Lloyd-Smith v. Commissioner

40 B.T.A. 214
CourtUnited States Board of Tax Appeals
DecidedJune 30, 1939
DocketDocket No. 83575
StatusPublished

This text of 40 B.T.A. 214 (Lloyd-Smith v. Commissioner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Board of Tax Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lloyd-Smith v. Commissioner, 40 B.T.A. 214 (bta 1939).

Opinion

[220]*220OPINION.

Leech :

The contested right to deduct the sum of $6,969.92 depends here on whether petitioner was engaged in “carrying on any trade [221]*221or business” during 1933, and, if so engaged, whether this amount constituted “ordinary and necessary expenses” of that business. Revenue Act of 1932, sec. 23 (a).

Respondent argues that petitioner was not carrying on any business during 1933 and that the questioned deductions represented personal and not business expenses, and were, therefore, not deductible. Sec. 24 (a) of the same revenue act.

Business, as that term is used in this section of the revenue act, has been broadly defined as “That which occupies the time, attention, and labor of men for the purpose of a livelihood or profit.” Flint v. Stone Tracy Co., 220 U. S. 107. See also St. Louis Union Trust Co. et al., Trustees, 40 B. T. A. 165. But “It is not necessary that one occupy a full day each day in carrying on one’s activity to be considered to be regularly engaged in business. It is continuity of efforts devoted to the undertaking which constitutes a business regularly carried on,” S. Rose Lloyd, 32 B. T. A. 887. Moreover, a business can be carried on, within the statute, by the taxpayer, through agents under his ultimate direction. Kales v. Commissioner, 101 Fed. (2d) 35; Cornelia W. Roebling, 37 B. T. A. 82; Austin D. Barney et al., Executors, 36 B. T. A. 446; Fremont G. Peck, 34 B. T. A. 402.

Respondent breaks petitioner’s activities down and contends that no one of them alone constitutes the carrying on of a business. Thus it is said that, although the several corporations which petitioner owned were in business, petitioner, as a stockholder, was not in that business but was a mere passive investor. It is urged likewise that, although the trusts of which petitioner was the beneficiary were in business, petitioner had no legal right to interfere in that business during 1933, since the trusts did not end until 1934. However, whether the taxpayer may be classed as a passive investor as to her investments in these wholly owned corporations and as a passive owner1 of a beneficial interest in these trusts, on the one hand, or was engaged in carrying on the business of protecting and handling what, together with other property, constituted her estate, is a question of fact. Certainly it can not be doubted that, as to her properties owned outright, the management of which she had assumed and directed throughout 1933, she was carrying on a business. It is likewise clear to us that the care and management of her investments in the gold mining corporation and the real estate company were not those of a passive investor but required and secured her active management and supervision. The bulk of her estate consisted of her interests in the two trusts. She has already been held to be entitled to depletion deductions on properties constituting the corpora of these trusts, before their termination, on the ground that she then possessed every important attribute of ownership in those properties. Lloyd-Smith v. Commissioner, 50 Fed. (2d) [222]*2221075. See also Merle-Smith v. Commissioner, 42 Fed. (2d) 837; cer-tiorari denied, 282 U. S. 897. But, whether she had a legal right to assume and manage these trusts before they expired by their terms, the controlling fact here is that, throughout 1933, she did supervise and direct the entire management of these trusts. See Stock Yards Bank of Cincinnati, 25 B. T. A. 964.

The volume of petitioner’s trading activities in respect of securities owned by her individually and through the trusts during the year 1933 satisfies us that no segregation of these activities, on the ground that they did not constitute the carrying on of business, is necessary. See L. T. Alverson, 35 B. T. A. 482; Richard D. Wyokoff, 19 B. T. A. 263; and Ignaz Schwinn, 9 B. T. A. 1304.

In short, confronted with the disturbing fact of her father’s maladministration of her affairs and those of the trusts, she was apparently convinced that only under her own supervision, with the aid of trusted employees, could her far-flung estate be properly handled and protected. To this end she set up an office in New York City (see Foss v. Commissioner, 75 Fed. (2d) 326) and centralized the management of her affairs there. She directed that management, in which she was engaged, practically daily.

The evidence is convincing that, during 1933, petitioner was engaged in carrying on the business of managing and protecting her estate. The items totaling the disputed deduction of $6,969.92 were not personal expenses, as respondent contends, because petitioner employed a private secretary in her own home, where her personal matters were handled. The expenses of that establishment she does not seek to deduct. Thus, the amount of $6,969.92 here in issue was in its entirety an ordinary and necessary business expense and is deductible as such.

The right to deduct the item of $45,003.93 presents a different problem. This amount constitutes the expenditures made by petitioner in connection with the readjustment of her liability on the Sugar Pine bond guaranty, and was the payment of the obligation of the petitioner, no part of which she could recover. But whether the payment of this amount was an ordinary and necessary expense of carrying on the business of the taxpayer, is not necessary to answer, since she was not in the guaranty business. Burnet v. Clark, 287 U. S. 410; Menihan v. Commissioner, 79 Fed. (2d) 304; certiorari denied, 296 U. S. 651.

The transaction involving this guaranty began when $4,000,000 of the trust funds were invested in the stock of the Sugar Pine Lumber Co. The petitioner became a guarantor of that company’s bonds because she had reason to believe that the company’s use of the funds thus secured would increase the value of her beneficial interest in its stock. Undoubtedly that stock then had value. But the stock had [223]*223become worthless by the close of 1932. The payments in connection with the guaranty were not made until 1933. Obviously, when petitioner thus made them, it was not with the idea of protecting or adding to her stock investment in the company. These expenditures occurred for the sole purpose of reducing her liability under the guaranty. As such, they are deductible as losses on a transaction entered into for profit. Revenue Act of 1932, sec. 23 (e) (2). John P. Dillon, 9 R. T. A. 177; Henry Adamson, 17 B. T. A. 17; George H. Stanton, 36 B. T. A. 112; Humphrey v. Commissioned, 91 Fed. (2d) 155; First National Bank, of Skowhegan, Maine, 35 B. T. A. 876; Sam Cook, 25 B. T. A. 92; W. R. Hervey, 25 B. T. A. 1282; Thomas v. United States, 18 Fed. Supp. 942. Cf. Commissioner v. Hadley, 75 Fed. (2d) 485.

The last issue involves respondent’s disallowance of a deduction for an alleged loss on the sale of the $70,000 note of the Jorwil Corporation. The petitioner contends that the exchange in which she received this note was tax-free under section 112 (b) (5) of the Revenue Act of 1932;1

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Related

Flint v. Stone Tracy Co.
220 U.S. 107 (Supreme Court, 1911)
Burnet v. Clark
287 U.S. 410 (Supreme Court, 1932)
Pinellas Ice & Cold Storage Co. v. Commissioner
287 U.S. 462 (Supreme Court, 1933)
Groman v. Commissioner
302 U.S. 82 (Supreme Court, 1937)
Helvering v. Bashford
302 U.S. 454 (Supreme Court, 1938)

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Bluebook (online)
40 B.T.A. 214, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lloyd-smith-v-commissioner-bta-1939.