Jarre v. Commissioner

64 T.C. 183, 1975 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 153
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedMay 7, 1975
DocketDocket No. 6546-73
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 64 T.C. 183 (Jarre 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
Jarre v. Commissioner, 64 T.C. 183, 1975 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 153 (tax 1975).

Opinion

Sterrett, Judge:

The respondent determined deficiencies of $28,116 and $34,028 in the Federal income taxes of petitioners for the calendar years 1967 and 1968, respectively. The sole issue1 presented requires our determination of the fair market value of certain original music manuscripts and related material contributed by petitioner Maurice Jarre to the University of Southern California in 1967 and 1968 for purposes of computing the amount of deductions for charitable contributions to which petitioners are entitled under section 170,1.R.C. 1954.2

FINDINGS OF FACT

Some of the facts have been stipulated and are so found. The stipulation of facts, together with the exhibits attached thereto, are incorporated herein by this reference.

Petitioners are husband and wife whose legal residence at the time of filing the petition was in Beverly Hills, Calif. They filed joint Federal income tax returns for the calendar years 1967 and 1968 with the District Director of Internal Revenue at Los Angeles, Calif.

Petitioner Maurice Jarre (hereinafter Jarre) is a music composer and conductor of international reputation. Jarre has been a composer and conductor for some 25 to 28 years. He began his music career in Lyons, France, and then studied in Paris at the National Conservatory Music. Jarre, along with Pierre Boulez (currently the music director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra), then became the music adviser to the newly formed Jean-Louis Barrault Theater Co. in France where he remained for 4 years. Jarre subsequently became music director and conductor for the French National Theatre in 1951, positions he held for 12 years. During this period petitioner was responsible for the music budget, composed the music for all plays, including “Macbeth,” “Oedipus,” “Antigone,” and “The Hairy Ape,” and conducted the orchestra for all plays and concerts. He also composed music for French films, radio broadcasts, a ballet, and television program.

In 1964 Jarre moved to and became a permanent resident of the United States. He has since composed music for approximately 50 American films. Some of Jarre’s scores for American films include “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Topaz,” “Ryán’s Daughter,” “Dr. Zhivago,” “Is Paris Burning?,” “Grand Prix,” “The Longest Day,” and “Night of the Generals.” Jarre generally prepares all elements, including arrangements and orchestration, of the film scores he composes and sometimes conducts the music for the sound track.

Jarre has a classical music background and has written symphonic music, ballet and opera music, and also electronic music called musique concrete. He has conducted well-known symphony orchestras in a number of foreign nations. His most publicized success, however, has come in the field of popular culture music and, more particularly, in music for film. Jarre is considered by his peers to be one of the top 10 composers of music for film in the world and he is one of the most sought after composers in the film industry.

Jarre is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) as a publisher. He is also a member in the highest rank of the Society for Authors, Composers and Publishers (SACEM) as a composer. An individual is not permitted to be a member of both organizations in the same category. Jarre has served on a number of committees and advisory groups dealing with music both in France and in the United States. There is a large number of books and magazines containing biographical material about Jarre and his career in music, of which a sampling of some 53 (American and foreign) was placed in evidence in this proceeding. In addition, a good deal of his music, both American and foreign, has been recorded.

Jarre has won two Academy Awards (for the scores for “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Dr. Zhivago”), a Golden Globe award, and he has received three other Academy Award nominations. He has also received a number of awards of comparable importance in France (such as the chevalier des Arts et Lettres), Germany, England, and Italy.

In his capacity as a composer, Jarre has created numerous original works, some of which have been contributed to the University of Southern California and the University of Wyoming after solicitation of his material by those schools. In response to requests, in 1967 and 1968 Jarre contributed certain original music manuscripts and other related material to the University of Southern California. The following property rights were not conveyed as part of the 1967 and 1968 gifts: all copyrights; rights of publication in book form; rights of serialization; magazine and newspaper rights; reprint rights; and book club rights or dramatization rights.

The 1967 and 1968 gifts include the music manuscripts and related material to some 14 of Jarre’s American films, 10 French films, 10 plays, 2 ballets, and a number of French radio and television productions and consist of over 4,000 pages. The material consists mainly of Jarre’s original and generally complete working (as opposed to finished) manuscripts of musical scores and sketches (some several hundred pages long) written in his own hand, some signed on a number of pages, and with annotations. Music notes, click track timing sheets, and cue sheets, generally annotated and sometimes completely in Jarre’s hand, and some photocopies and typescripts of scores are also included. Among the contributed scores for American films were those for “Grand Prix,” “Dr. Zhivago” (the music of which sold some 14 million tapes and records and some 1,500,000 lead sheets), “Night of the Generals,” “Behold a Pale Horse,” “Is Paris Burning?” and “Gambit.” The condition of the donated material was very good.

Prior to and including the years in issue none of Jarre’s original manuscripts or copies thereof had come on the market. Except for a few one-page fair copies of music from “Ryan’s Daughter,” “Dr. Zhivago,” and “Lawrence of Arabia” which were sold to dealers for $50 to $75 in 1974 and three one-page fair copies of music from “Dr. Zhivago,” two of which were sold to collectors for $300 and $325, respectively, in 1974 and one for $75 in 1972 none of Jarre’s work has come on the market. A fair copy is a copy in the composer’s own handwriting.

During the years in issue, Jarre retained one Milton Luboviski (hereinafter Luboviski), the proprietor of Larry Edmonds Book Shop, to appraise his donated material. Luboviski, who deals in cinema and theater material, appraised the donated material at the time of the contributions. His determinations of the fair market value of the donated material for 1967 and 1968 were $54,200 and $61,900, respectively. In 1971, Jarre retained one Charles Sachs, proprietor of the Scriptorium, to appraise his 1967 and 1968 gifts. Sachs’ appraisal found the fair market values, as of the dates of contribution, of Jarre’s materials contributed in 1967 and 1968 to be $61,996 and $35,918, respectively.

Respondent retained one Doris Harris, the proprietress of Doris Harris Autographs, to value the contributed material. In 1970 she appraised the 1967 and 1968 gifts at $5,875 and $2,775, respectively, as of the dates of contribution.

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Bluebook (online)
64 T.C. 183, 1975 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 153, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jarre-v-commissioner-tax-1975.