Hampton v. Commissioner

38 T.C. 131, 1962 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 149
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedApril 24, 1962
DocketDocket No. 85753
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 38 T.C. 131 (Hampton 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
Hampton v. Commissioner, 38 T.C. 131, 1962 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 149 (tax 1962).

Opinion

Deennen, Judge:

Respondent has determined deficiencies in income tax due from petitioner for the taxable years 1956 and 1957 in the respective amounts of $791.48 and $787.16.

The only issue for decision is whether petitioner, a United States citizen residing in Germany and not domiciled in a community property State during the taxable years, may treat, for Federal income tax purposes, one-half of his income as belonging to his wife, a nonresident alien during 1956 and 1957.

FINDINGS OF FACT.

Some of the facts were stipulated and are so found.

For the calendar years 1956 and 1957 petitioner filed individual income tax returns with the Director of International Operations, Internal Revenue Service, Washington, D.C.

From birth until February 1943 petitioner was domiciled in New Jersey at the residence of his parents. In February 1943 petitioner was inducted into the United States Army. While in the Army he was stationed in Texas from March 1943 until December 1943, and in California from February 1944 until September 1944.

In September 1944 petitioner was sent overseas, reaching Germany in November 1944. Petitioner remained in the Army, stationed in Germany, until April 1946, at which time he was discharged from the Army.

In May 1946 petitioner became a civilian employee of the United States Army in Germany, and resided there until October 1958. Fie is now and has always been a United States citizen.

Prior to January 1, 1956, petitioner married a German national, and for the period of their marriage prior to 1956 petitioner and his wife resided in Germany but not on a military reservation. From January 1,1956, until October 1958 they resided at Benjamin Franklin Village, Mannheim, Germany, a United States military reservation. Petitioner’s wife was not a United States citizen during 1956 and 1957.

Petitioner resided continuously in Germany from November 1944 until October 1958. In October 1958 be was reassigned and transferred from Germany to a duty station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Since May 1946, until the present time, petitioner has been continuously a civilian employee of the United States Army.

In November 1958 petitioner purchased real estate at 338 Golden-ridge Drive, Levittown, Pennsylvania, for the purpose of providing a home for his parents. Petitioner still owns this property, but has never made it his residence.

From November 1958 until December 1959 petitioner rented his present residence at 66 Sweetgum Road, Levittown, Pennsylvania. In December 1959 he purchased it, and intends to make it his residence until reassigned elsewhere by the Army.

Petitioner has never registered for voting purposes in any State. Petitioner filed his income tax returns for 1955 and earlier years with the collector or director of internal revenue at Baltimore, Maryland. He filed his income tax return for 1958 with the Director of International Operations, Internal Revenue Service, Washington, D.C., and his return for 1959 with the district director of internal revenue at Baltimore, Maryland.

Petitioner attached to each of his Federal income tax returns for 1956 and 1957 a statement explaining that because he was married to a nonresident alien he was “splitting” his income, which consisted solely of salary from the United States Army, and was reporting only one-half of such income as his. In the statement attached to his 1957 return, petitioner further explained that he and his wife had agreed orally that “all property (income) owned or to be acquired by either of us should be community property (income),” and that while he had no legal residence in the United States, he intended to be domiciled in the State of Washington, a community property State, upon his return to this country. Thus he was, he stated, “filing this return for 1957 on a marital community basis,” and reporting only one-half of his income.

In the statutory notice of deficiency respondent explained the determination by the following explanation of adjustment:

Income allocated to your wife is taxable to you under Section 63 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954. You have not established that you were domiciled in a community property state. Your claim to domicile in’ the state of Washington is based on a future intention to live there and not on an established domicile in a community property state. Accordingly, income earned by you in the year 1956 [and 1957] is taxable to you.

OPINION.

During 1956 and 1957 petitioner, a United States citizen, was a civilian employee of the United States Army in Germany, where he resided with his wife, a nonresident alien. His income consisted solely of a salary paid by the Army. For these 2 taxable years he filed income tax returns reporting therein only one-half of his salary as income, because he considered that one-half of the salary earned by him belonged to his wife since his income was, in his words, “community property.”

Respondent determined that petitioner’s entire income is taxable to him for each of the 2 years. The deficiencies herein result from this determination. It is, of course, incumbent upon petitioner to demonstrate error in that determination.

Petitioner, in splitting his income and reporting only one-half thereof in each of the 2 years in question, apparently originally relied upon his conclusion that his domicile — although not his residence— was in Washington, a community property State, and that consequently, one-half of his income belonged to his wife. According to the explanation attached to his 1957 return, he concluded that his domicile was in Washington because he intended someday to make that State his permanent home. But he also considered that he and his wife comprised a marital community because they had orally agreed that all income received by either of them was to be community income. He explained that he was observing the rule derived from Estate of J. Harold Dollar, 41 B.T.A. 869 (1940).

It appears that petitioner has abandoned the contention that the domicile of his wife and himself in 1956 and 1957 was Washington, a community property State,1 and the agreed facts show affirmatively that the Hamptons were not domiciled in Washington when they lived in Germany. Petitioner was domiciled in New Jersey before he entered the Army. Even if petitioner, when he worked for the Army in Germany, intended to make the State of Washington his permanent home at some time in the future, this fact would not be sufficient to constitute Washington his domicile. Actual residence may not be required in order to retain domicile, but it is a requisite to establishing domicile; intention alone does not suffice. See Pietro Crespi, 44 B.T.A. 670 (1941). It does not appear that petitioner has ever resided in Washington.

Petitioner does contend on brief, as he did originally when he filed his 1957 return, that he had a “community property relationship” with his alien wife, that he is entitled by law and by custom to have such a relationship, and. that no law, Federal or local, prohibits this relationship. In support of this contention he cites on brief Boscoe v. Commissioner, 215 F. 2d 478 (C.A. 5, 1954); Chamberlin v. Commissioner, 207 F. 2d 462 (C.A.

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Hampton v. Commissioner
38 T.C. 131 (U.S. Tax Court, 1962)

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Bluebook (online)
38 T.C. 131, 1962 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 149, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hampton-v-commissioner-tax-1962.