Nubar v. Commissioner

13 T.C. 566, 1949 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 62
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedOctober 18, 1949
DocketDocket No. 9948
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 13 T.C. 566 (Nubar 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
Nubar v. Commissioner, 13 T.C. 566, 1949 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 62 (tax 1949).

Opinion

OPINION.

HarRon, Judge-.

The questions for decision are (1) whether or not petitioner was a resident alien during the periods in question, and (2) whether or not he was engaged in a trade or business in the United States during the periods in question, so as to be taxable on capital gains and on income from sources outside the United States.

Petitioner contends that he was a nonresident alien within the meaning of section 211 (a) of the Internal Revenue Code,1 tnat he was not engaged in any business in the United States during the taxable years 1941 through 1944 inclusive, and that, therefore, he is not taxable on the capital gains which he realized from the transactions which were carried on in the United States in the security and commodity futures markets through brokerage accounts.

The respondent has determined that the petitioner was a resident alien during the taxable years and, therefore, that he is taxable on all his net income including capital gains from all sources. Respondent also contends that the petitioner was engaged in a trade or business in the United States and is, therefore, taxable on all his income from sources within the United States.

Whether or not a person is a “resident” of a country is a question to be determined by all of the facts and circumstances present in each individual case. See J. P. Schumacher, 32 B. T. A. 1242. The intention of an individual is a highly important factor. See Beale, Conflict of Laws, vol. 1, p. 109, sec. 10.3, where the following is stated:

* * * The difference between three conceptions, that of sojourn, residence, and domicil (not now including domicil by operation of law) is one purely of intention. To become a sojourner, no intention whatever is necessary, merely the fact of personal existence in the place. For residence there is an intention to live in the place for the time being. For the establishment of domicil the intention must be not merely to live in the place but to make a home there. * * * A residence may continue to exist in spite of a temporary absence from it, although the absence may be long continued. A mere temporary sojourn in the state cannot be taken to be residence. If a man is sojourning in a place, he becomes a resident thereof at the moment of his intending to become a resident, in the same way that a resident becomes domiciled at the moment of forming an intention to fix a home in the place. * * *

The meaning of the term “residence” in statutes has been the subject of much interpretation. With respect to its meaning in revenue laws, the following observation is made by Beale, supra, p. 111, sec. 10.4, quoting from Barhydt v. Gross, 136 N. W. 525:

* * * This consideration requires that a man should have a residence somewhere, but that he should have one residence only, since otherwise he would bear a double burden. “Courts endeavor to construe revenue laws so that each one will share his just burden of taxation; and he should pay his taxes somewhere. Hence it is the universal rule, in construing revenue statutes, that, as a man must have a domicile or taxing residence somewhere, his old residence will be deemed his present one until a new one is acquired. If this were not the rule, a man might escape taxation altogether.” It is therefore very generally agreed that the words “resident” or “inhabitant,” in statutes referring to taxation, are synonymous with the legal term “domiciled”; and that a man must pay his taxes as a “resident” at his place of domicil * * *.

The pertinent provisions of the statute, sections 211 (a) and (b), refer to “nonresident” aliens, but the term “nonresident” in the above statutory provisions has been construed to apply to those who are physically present in the United States as. well as to those who are not. See Florica Constantinescu, 11 T. C. 87, 42, where we said:

* * * Of course, during all of the time in question she was physically present in the United States, but mere physical presence in a foreign country, even though it is considerably prolonged, is not of itself sufficient to establish lesidence. Cf. Michael Downs, 7 T. C. 1058; affd., 166 Fed. (2d) 504; certiorari denied, 334 U. S. 832; Arthur J. E. Johnson, 7 T. C. 1040.

Upon consideration of all of the evidence in this proceeding and careful scrutiny of all of the facts and circumstances, it has been found as a fact that the petitioner was a nonresident alien during the taxable years in question, 1941 through 1944.

The petitioner’s testimony and that of his witnesses are that the petitioner’s intention in coming to the United States was to see the New York World’s Fair, to speak with Dr. Einstein, and to travel, first in the United States and then in Central and South America. There is considerable evidence in this proceeding which corroborates the petitioner’s testimony that his intent was to be a sojourner, or visitor, in the United States rather than a resident. For example, the petitioner came to the United States with no other possessions than the minimum amount of clothing (“he traveled light”), and his living arrangements in a hotel were that of a transient. His family was in Europe, all of his household goods were there in a residence which he maintained and intended to maintain during his entire absence, and all of his personal possessions were in Europe. He had a home in Switzerland, to which he could return. He expressed the intention to various officials, friends, and immigration authorities that he desired to return to Europe to his family as soon as it was possible to do so. The petitioner carried out his intentions with respect to his visit to the United States, as set forth above. He traveled across the United States, visiting many places and endeavored to continue his journey into Mexico, but was unable to do so. War conditions frustrated his efforts to fully carry out his plans to travel in the western hemisphere. Almost all of the affirmative acts of the petitioner confirm his testimony that he did not intend to become a resident of the United States.

It is true that the petitioner remained in the United States after the expiration of extensions of his visitors’ permit, and that he was arrested as a violator of the immigration laws on January 15, 1941. However, the fact that he was allowed to remain in the United States from the time of his arrest on January 15,1941, until the date of his voluntary departure on August 15, 1945, by the immigration officials shows that war time conditions made his return to either France or Switzerland or Egypt either impossible or hazardous. Otherwise, since he was in the custody of the immigration officials, released upon his bond only, they would have executed their duties by either forcible deportation or by refusing to allow him to remain longer, and then to depart voluntarily. Under these circumstances, and upon consideration of the evidence, we are satisfied with the petitioner’s testimony that he remained in the United States after January 15,1941, because of the obstacles which war time conditions put in the way of his leaving this country and going to another one into which he could be admitted. Therefore, it has been found as a fact that the petitioner was a nonresident alien during the taxable years.

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Nubar v. Commissioner
13 T.C. 566 (U.S. Tax Court, 1949)

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Bluebook (online)
13 T.C. 566, 1949 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 62, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nubar-v-commissioner-tax-1949.