Parker v. Commissioner

31 B.T.A. 644, 1934 BTA LEXIS 1052
United States Board of Tax Appeals·Decided November 21, 1934·No. Docket No. 58604.·Published·Cited by 11 cases

Opinion

[653]*653OPINION.

Sea well :

(1) The first error assigned is that the respondent failed to allow the decedent to carry forward and deduct from 1928 income an alleged net loss of $55,231.83 sustained by the decedent in his business in 1927.

It is not disputed that in 1927 and prior years (1920-1927, inclusive) the decedent, George D. Parker, advanced to the Parker Lumber & Box Co. $192,843.34, which amount in 1927 he wrote off his books as a worthless or bad debt and claimed the same as a deduction in his return for the year 1927, which was allowed by the respondent. It is alleged in the amended petition that this charge-off resulted “ in a net loss for the year 1927 which the respondent has erroneously and illegally failed to allow as a deduction from 1928 income in accordance with the provisions of section 117 of the Revenue Act of 1928.”

The respondent admits that the decedent sustained a loss in 1927 as stated, but he insists the decedent is not, in the circumstances of the instant case, entitled to have same carried forward and deducted as a net loss in the computation of his tax liability for 1928 as claimed by petitioner. The respondent contends that the loaning or advancing of $192,843.34 to the Parker Lumber & Box Co. did not, under the circumstances shown, constitute the operation of a trade or business regularly carried on by decedent, and, such being true, no net loss for 1927, within the meaning of the Revenue Act of 1928, section 117 or any of its subsections, resulted, as petitioner insists.

In behalf of the petitioner it is argued that the large advances made by the decedent to the Parker Lumber & Box Co. over a [654]*654period of years were not merely isolated or occasional transactions, but were so numerous, constant, and closely connected with his own private and individual business as to constitute such a part of his trade or business. We, however, think differently and are of the opinion and hold that on this issue the decision in Burnet v. Ciarle, 287 U. S. 410, is controlling, and that the loaning or advancing of money by the decedent Parker to the Parker Lumber & Box Co., which occasioned or resulted in the loss of $192,843.34 to Parker, under the circumstances disclosed by the record, did not, within the meaning of the Revenue Act of 1928, constitute the operation by the decedent of a trade or business regularly carried on. See also Joseph Cavedon, 30 B. T. A. 364. Cf. Ames v. Commissioner, 68 Fed. (2d) 301; certiorari denied, 292 U. S. 635.

Notwithstanding the allegations in the amended petition as to the loss and charge-off on his books in 1927 of the $192,843.34 by the decedent and a bad debt deduction taken therefor in his 1927 return and allowed by the respondent, on brief in behalf of the petitioner it is argued that the facts show the losses on the aforesaid advancements to the Parker Lumber & Box Co. were sustained during 1928 and should be allowed as deductions in that year. That such were not so allowed by the respondent is not, however, assigned as error. In the light of the facts shown by the record, we are of the opinion and hold, as heretofore indicated, that in dealing with the alleged loss by the decedent of $192,843.34 the respondent did not commit error and his action in refusing to allow the alleged net loss of $55,231.83, or any part thereof, to be carried forward as a deduction from 1928 income, is approved.

(2) The second assignment of error is based on the fact of the failure of the respondent to recognize George D. Parker Co. for the years 1928 and 1929 as a five-party partnership, the respondent continuing, as in prior years, to deal with it as a two-party partnership, in which George D. Parker had a two-thirds interest and C. E. Brown a one-third interest.

Having, in the heretofore-mentioned consolidated cases, held that George D. Parker Co. was a five-party partnership and the record showing that the same during the years now in issue was in process of liquidation and that the increase by respondent of decedent’s net taxable income from the partnership in said years was due to considering and computing Parker’s partnership interest as being two thirds instead of one fourth, as it really was under the five-party partnership agreement, we are of the opinion and hold that the respondent erred as alleged in the second assignment of error and his determinations increasing the decedent’s net taxable income from the partnership in the amounts of $1,402.09 and $1,204.90 for the years 1928 and 1929, respectively, are disapproved.

[655]*655(3) With respect to the third assignment of error, the record shows that George D. Parker considered the aforesaid cost of his stock in the Parker Lumber & Box Co. plus certain other items (consisting of certain oil stock, abandoned oil lease, etc.), aggregating $67,426.68, as a total loss in 1928 and in his return for that year treated the property on which loss was asserted as community property, deducting as a loss on “ worthless stocks and oil leases ” one half of the total cost thereof, or the amount of $33,713.34.

It is insisted by the respondent that such stock became worthless prior to 1928, to wit, in 1927, and at that time must have been so known to the decedent.

It has been shown that the decedent claimed and was allowed a loss of $192,843.34 in 1927, that amount representing unpaid and unsecured advances made by the decedent to the Parker Lumber & Box Co. The record shows that the decedent purchased in October 1927, at the sheriif’s sale, under judgment he obtained upon foreclosure of the aforesaid mortgages on the company’s property, substantially all the corporate assets, which in the amended petition are alleged to have been of a fair market value of not exceeding $100,000. Under such circumstances, taken in connection with other facts shown in the record, it appears to us that it must have been apparent to the decedent Parker at the time of the sale by the sheriff that the equity of redemption in the property, having a value of only $100,000, which was sold and bid in to satisfy a judgment of $240,375.76, was worth nothing and that there was no basis for a reasonable belief that he would ever realize anything on his stock; that it was then evident that his stock was as worthless as his claim of $192,843.34 for advances, which was charged off by him as a worthless debt in 1927 and allowed as such by the respondent.

In our opinion, and we so hold, the aforesaid third assignment of error is not sustained by any evidence sufficient to overcome the presumption of the correctness of the respondent’s determination in reference to the alleged loss and in adding the sum of $8,481.77 to the decedent’s income for 1928 as an overstatement of loss, and respondent’s action in so doing is approved.

(4) and (5) Errors four and five raise the issue whether or not the respondent committed error in refusing to allow the decedent to include in his returns for 1928 and 1929 only one half of the total gross income actually received by him during those years. It is not disputed that for 1928 and 1929 the decedent and his wife filed separate returns, each returning one half of the asserted income received by the decedent, on the theory that all income received by the decedent was community property.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Parker v. Commissioner, 31 B.T.A. 644, 1934 BTA LEXIS 1052 (bta 1934).

31 B.T.A. 644 (Parker v. Commissioner) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Fleming v. Commissioner
1984 T.C. Memo. 130 (U.S. Tax Court, 1984)
Fowler v. Commissioner
1967 T.C. Memo. 36 (U.S. Tax Court, 1967)
Berry v. Comm'r
1956 T.C. Memo. 208 (U.S. Tax Court, 1956)
Ramos v. Commissioner
1955 T.C. Memo. 48 (U.S. Tax Court, 1955)
Berry v. Commissioner
11 T.C.M. 301 (U.S. Tax Court, 1952)
Tinling v. Commissioner
7 T.C. 1393 (U.S. Tax Court, 1946)
Wilson v. Commissioner
1 T.C.M. 571 (U.S. Tax Court, 1943)
Thorpe v. Commissioner
42 B.T.A. 654 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1940)
Dolenz v. Commissioner
41 B.T.A. 1091 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1940)
Parker v. Commissioner
31 B.T.A. 644 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1934)