Harvey v. Commissioner

32 T.C. 1368, 1959 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 74
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedSeptember 30, 1959
DocketDocket No. 67596
StatusPublished
Cited by83 cases

This text of 32 T.C. 1368 (Harvey 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
Harvey v. Commissioner, 32 T.C. 1368, 1959 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 74 (tax 1959).

Opinions

OPINION.

Harron, Judge:

During tbe taxable year 1953, the petitioner’s employer paid him $2,315, at tbe rate of $7 per day, in addition to bis regular salary. Tbe question is whether this sum is additional compensation for services and, therefore, income under section 22(a) of tbe 1939 Code, or reimbursement for “traveling expenses while away from home” within the provisions of sections 23(a) (1) (A) 1 and 22(n)

(2) .2 Petitioner seeks to subtract from gross income tbe amount of $2,315, but such subtraction from gross income is allowable only if the amount would be deductible as traveling expenses under section 23(a) (1) (A). Both parties rely upon the principles stated in Commissioner v. Flowers, 326 U.S. 465.

It was stated in the Flowers case that three conditions must be satisfied before a traveling expense deduction may be allowed under section 23(a) (1) (A), and that “[f]ailure to satisfy any one of the three conditions destroys the traveling expense deduction.” The three conditions noted by the Supreme Court are as follows:

(1) The expense must be a reasonable and necessary traveling expense, as that term is generally understood. This includes such items as transportation fares and food and lodging expenses incurred while traveling.
(2) The expense must be incurred “while away from home.”
(3) The expense must be incurred in pursuit of business. This means that there must be a direct connection between the expenditure and the carrying on of the trade or business of the taxpayer or of his employer. Moreover, such an expenditure must be necessary or appropriate to the development and pursuit of the business or trade.

It was also said in the Flowers case that “[w]hether particular expenditures fulfill these three conditions so as to entitle a taxpayer to a deduction is purely a question of fact in most instances”; that in order to be deductible the “travel expenses” must be required by “¿Ae exigencies of business”/ and that “[b]usiness trips are to be identified in relation to business demands and the traveler’s business headquarters.” See, also, Peurifoy v. Commissioner, 358 U.S. 59.

The respondent’s determination has been made on a broad basis in that he has held that $2,315 is income under section 22(a) and that it is not “away from home” expenses under sections 23(a) (1) (A) and 22 (n) (2). The petitioner has the burden of proving that the determination is incorrect. The issue to be decided presents a question of fact.

By a stipulation,3 the parties have eliminated questions relating to the nature and amounts of the particular items of expense which aggregated $2,315. The record does not disclose the types and amounts of the individual expenses. It is assumed, however, that expenses for meals and lodging at tbe base and in Lancaster are included. If there are included in the total amount petitioner’s expenses of going to and from his work at the base in making daily trips between Lancaster and the base and the cost of taking trips to visit his family in Santa Monica over weekends, the record does not show anything about such expenses.

Respondent contends that beginning on December 15, 1952, petitioner acquired a new headquarters, or post of duty, principal and regular place of employment, which was at Edwards Base; that Edwards Base was petitioner’s headquarters and post of duty until around the end of January 1954; that the so-called per diem paid by Douglas Aircraft during the entire period was additional pay to compensate for additional personal expenses which were entailed by petitioner’s having to work at Edwards Base; that the base was not a transitory and temporary location of operations of Douglas Aircraft; that the procedure of Douglas in assigning petitioner to Edwards Base by means of a so-called travel order, which was renewed periodically, was nothing more than an administrative procedure of Douglas under, its general policy of issuing travel orders to every employee who was assigned to work at Edwards; and that the fact that Douglas issued travel order forms to petitioner and paid him the stipend of $7 per day as “travel expenses” is not determinative of the question to be decided.

The petitioner contends that Santa Monica was his headquarters and post of duty and principal place of employment; that Douglas Aircraft determined that petitioner’s assignment to Edwards was a temporary one with respect to the acceptance of which petitioner had no discretion; that the employer’s issuance to petitioner of an initial 90-day travel order, subject to extensions for 90 days, is evidence of the temporary nature of petitioner’s assignment to the base; that Douglas Aircraft’s determination that petitioner’s assignment to the base was temporary and that he was in travel status during the entire time that he was there was reasonable, was in accord with sound business practice, and was also in accord with policies of the Air Force; that the exigencies of Douglas Aircraft’s business required the “travel”; and that it cannot be held that Edwards Base was petitioner’s headquarters and post of duty during 1953 because he was not permanently assigned to the base.

Petitioner adopts the view that a proper construction of the word “home” in the statute is the taxpayer’s “place of business, employment, or the post or station at which he is employed, in the prosecution, conduct, and carrying on of a trade or business,” as was stated in Mort L. Bixler, 5 B.T.A. 1181, 1184, and also followed in Barnhill v. Commissioner, 148 F. 2d 913. Respondent also adopts that view.

Petitioner objects to respondent’s position that whether the situs of a taxpayer’s work constitutes his post of duty and regular place of employment may be determined on the basis of whether at the time the work is undertaken at such location the employment there was to be for an indefinite and indeterminate period. Petitioner argues that the determination of whether a particular, place of employment constitutes a post of duty depends upon whether the assignment to such locus of employment was permanent; that if an employee is not permanently assigned to a situs of work, then the assignment must be held to have been temporary; and that if an assignment to a work location is temporary, even though it is indefinite and indeterminate, then such work location is not the employee’s headquarters and post of duty, and while he works under a “temporary” assignment he is “away” from his post of duty located elsewhere. Petitioner argues, further, that when an assignment of an employee to a particular situs of work is made because of the exigencies of the employer’s business, the expenses incurred by the employee while there are deductible as “traveling expenses while away from home” within the requirements of the statute.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
32 T.C. 1368, 1959 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 74, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/harvey-v-commissioner-tax-1959.