Kowalski v. Comm'r

65 T.C. 44, 1975 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 56
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedOctober 14, 1975
DocketDocket No. 112-73
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 65 T.C. 44 (Kowalski 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
Kowalski v. Comm'r, 65 T.C. 44, 1975 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 56 (tax 1975).

Opinions

OPINION

Petitioner’s primary position in this case is that the monthly amount he received does not constitute gross income under section 61(a). In the alternative petitioner contends that if the monthly allowance does constitute gross income, it is properly to be excluded under section 119 or, if not excludable under that section, is deductible as an ordinary and necessary business expense under section 162(a)(2).

In support of his contention that the monthly allowance is not income under section 61(a), petitioner relies primarily on the decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, to which an appeal in this case would lie, in Saunders v. Commissioner, 215 F. 2d 768 (3d Cir. 1954), revg. 21 T.C. 630 (1954), decided September 22, 1954. In fact, petitioner argues that under our holding in Jack E. Golsen, 54 T.C. 742 (1970), affd. 445 F. 2d 985 (10th Cir. 1971), cert. denied 404 U.S. 940 (1971), we are bound to follow the decision of the Third Circuit in the Saunders case.

As petitioner points out, the Third Circuit in the Saunders case concluded that cash rations payments received by New Jersey State policemen under circumstances not substantially different from those involved in the instant case were not required to be included in gross income under section 22(a), I.R.C. 1939, the predecessor section of section 61(a). In reaching this conclusion, the court considered first whether the cash payment to defray the cost of meals was furnished to State policemen by the State of New Jersey for the “convenience of the employer,” and having concluded that it was, proceeded to discuss whether it was properly excludable under the rationale of the regulations excluding from gross income quarters or meals furnished to employees for the convenience of the employer. In that case the court concluded that the “rationale of the rule should make it applicable to determine the extent of gross income either when quarters and meals are furnished in kind or cash is paid in lieu thereof.” The court pointed out that “Admittedly, the payment of cash to an employee is normally compensatory and probably more obviously so than a payment in kind,” but that “an employee may be furnished cash which is not compensation.” The court then stated, at page 772:

In the past, the Bureau has recognized that cash received by an employee for similar purposes may not be compensation: in O.D. 11,1 Cum. Bull. 66 (1919), it was held that an American Red Cross employee receiving maintenance but no pay should return as income only the excess of the amount received over his actual living expenses; and in O.D. 514, 2 Cum. Bull. 90 (1920), it was ruled that supper money furnished an employee working after regular hours and not considered as compensation was furnished for the convenience of the employer and was not taxable. Likewise, the courts have considered maintenance furnished in kind and in cash on the same basis for determining an individual’s taxable compensation. In Jones v. United States, 1925, 60 Ct. Cl. 552, it was held that neither the value of living quarters furnished^Ü>r cash in lieu of quarters paid an army officer ,Avefe income; and citing the Jones case, it was stated in Bercaw v. Commissioner, 4 Cir. 1948, 165 F. 2d 521, at page 524: “This conclusion [that payments by an army officer for meals and ‘striker’ service are not deductible for tax purposes] is inescapable when it is remembered that this officer has been paid commutation of quarters and a subsistence allowance, both of which allowances are not considered as income for the purposes of taxation.” * * *

The Saunders casé was decided under the provisions of the 1939 Code which contained no statutory exclusion from gross income for meals and lodging and was decided prior to the decisions of the Supreme Court in' Commissioner v. Glenshaw Glass Co., 348 U.S. 426 (1955), and Commissioner v.LoBue, 351 U.S. 243 (1956), which as hereinafter discussed amplified prior decisions concerning the congressional intent in defining gross income to include “all income from whatever, source derived” except as otherwise provided by statute. For these reasons, we conclude that the Saunders case is not controlling here and under our holding in the Golsen case we are not required to follow it.

In our view.the Third Circuit in Jacob v. United States, 493 F. 2d 1294, 1297 (3d Cir. 1974), has recognized the distinction in those cases involving claimed exclusion from gross income arising under the 1939 Code and the 1954 Code. In Jacob v. United . States, supra, the Third Circuit held that a doctor required to reside on the premises of an institution for mentally retarded persons to be available on a 24-hour-per-day basis was entitled to exclude under section 119 the value of groceries provided him by his employer as “meals” furnished to him. In reaching its conclusion, the court referred to “the so-called ‘state trooper’ cases,” holding cash allowances to be excludable under section 119, although it recognized that these cases were “not exactly in point.” One of the so-called “state trooper” cases cited was the Saunders case, the following footnote being made to the citation:

Saunders, supra, involved facts arising prior to 1954 when section 119 was added to the Internal Revenue Code,' but the reasoning of Saunders was followed in the above-cited post-1954 cases.

This note by the Third Circuit is a recognition that the law applicable to years governed by the 1939 Code differs from the law applicable to years governed by the 1954 Code, and that the Saunders case is not “squarely in point” with cases governed by the 1954 Code.

Section 61(a) states that “Except as otherwise provided in this subtitle, gross income means all income from whatever source derived.” The broadness of this definition has on numerous occasions been recognized by the Supreme Court. In Commissioner v. Glenshaw Glass Co., 348 U.S. 426, 429-430 (1955), the Court stated:

But Congress applied no limitations as to the source of taxable receipts, nor restrictive labels as to their nature. And the Court has given a liberal construction to this broad phraseology in recognition of the intention of Congress to tax all gains except those specifically exempted. Commissioner v. Jacobson, 336 U.S. 28, 49, [69 S. Ct. 358, 369, 93 L.Ed. 477]; Helvering v. Stockholms Enskilda Bank, 293 U.S. 84, 87-91, [55 S. Ct. 50, 51-53, 79 L.Ed. 211]. * * *

Shortly thereafter in Commissioner v. LoBue, 351 U.S. 243, 246 (1956), the Court pointed out that it had “repeatedly held that in defining ‘gross income’ as broadly as it did * * * Congress intended to ‘tax all gains except those specifically exempted.’ ”

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Kowalski v. Comm'r
65 T.C. 44 (U.S. Tax Court, 1975)

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65 T.C. 44, 1975 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 56, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kowalski-v-commr-tax-1975.