Pacella v. Commissioner

78 T.C. No. 42, 78 T.C. 604, 1982 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 111
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedApril 14, 1982
DocketDocket No. 11372-77
StatusPublished
Cited by38 cases

This text of 78 T.C. No. 42 (Pacella 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
Pacella v. Commissioner, 78 T.C. No. 42, 78 T.C. 604, 1982 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 111 (tax 1982).

Opinion

Nims, Judge:

Respondent determined deficiencies in petitioners’ Federal income taxes for the years 1971, 1972, and 1973, in the amounts of $17,980.80, $7,362.38, and $8,960.67, respectively. As a result of various concessions, the sole issue for decision is whether income attributable to petitioner Bernard L. Pacella’s medical practice is taxable to him instead of his wholly owned professional corporation.

FINDINGS OF FACT

Some of the facts have been stipulated. The stipulation and the exhibits attached thereto are so found and incorporated herein by reference.

At the time the petition in this case was filed, petitioners resided in New York City. Theresa Pacella is a petitioner by virtue of having filed a joint return with her husband, Bernard, who for convenience is hereinafter referred to as petitioner or Dr. Pacella.

Petitioner is a prominent New York physician who has specialized in psychiatry, psychoanalysis, and neurology since 1948.

During the years at issue, petitioner was engaged in numerous activities. In addition to conducting a substantial private medical practice, he was: Director of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Roosevelt Hospital in New York; sole proprietor of Regent Hospital, a small New York private psychiatric hospital for treatment of mental illness, drug addiction, and alcoholism; a consultant to the New York City Transit Authority; and a consultant to Columbia-Presbyterian, St. Luke’s, St. Joseph’s, St. Clare’s, and St. John’s Hospitals, all in New York City. (He received no compensation for his services as a consultant to these last-named hospitals.)

Regent Hospital employed between 18 and 25 employees during the years in question. It kept its books on the accrual method of accounting and petitioners reported its earnings on a separate Schedule C of Form 1040 during the years at issue. Petitioners otherwise reported their income on the cash receipts and disbursements method of accounting.

The day-to-day management of Regent Hospital during the period 1968 to 1973 was entrusted to Noelle Corish, the hospital administrator. Dr. Hyland Flowers was medical director of the hospital, but retired from that post in early 1971; he was succeeded at that job by Dr. Joseph Doltolo. Prior to January 1971, Dr. Pacella was also extensively involved in the administration and management of Regent Hospital.

The building in which Regent Hospital was located and in which, on another floor, Dr. Pacella conducted his private practice, was owned by a cooperative corporation. Until September 30, 1971, Dr. Pacella owned the shares of stock which related to the space occupied by Regent Hospital as well as the space occupied by his private practice.

Other members of the petitioner’s family were heavily involved with psychiatry. In 1970, his daughter, Karen, was a physician and a resident in the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Her fiance, later her husband, was then chief resident of the same institute. Dr. Pacella’s youngest son, then in secondary school, had expressed an interest in following in his father’s footsteps by becoming a psychiatrist and, at the time of the trial of this case, was a student at Harvard Medical School.

In 1970, Dr. Pacella consulted his attorney, Everett Frolich, about the advisability of creating a professional corporation. Dr. Pacella believed that operating his private practice as a professional corporation would facilitate the transfer of part of that practice to his children when and if they should enter the business. He was also aware that tax advantages were expected to inhere in a professional corporation.

Bernard Pacella, M.D., P.C. (hereinafter the P.C.) was incorporated on October 21, 1970, pursuant to article 15 of the New York Business Corporation Law, as a professional service corporation. The certificate of incorporation of the P.C. was filed with the New York Department of State, Division of Corporations and State Records on that date. On October 27, 1970, a certified copy of the certificate of incorporation was filed with the New York Supervisor of Professional Licensing.

Article Third of the certificate of incorporation indicated that Dr. Pacella was to be the sole original shareholder, director, and officer of the P.C. Article Fifth provided the P.C. with authority to issue 100 shares with no par value.

On November 25, 1970, the first shareholder meeting of the P.C. was held at which corporate bylaws were adopted. At a board of directors meeting that same day, a corporate seal was also adopted.

On November 25, 1970, an employment contract was entered into between Dr. Pacella, in his individual capacity, and the P.C. The original of such contract was lost when petitioner changed attorneys, but a carbon duplicate of the contract, lacking many key numerical entries, still survives. Under this contract, Dr. Pacella was to be employed for a 3-year period commencing on an undeterminable date (this entry is missing). The contract further provided:

2. Duties of Employee
Employee shall devote substantially all his time and attention to the practice of medicine on behalf of Employer. Employee shall also be permitted to spend reasonable periods of time for other activities, except the practice of medicine, including but not limited to, teaching, personal or outside business and charitable activities, without such activities being deemed a breach of this Agreement.

Dr. Pacella was to be paid a fixed monthly salary plus an annual bonus based on a percentage of the P.C.’s net profits (the exact numbers here are also missing).

The contract further provided for the termination of Dr. Pacella’s employment should he cease to be authorized to practice medicine in New York, become a "disqualified person” pursuant to section 1509 of the New York Business Corporation Law, or die.

Finally, the contract provided for Dr. Pacella to be reimbursed for various business-related expenses and obligated the doctor to reimburse the corporation for any compensation he received from the P.C. for which the P.C. was prohibited, by a competent court, from taking a tax deduction.

When Dr. Pacella changed attorneys, at some point the absence of the original employment contract was discovered and a new employment contract similar to the prior contract was prepared. This new contract was a form contract usable for any professional corporation. Most, but not all, of the blank spaces on this new form contract were filled in. The contract was signed by Dr. Pacella in several places and at several different times; however, two important types of entries on the contract were, at the direction of his new attorneys, left blank: the dates of the contract and the amount of salary to be paid Dr. Pacella in each year of the contract. Ultimately, the contract was dated as effective September 15, 1972, and various signatures of Dr. Pacella were dated September 15, 1972, September 15, 1973, and September 15, 1974, together with salary figures of $31,000, $32,000, and $37,000, for each of those years respectively. These dates and salary figures were inserted by an unknown hand.

On December 1,1970, Dr.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
78 T.C. No. 42, 78 T.C. 604, 1982 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 111, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pacella-v-commissioner-tax-1982.