Lewis v. Commissioner

560 F.2d 973
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 13, 1977
DocketNos. 75-1545, 75-1643 and 75-1644
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 560 F.2d 973 (Lewis v. Commissioner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lewis v. Commissioner, 560 F.2d 973 (9th Cir. 1977).

Opinion

GOODWIN, Circuit Judge:

The Commissioner of Internal Revenue appeals from a judgment of the tax court allowing the taxpayer to deduct certain home maintenance and depreciation expenses.1

The facts are not in dispute. The taxpayer, Milton Lewis,2 was executive vice president and later president of the Ralph M. Parsons Company (the Company), a worldwide engineering and construction firm with offices in Los Angeles, London, Bombay, New York, Paris, Frankfurt, and Liege. When the taxpayer joined the Company in 1949, he and Ralph Parsons (the sole shareholder of the Company) formulated a policy to try, to the greatest extent possible, to limit its work to negotiated, rather than bid, contracts. The Company policy required cordial working relationships with clients. To that end, the Company chose to entertain clients and prospective clients in a personal residence, rather than at restaurants and clubs. At the request of Parsons, the taxpayer’s home was used for this entertaining from the time he joined the Company in 1949.

Until 1955, the taxpayer deducted on his tax return the entire cost of maintenance and depreciation for his home. The Internal Revenue Service administratively determined in 1955 that the taxpayer could deduct only 60% of those costs. The Company agreed to reimburse the taxpayer for 60% of the maintenance and depreciation costs of his home, and the taxpayer agreed to make his home available for Company entertaining. This agreement has been in force during the relevant tax years.

The Company became a major competitor in its field, and its gross revenues grew from $3,499,000 in 1950 to $230,159,000 in 1966. Company officials attributed this growth to the Company’s ability to obtain negotiated rather than bid contracts, and the officials considered the Company’s home entertainment policy essential in developing the client relationships that lead to negotiated contracts.

In 1963, the taxpayer was living in a penthouse apartment. During one of the Company parties, the apartment became overcrowded, and Parsons suggested that the taxpayer move to a house that could better accommodate the Company’s entertainment policy. Parsons selected the site for the new house. The Company performed engineering studies and designed the house. The Company lent the taxpayer $300,000 with which to build it. The Company has prepared an 85-page operating manual for the lighting, heating, sound and other household systems. The house can seat 100 persons for dinner. The Company furnished maps to help clients find the house. The total cost of the house and its contents was $655,432. The taxpayer would not have a house this large were it not for the Company’s entertainment policy. The taxpayer did not own any stock in the Company, nor did he own options to purchase the Company’s stock during the tax years in issue.

The taxpayer and his secretary kept calendars which showed the use of the house [976]*976for business entertaining. These calendars were admittedly incomplete. They showed only the dates on which the house was used and the names of the guests or the company for whom they worked. On any particular occasion the taxpayer might entertain both business and personal friends. The number of occasions when business guests were entertained at the house ranged from 24 to 35 per year.3 Entertainment usually consisted of cocktails and dinner, through sometimes no dinner was served. The taxpayer hosted two parties for Company personnel each year. On his birthday he also gave parties which were attended by Company officers. The house was “available” to other Company officers for entertaining business clients, but the record is not clear on the volume of this type of entertainment.

Each year the taxpayer’s accountant prepared a report of expenses to be submitted to the Company. An expense statement was prepared by the taxpayer’s secretary, which was then submitted to the Company’s treasurer. The treasurer went over the statement and discussed it with Parsons, and in due course the taxpayer received a check. The taxpayer had no authority to issue these checks to himself.

The Company reimbursed taxpayer for all his out-of-pocket entertainment costs (food, liquor, extra help, and the like). These items are not in issue here. The check for the 60% of the maintenance and depreciation expenses was issued for the preceding year. Because these expenses increased every year, the taxpayer, who is on a cash basis, claimed in his tax returns a deduction for the amount by which 60% of the maintenance and depreciation in any one year exceeded the reimbursement paid by the Company for the preceding year.4

The Commissioner challenged the taxpayer’s returns for the tax years 1963-67 on the grounds that these deductions were improper. The Tax Court found for the taxpayer, and the Commissioner appeáls.

Ordinarily, a taxpayer may not deduct the expense of maintaining a home. (Int.Rev.Code § 262). On the peculiar facts of this case, however, the tax court found that a portion of the expense of maintaining this home was deductible as an ordinary and necessary business expense under Int. Rev.Code § 162(a). Given the fact that the house was built at the Company’s request and to its specifications, that the Company had a longstanding policy of home entertaining, and that the Company in fact used the home for business entertaining, the tax court’s finding on this preliminary issue was correct.

The finding that the house was used for business purposes does not mean, however, that the taxpayer is entitled to deduct the full amount claimed. The house was also used as the taxpayer’s residence, and, as noted, the expenses of maintaining a residence are not deductible, Int.Rev.Code § 262. Since § 162(a) requires that an expense be paid or incurred in the taxpayer’s trade or business, the taxpayer here must make an allocation between his deductible business use and his nondeductible personal use. The taxpayer is also required to prove that his allocation is correct, if the Commissioner challenges it; and the taxpayer bears the burden of proving entitlement to all deductions. Rockwell v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 512 F.2d 882, 886 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 1015, 96 S.Ct. 448, 46 L.Ed.2d 386 (1975). We hold that the taxpayer has not met this burden.

[977]*977The tax court accepted more or less without question the taxpayer’s allocation of 60% business usage. This figure was based upon the taxpayer’s reimbursement agreement with the Company, negotiated in 1955. The taxpayer has not recently attempted to justify this allocation, either to the tax court or to the Company, on the basis of annual usage. The taxpayer maintains that 60% is an appropriate figure because: (1) he negotiated the 60% figure with local revenue agents for a different dwelling in 1955, and (2) the house is always available for the employer’s use, whatever the actual business usage may be.

We do not believe either argument provides an appropriate standard for this allocation. An' agent’s concession for one tax year does not bind the government for future years. Handelman v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue,

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Bluebook (online)
560 F.2d 973, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lewis-v-commissioner-ca9-1977.