Marlin v. Commissioner

54 T.C. 560, 1970 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 186
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedMarch 23, 1970
DocketDocket No. 3817-69SC
StatusPublished
Cited by44 cases

This text of 54 T.C. 560 (Marlin 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
Marlin v. Commissioner, 54 T.C. 560, 1970 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 186 (tax 1970).

Opinion

OPINION

The expenditures for travel incurred by petitioners are deductible under section 162 (a) if they constitute ordinary and necessary business expenses. Section 1.162-5, Income Tax Kegs., governing the deducti-bility of a taxpayer’s educational expenditures which were in force during the year 1966 were promulgated by T.D. 6291, filed April 3, 1958. In 1967, respondent revised section 1.162-5. See T.D. 6918, filed May 1, 1967. The new regulations are effective for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 1968, but for prior years taxpayers may rely alternatively on either the 1958 or the 1967 regulations. Kev. Rul. 68-191, 1968-1 C.B. 67. Burke W. Bradley, Jr., 5-1 T.C. 216 (1970); Ronald F. Weiszmann, 52 T.C. 1106, 1108 (1969); James A. Carroll, 51 T.C. 213, 219 (1968), affd. 418 F. 2d 91 (C.A. 7, 1969).

The 1958 regulations provided, in pertinent part, as follows:

Sec. 1.162-5 Expenses for education.
(a) Expenditures made by a taxpayer for bis education are deductible if they are for education (including research activities) undertaken primarily for the purpose of:
(1) Maintaining or improving skills required by the taxpayer in bis employment or other trade or business, or
(2) Meeting the express requirements of a taxpayer’s employer, or the requirements of applicable law or regulations, imposed as a condition to the retention by the taxpayer of bis salary, status or employment.
Whether or not education is of the type referred to in subparagraph (1) of this paragraph shall be determined upon the basis of all the facts of each case. * * *
*******
(c) In general, a taxpayer’s expenditures for travel (including travel while on sabbatical leave) as a form of education shall be considered as primarily personal in nature and therefore not deductible.
(d) If a taxpayer travels away from home primarily to obtain education the expenses of which are deductible under this section, his expenditures for travel, meals, and lodging while away from home are deductible. However, if as an incident of such trip the taxpayer engages in some personal activity such as sightseeing, social visiting or entertaining, or other recreation, the portion of the expenses attributable to such personal activity constitutes nondeductible personal or living expenses and is not allowable as a deduction. If the taxpayer’s travel away from home is primarily personal, the taxpayer’s expenditures for travel, meals, and lodging (other than meals and lodging during the time spent in participating in deductible educational pursuits) are not deductible. Whether a particular trip is primarily personal or primarily to obtain education the expenses of which are deductible under this section depends upon all the facts and circumstances of each ease. An important factor to be taken into consideration in making the determination is the relative amount of time devoted to personal activity as compared with the time devoted to educational pursuits. Expenses in the nature of commuters’ fares are not deductible.

Paragraph (c) of section 1.162-5, Income Tax Regs. (1958), recognizes that travel may be educational but, as a general rule, the deducti-bility of such expenses is nevertheless denied. The Internal Revenue Service, however, in Rev. Rui. 64-176,1964-1 C.B. (Part 1) 87, adopts a more liberal rule with respect to travel by teachers on sabbatical leave. That ruling expressly makes section 1.162-5 (c) inapplicable to such travel “to the extent that * ⅜ * [it] meets the tests for deducti-bility of educational expenses prescribed in sections 1.162-5 (a) and (d).” Although Rev. Rui. 64-176 pertains only to sabbatical leave travel, its rationale has been extended to include all educational travel by teachers. Cross v. United States, 250 F. Supp. 609, 613 (S.D.N.Y.1966), on remand from 336 F. 2d 431 (C.A. 2, 1964), which had reversed 222 F. Supp. 157 (S.D. 1ST.Y. 1963).2 It appears to us that section 1.162-5 (c) has been administratively and judicially rescinded with respect to educational travel by teachers.

The deductibility of educational travel expenses under the 1958 regulations generally depends on whether or not the travel was undertaken 'primarily to maintain or improve skills required of the taxpayer in his employment. In other words, the taxpayer, to satisfy the requirements of the 1958 version of the regulations, must establish (1) that the primary purpose of the travel was to maintain or improve required skills, and (2) that the travel was of such a nature as to maintain or improve such skills.

Section 1.162-5 of the 1967 regulations, pertaining to travel as a form of education, provides:

(d) Travel as a form of education. Subject to tbe provisions of paragraph (b) and (e) of this section, expenditures for travel (including travel while on sabbatical leave) as a form of education are deductible only to the extent such expenditures are attributable to a period of travel that is directly related to the duties of the individual in his employment or other trade or business. Eor this purpose, a period of travel shall be considered directly related to the duties of an individual in his employment or other trade or business only if the major portion of the activities during such period is of a nature which directly maintains or improves skills required by the individual in such employment or other trade or business. The approval of a travel program by an employer or the fact that travel is accepted by an employer in the fulfillment of its requirements for retention of rate of compensation, status or employment, is not determinative that the required relationship exists between the travel involved and the duties of the individual in his particular position.
(e) Travel away from home. (1) * * * The rules set forth in this paragraph are subject to the provisions of section 162(a) (2), relating to deductibility of certain traveling expenses, and section 274(e) and (d), relating to allocation of certain foreign travel expenses and substantiation required, respectively, and the regulations thereunder.

It is clear from its language that section 1.162-5 (d) of the new regulations does nothing more than adopt substantially the same judicially developed test that was applied under the old regulations but toithout the primary purpose requirement. Respondent’s counsel, relying on Leo J. Boy, T. C. Memo. 1969-115, seems to argue that the primary-purpose requirement is still applicable under the new regulations. Although the Boy case was decided in 1969, the taxpayers therein elected to base their claim for deduction on the regulations in force in 1964, i.e., the 1958 regulations. Those regulations required the taxpayer to establish that the primary purpose of the travel was to maintain or improve his skills. This is not the situation under the objective test of the new regulations since primary purpose is no longer germane. For this reason we think respondent’s reliance on Leo J. Roy, supra, and Gross v. United States, supra, is misplaced. Section 1.162-5 (d), Income Tax Regs.

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Bluebook (online)
54 T.C. 560, 1970 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 186, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/marlin-v-commissioner-tax-1970.