Heggestad v. Commissioner

91 T.C. No. 50, 91 T.C. 778, 1988 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 132
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedOctober 17, 1988
DocketDocket No. 18265-84
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 91 T.C. No. 50 (Heggestad 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
Heggestad v. Commissioner, 91 T.C. No. 50, 91 T.C. 778, 1988 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 132 (tax 1988).

Opinion

HAMBLEN, Judge:

Respondent determined deficiencies in petitioners’ income tax for the years 1979 and 1980, in the respective amounts of $140,005 and $56,815.

The issues for decision are:

(1) Whether $85,360 of losses incurred by petitioner Gerald A. Heggestad in 1980 in selling certain Treasury bill futures contracts were capital losses rather than ordinary losses; and

(2) Whether petitioner Gerald A. Heggestad’s distributive share of partnership income from his commodities brokerage firm includes commissions he paid to the firm on trades for his personal account.

FINDINGS OF FACT

At the time they filed their petition herein, petitioners Gerald A. and Cheryl L. Heggestad resided in Scottsdale, Arizona. Petitioners filed joint individual income tax returns for 1979 and 1980 with the Internal Revenue Service Center, Kansas City, Missouri.

Cross Country Commodities

During the times pertinent to this case, petitioner Gerald A. Heggestad (Heggestad) was a general partner in Cross Country Commodities, a commodities brokerage firm. Heg-gestad had two other partners in Cross Country Commodities. All three partners at that time resided in the Sioux City, Nebraska, area.

Heggestad was a registered commodities futures representative. Heggestad and his two partners decided to form Cross Country Commodities because they believed it would be more cost-effective for the three to share the expense of maintaining and operating a single office.

Cross Country Commodities was. formed on October 1, 1978. Its stated business purpose was to engage in the brokerage of commodities futures as an associate brokerage firm in Sioux City, Nebraska. As an associate brokerage firm, the partnership would receive orders from customers to buy and sell various commodities futures contracts. However, the partnership would not be a member of the Chicago Board of Trade; it thus could not directly purchase or sell commodities futures contracts on the exchange. Instead, as an associate broker, the partnership would have other brokerage firms, who were members of the Chicago exchange, actually purchase and sell the futures contracts. Cross Country Commodities would receive a commission from the customer for this service in effectuating the customer’s transaction. It would pay 40 percent of the commission to the member brokerage firm through which the transaction was executed and retain the remaining 60 percent.

For its fiscal year ending September 30, 1979, Cross Country Commodities received and retained $1,776,158 of commissions from brokering purchases and sales of commodities futures. For its last fiscal year covering the period October 1, 1979, through April 7, 1980, the partnership received and retained $614,166 of commissions.

Pursuant to conducting its brokerage business, the partnership maintained a “house account.” Losses on customer accounts which were to be absorbed by the partnership were posted to this account. For example, the partnership would absorb the loss on a transaction where its employee had the customer’s order executed incorrectly.

The partnership’s net income was shared equally by its three partners. Each partner’s share of annual net profits was to be distributed to him; his share of any net losses was chargeable against his capital account.

The partnership agreement specifically recognized that each partner would engage in other businesses and activities for his personal account. The partners were not required to devote their entire time to the partnership’s brokerage business. The partnership agreement further allowed any partner to withdraw from the firm upon his giving 60-days written notice to the other partners.

One of Heggestad’s partners withdrew from Cross Country Commodities in late 1979 or early 1980. Heggestad and the other partner subsequently decided to terminate their partnership in mid-March of 1980. The firm’s business was terminated by April 7, 1980.

Heggestad’s Purchases and Sales of Commodities Futures

Heggestad, in addition to the brokerage business of Cross Country Commodities, invested in commodities futures for his personal account. In investing for his own account, he made numerous purchases and sales of futures contracts on a number of different accounts.

These various accounts were held by him either as sole owner or in partnership with other individuals. In connection with trades for these accounts, Heggestad paid his commodities brokerage firm Cross Country Commodities commissions totaling $215,701 in 1979 and $34,877 in 1980. Cross Country Commodities retained 60 percent of the commissions paid by Heggestad; the other 40 percent was paid to the member brokerage firms which executed the trades.

In 1979 and 1980, Heggestad incurred substantial losses from his commodities futures trading. In 1979, he had losses totaling $231,685; in 1980 he had losses totaling $129,544. The financial losses he suffered caused him to discontinue his activities with respect to commodities futures.

Of the $129,544 of losses in 1980, $52,495 were from Heggestad’s sale of six Treasury bill futures contracts on March 3, 1980, and March 4, 1980. These particular futures contracts had originally been purchased through other accounts. Each futures contract was transferred on March 3 or March 4, 1980, to an individual account of Heggestad’s prior to its sale. The futures contract, the account from which it was transferred, and the amount of loss on its sale, are as follows:

Name and number of account Amount of Futures contract from which transferred loss on sale
One March 1980 Treasury bill Eugene Heggestad, #92-92512 ($10,920)
One March 1980 Treasury bill Bryan & Deis, #92-92616 (10,920),
One March 1980 Treasury bill J.A. Tremonti, Inc., #92-92493 (10,945)
One March 1980 Treasury bill J.A. Tremonti, Inc., #92-92403 (10,945)
One June 1980 Treasury bill Dale H. Meyer, #92-92346 (1,795)
One June 1980 Treasury bill Buestad Trading Co., #92-92555 (6,970)

Heggestad held a 50-percent ownership interest in the Buestad Trading Co. account. As to the other accounts listed, other than for the Dale H. Meyer account, they were owned by persons with whom Heggestad in 1979 and 1980 had held joint investment accounts. Eugene Heggestad is Heggestad’s brother. Wilson Bryan and Jack Tremonti, in 1979 and 1980, were also investment partners of Heg-gestad’s on certain other accounts.

Another $32,865 portion of Heggestad’s $129,544 1980 loss, relates to seven June 1980 Treasury bill futures contracts which he had purchased on February 14, 1980. These seven Treasury bill contracts were part of a larger purchase which Heggestad made that day through one of his solely owned personal accounts. On March 3, 1980, he incurred a $32,865 loss in selling the seven contracts.

Cross Country Commodities Returns and Petitioners’ Individual Returns

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Related

Rollins v. Commissioner
1993 T.C. Memo. 643 (U.S. Tax Court, 1993)
Shotts v. Commissioner
1990 T.C. Memo. 641 (U.S. Tax Court, 1990)
Laureys v. Commissioner
92 T.C. No. 8 (U.S. Tax Court, 1989)
Heggestad v. Commissioner
91 T.C. No. 50 (U.S. Tax Court, 1988)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
91 T.C. No. 50, 91 T.C. 778, 1988 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 132, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/heggestad-v-commissioner-tax-1988.