Parsons v. Commissioner

43 T.C. 331, 1964 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 6
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedDecember 24, 1964
DocketDocket Nos. 2689-62, 2376-63
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 43 T.C. 331 (Parsons 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
Parsons v. Commissioner, 43 T.C. 331, 1964 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 6 (tax 1964).

Opinion

These proceedings involve deficiencies in petitioner’s income tax for 1955, 1956, 1958, and 1959 in the respective amounts of $61,035.68, $90,825.54, $317,970.37, and $106,081.18. The petition alleges that respondent erred in determining such deficiencies in the income tax liability of petitioner who was a citizen of the United States, a resident of the Eepublic of the Philippines, and a member of a Philippine conjugal partnership during the taxable years in that no part of the income of the Philippine conjugal partnership from sources outside of the United States is taxable to petitioner, that it would be unconstitutional to tax such income to petitioner, and that the amount of such income was incorrectly computed. On February 14,1964, petitioner’s motion for a severance of issues was filed asking that the basic issue of the taxability of petitioner’s interest in the income of the conjugal partnership between petitioner and her husband, a nonresident alien, under the laws of the Philippines be heard and decided first. This motion was heard on March 11,1964, and an order was entered on that date granting the motion and setting the severed issue for trial on May 8, 1964, on which latter date this case was tried on the severed issue. Therefore, the sole question for decision herein is whether under the law of the Eepublic of the Philippines petitioner has an interest in the income of a conjugal partnership in the Eepublic of the Philippines which is taxable to her under the laws and Constitution of the United States.

FINDINGS OF FACT

Some of the facts herein have been stipulated. We find these facts to be as stipulated and incorporate herein by this reference the stipulation filed by the parties and the exhibits identified therein and attached thereto.

Among the facts stipulated are that petitioner was and is a citizen of the United States and a resident of the Eepublic of the Philippines during the taxable years and at the present time, that she was married to a citizen and a resident of the Eepublic of the Philippines during the taxable years, that she filed individual income tax returns with the district director of internal revenue at Baltimore, Md., for the years in question in which she reported her own individual income from sources within the United States, that the deficiencies determined herein are predicated on her receipt of community income from sources outside of the United States, and that all of such income was paid and received outside of the United States.

At the time petitioner was married to her husband (Oct. 15, 1928), there was no marriage settlement agreement between them: The income here in question constituted the income of a conjugal partnership of gain existing under the laws of the Philippines and did not include any separate or paraphernal income of petitioner. Petitioner’s husband, as representative of the conjugal partnership, filed the returns thereof and paid the taxes thereon as required and imposed by the law of the Eepublic of the Philippines.

One of the stipulated exhibits was the Civil Code of the Philippines. Among its more pertinent provisions are the following:

Art. 112. — The husband is the administrator of the conjugal property, unless there is a stipulation in the marriage settlements conferring the administration upon the wife. She may also administer the conjugal partnership in other cases specified in this Code.
* * * * * S|e *
Art. 115. — The wife manages the affairs of the household. She may purchase things necessary for the support of the family, and the conjugal partnership shall be bound thereby. She may borrow money for this purpose, if the husband fails to deliver the proper sum. * * *
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Art. 119. — The future spouses may in the marriage settlements agree upon absolute or relative community of property, or upon complete separation of property, or upon any other regime. In the absence of marriage settlements, or when the same are void, the system of relative community or conjugal partnership of gains as established in this Code, shall govern the property relations between husband and wife.
* * * * ❖ # *
Art. 135.■ — All property brought by the wife to the marriage, as well as all property she acquires during the marriage, in accordance with article 148, is paraphernal.
Art 136. — The wife retains the ownership of the paraphernal property.
Art 137. — The wife shall have the administration of the paraphernal property, unless she delivers the same to the husband by means of a public instrument empowering him to administer it.
* * * * * * *
Art. 138. — The fruits of the paraphernal property form part of the assets of the conjugal partnership, and shall be subject to the payment of the expenses of the marriage.
The property itself shall also be subject to the daily expenses of the family, if the property of the conjugal partnership and the husband’s capital are not sufficient therefor.
Art. 139. — The personal obligations of the husband can not be enforced against the fruits of the paraphernal property, unless it be proved that they redounded to the benefit of the family.
Art. lift. — A married woman of age may mortgage, encumber, alienate or otherwise dispose of her paraphernal property, without the permission of the husband, and appear alone in court to litigate with regard to the same.
* 5b. ❖ * * # *
Art. 1J$. — By means of the conjugal partnership of gains the husband and wife place in a common fund the fruits of their separate property and the income from their work or industry, and divide equally, upon the dissolution of the marriage or of the partnership, the net gains or benefits obtained indiscriminately by either spouse during the marriage.
Art. l/tS. — All property of the conjugal partnership of gains is owned in common by the husband and wife.
* * * * * * *
Art. 1J/6. — Waiver of the gains or of the effects of this partnership during marriage cannot be made except in case of judicial separation.
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Art. Uf7. — -The conjugal partnership shall be governed by the rules on the contract of partnership in all that is not in conflict with what is expressly determined in this Chapter.
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Art. 156. — The following are conjugal partnership property:
(1) That which is acquired by onerous title during the marriage at the expense of the common fund, whether the acquisition be for the partnership, or for only one of the spouses;
(2) That which is obtained by the industry, or work, or as salary of the spouses, or of either of them;

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Related

Grimm v. Commissioner
89 T.C. No. 52 (U.S. Tax Court, 1987)
Reese v. Commissioner
64 T.C. 395 (U.S. Tax Court, 1975)
Solano v. Commissioner
62 T.C. No. 64 (U.S. Tax Court, 1974)
Parsons v. Commissioner
43 T.C. 331 (U.S. Tax Court, 1964)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
43 T.C. 331, 1964 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 6, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/parsons-v-commissioner-tax-1964.