Hillman v. Comm'r

118 T.C. No. 17, 118 T.C. 323, 2002 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 18
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedApril 9, 2002
DocketNo. 19893-97
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 118 T.C. No. 17 (Hillman v. Comm'r) 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
Hillman v. Comm'r, 118 T.C. No. 17, 118 T.C. 323, 2002 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 18 (tax 2002).

Opinion

SUPPLEMENTAL OPINION

Gerber, Judge:

In an earlier Opinion filed by the Court in this case we decided that petitioners were entitled to treat management fees as offsetting self-charged items for purposes of section 469.1 The Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit disagreed and reversed our holding. Hillman v. Commissioner, 263 F.3d 338 (4th Cir. 2001), revg. 114 T.C. 103 (2000).2

Due to the reversal, we must now consider petitioners’ alternative argument concerning whether they correctly reported the management fee items. In general we consider whether petitioners’ reporting position should be sustained. Petitioners contend that the real estate activity of the pass-through entities may be segregated into separate rental and trade or business activities; i.e., passive and nonpassive.

Background 3

During 1993 and 1994 David H. Hillman (petitioner) owned 100 percent and 94.34 percent, respectively, of the stock of Southern Management Corp. (SMC). SMC, an S corporation, provided real estate management services to approximately 90 passthrough entities (including joint ventures, limited partnerships, and S corporations) that were involved in real estate rental activities (passthrough entities). Petitioner held direct and indirect interests in the pass-through entities. The general partner of each partnership is either petitioner or an upper tier partnership or S corporation in which petitioner owns an interest.

During 1993 and 1994, petitioner did not participate in the passthrough entities’ activities, but he did actively participate in SMC by performing management services that SMC had contracted to perform for the passthrough entities. Petitioner treated his involvement with SMC’s real estate management activity as a separate activity from any other activities carried on by SMC. During 1993 and 1994 petitioner materially participated in SMC’s real estate management activity in excess of 500 hours. During those same years, SMC also conducted other operations in addition to real estate management services, such as recreational services, medical insurance plan underwriting, credit/collection services, and a maintenance training academy. Petitioner did not materially participate in any of these other operations of SMC.

Petitioner reported his SMC salary as income, and SMC deducted those amounts as an expense for compensation paid to petitioner for services related to the conduct of the real estate management activity for the 1993 and 1994 taxable years. SMC separately reported management fee income (after deduction of expenses, including petitioner’s salary from SMC) on petitioners’ 1993 and 1994 Schedules K-l. The portion of the management fee paid by the passthrough entities to SMC (and allocable to petitioner’s ownership percentage in each passthrough entity) was deducted as a loss from a trade or business on either petitioner’s Schedules K-l for the 1993 and 1994 taxable years or on the Schedules K-l of upper tier passthrough entities for the 1993 and 1994 taxable years.

In computing their 1993 and 1994 taxable income, petitioners treated the proportionate ownership share of the pass-through entities’ management fee deduction as a reduction from petitioners’ gross income from activities characterized as nonpassive under section 469.

In the notice of deficiency, respondent disallowed the characterization of the management fee expense as nonpas-sive, referencing section 1.469-7, Proposed Income Tax Regs., 56 Fed. Reg. 14036 (Apr. 5, 1991), which provides that lending transactions (i.e., any transaction involving loans between persons or entities) may be treated as self-charged.

Discussion

Enacted by Congress as part of the Tax Reform Act of 1986, Pub. L. 99-514, 100 Stat. 2085, the passive activity loss rules were designed to limit a taxpayer’s ability to use deductions from one activity to offset income from another activity. In particular, under the section 469 passive activity loss rules, income generated from nonpassive activities cannot be offset by deductions generated from passive activities.4

Accordingly, to be successful here, petitioner would have to show that the management fee income received and some portion of the management fee deductions claimed by the real estate passthrough entities were both passive or nonpas-sive. Petitioners reported that the deductions (proportionate in amount to their ownership in the passthrough entities) were nonpassive and deductible from the management fee income. In order to sustain that reporting position, petitioners must show that part of the real estate pass-through entities’ deductions (expenses) were incurred in a separate trade or business rather than from the real estate activity, which is defined as passive by statute.

With that backdrop, we consider petitioners’ alternative position that the real estate entities reported two separate activities in connection with the payment of the management fees. Petitioners describe the circumstances, as follows:

In this case, the Real Estate Entities separately, and consistently, reported two K-l line items: (1) Hillman’s share of the management fee expense as “ordinary loss from trade or business”, to the extent that he received a distributive share of management fee income from SMC, and (2) a line item from rental real estate income or loss (which included the management fee expense in excess of Hillman’s distributive share).

Petitioner distinguishes himself from other partners because he was the only partner/interest holder who received substantial management fee income.5

In the notice of deficiency, respondent determined that petitioner was not entitled to “recharacterize * * * [his] share of the passive management expense of the Passthrough Entities as nonpassive so as to match it against * * * [his] share of nonpassive management income of * * * [SMC].” Respondent argues that the payment of management fees by the real estate entities cannot constitute a trade or business separate from the associated income for purposes of section 469. We agree with respondent.

In effect, petitioner’s reporting approach treated his management income and the corresponding management fee deductions as a “self-charged” item in the same manner as provided for by section 1.469-7, Proposed Income Tax Regs., 56 Fed. Reg. 14036 (Apr. 5, 1991). The Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, however, did not approve the self-charged approach for petitioner’s management fee income and expense. As an alternative to the self-charged approach, petitioners argue that the real estate entities’ management fee deductions, relative to SMC’s nonpassive management income, are a part of a separate trade or business of the real estate entities. It should be noted that the management fee deduction, as it related to taxpayers other than petitioner (partners and interest holders in the same pass-through entities), was treated as part of the passive income regime.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Charles Brumbaugh & C. E. Holifield v. Commissioner
2018 T.C. Memo. 40 (U.S. Tax Court, 2018)
Shah v. Comm'r
2015 T.C. Memo. 31 (U.S. Tax Court, 2015)
Williams v. Comm'r
2014 T.C. Memo. 158 (U.S. Tax Court, 2014)
Bush v. United States
84 Fed. Cl. 90 (Federal Claims, 2008)
David H. and Suzanne Hillman v. Commissioner
118 T.C. No. 17 (U.S. Tax Court, 2002)
Hillman v. Comm'r
118 T.C. No. 17 (U.S. Tax Court, 2002)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
118 T.C. No. 17, 118 T.C. 323, 2002 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 18, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hillman-v-commr-tax-2002.