:

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In 1961 petitioner contributed the medical journals described above in bound form to the Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio, and claimed a charitable deduction for such contribution in the amount of $1,500. Good Samaritan Hospital is a charitable organization under section 170 (c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954.1

During the year 1961, petitioner paid the following amounts to the organizations set forth below in respect of which he received receipts, popularly called raffle tickets, which gave the petitioner in each instance a chance to win a valuable prize:

Organisation Contribution
Good Samaritan Hospital_$50
Jewish Community Center_ 10
Chofetz Chaim (Hebrew School) Bazaar_ 10
Cancer Aid_ 1

Petitioner did not win any prizes in the drawings.

Respondent disallowed the above claimed deductions in full but now concedes petitioners are entitled to a deduction in the amount of the fair market value of the bound medical journals contributed to the hospital.

The fair market value of the 151 volumes of medical journals was not in excess of $415.50.

OPINION

Section 170(a) allows as a deduction a charitable contribution “if verified under regulations prescribed by the Secretary or his delegate.” Sec. 1.170-l(c) (1) of the regulations provides that “If a contribution is made in property other than money, the amount of the deduction is determined by the fair market value of the property at the time of the contribution.” The only question with respect to the deduction for the contribution to the Good Samaritan Hospital is the fair market value of the 151 volumes of medical journals petitioner gave to the hospital in November of 1961. The burden was on petitioner to establish the fair market value of the books.

Petitioner used a fair market value of approximately $10 a volume in computing liis charitable deduction. He and one of his two expert valuation witnesses stated that it was their opinion the fair market value of the hooks was $10 or more a volume. However, almost no weight can be given to their opinions for they both said their valuation was based upon the subscription prices of the journals ranging from $7 to $12 a volume, plus binding costs, ranging from $5.50 to $6.50. While cost is often something to be considered in arriving at a valuation figure for some property, it is of little importance when the property consists of back numbers of a periodical and the cost figure used is the amount paid when the periodical was current. There is no evidence that these volumes increased in value because of age. In fact, the record shows that back journals become less important as research tools since the material therein becomes obsolete. Moreover, petitioner testified that at least two of the journals were received by him as a member of the American Medical Association and the subscription, which is the cost price he used, was included in his membership fee.2 At any rate, both petitioner and his expert witness tied their opinions so closely to costs as to render them almost valueless as evidence of fair market value of back numbers of bound medical journals.

Petitioners’ other expert witness was the medical center librarian at the University of Cincinnati. He testified only in rebuttal and he stated it was his opinion that the fair market value of the books was at least $10 a volume for all but the 25 volumes of the American J ournal of Medicine and the latter were of the value of at least $12 a volume. He said he had never had any occasion to purchase such books and his valuation was based solely on book catalogs that he had seen put out by unnamed used-book dealers. No catalogs were produced.

The most persuasive evidence was the opinion of the proprietor of a bookstore in Cincinnati. He was called by respondent and he stated he had been in the business of buying and selling books, including such bound medical journals, for a period of approximately 35 years. He estimated he had sold around 2,000 volumes of medical journals, both bound and unbound. He said there was a slow market for such books as most libraries subscribe for these journals. He said he threw away over half a ton of unbound medical journals because when he listed them in catalogs that he sent to libraries he got no response. It fairly appears from his evidence that the only market for an individual owner of such books was a second-hand book dealer. He said such books are never sold over the counter in the store and seldom or never sold in. any big run of volumes. He said the usual market is some medical library buying from a catalog seeking to replace one or two volumes tbat have been lost or damaged. He said be bad personally prepared about 15 sucb medical catalogs tbat are submitted to medical libraries, hospital libraries, and other dealers. Sometimes be sold such medical journals to other dealers. He testified tbat around 1962 be bad sold 40 volumes of Archives of Internal Medicine to another dealer for $75. This witness’ opinion as to the fair market value of the books is as follows:

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Because we feel the above is the best opinion of fair market value of the books in 1961 when they were donated to the hospital, we have made a finding to that effect in our findings of fact. In the Rule 50 computation petitioners will be given a charitable deduction of $415.50 with respect to the donation of these books to the hospital.

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Bluebook (online)
46 T.C. 136, 1966 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 112, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/goldman-v-commissioner-tax-1966.