Moore v. Commissioner
This text of 13 T.C.M. 65 (Moore 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.
Opinion
*311 Dependency deductions for five minor children disallowed as to 1947 and 1948 but allowed for 1949 since petitioner contributed more than half of the support of the children in that year.
Memorandum Findings of Fact and Opinion
Respondent determined deficiencies in the income taxes of petitioner for the years 1947, 1948 and 1949 in the amounts of $445, $425 and $478, respectively. The correctness of respondent's action in disallowing dependency deductions for five minor children claimed by petitioner in each of the years in question is the only issue for decision.
Findings of Fact
The petitioner is an individual residing in Danville, Virginia. Throughout the period in question, he was employed at the Danville Post Office as a postal clerk. His income tax returns for the years 1947, 1948 and 1949 were filed with the collector of internal revenue for the district of Virginia. In each of those years he claimed as dependents for income tax purposes his five youngest children.
Prior to July 30, 1945, the petitioner and Dora Soyars Moore*312 were husband and wife. On complaint of Dora S. Moore, the corporation court of the City of Danville, Virginia, on July 30, 1945, granted a divorce to the petitioner and Dora S. Moore, ordering the petitioner to pay $100 per month for the support of their seven minor children. On July 28, 1948, the aforesaid court ordered the petitioner to increase the payments to $130 per month beginning August 1, 1948.
The petitioner and Dora S. Moore had ten children. The five youngest children, ranging in age from 6 to 14 years in 1947, lived with their mother throughout the years in issue. In addition, the older children frequently visited their mother's home for short periods, eating and sleeping there.
During the years 1947, 1948 and 1949, petitioner, in accordance with the aforementioned decrees, paid $1,200, $1,350 and $1,560, respectively, to Dora S. Moore. During each of these years, he gave to the minor children an additional sum of $156 by way of small amounts of spending money. He also carried hospitalization insurance on the children at a cost of $1.98 per month.
The total expenditures made by the petitioner for the support of the five children were as follows:
| 1947 | 1948 | 1949 |
| $1,379.76 | $1,529.76 | $1,739.76 |
*313 In each of the years in question, expenditures for the exclusive benefit of the five youngest children were as follows:
| Clothing | $ 400.00 |
| Laundry and drycleaning | 364.00 |
| Spending money and hospitalization | |
| paid by petitioner | 179.76 |
| School lunches | 100.00 |
| Extra milk | 65.70 |
| School supplies | 30.00 |
| Medical expense paid by Dora Moore | |
| 20.00 | |
| Total | $1,159.46 |
The following amounts were spent in maintaining Dora Moore's household:
| 1947 | 1948 | 1949 | |
| Food | $2,132.00 | $2,132.00 | $2,132.00 |
| Rent | 192.00 | 367.00 | 402.00 |
| Water, gas, electricity | 58.24 | 136.45 | 141.83 |
| Kerosene for heating and cooking | 87.60 | 87.60 | 87.60 |
| Part-time maid | 78.00 | 78.00 | 78.00 |
| Ice | 54.60 | 54.60 | 54.60 |
| Telephone | 42.00 | 42.00 | 42.00 |
| Total | $2,644.44 | $2,897.65 | $2,938.03 |
Of these expenditures, the following amounts are attributable to the support of the five youngest children: