Powell v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

94 F.2d 483, 20 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 951, 1938 U.S. App. LEXIS 4443
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedJanuary 26, 1938
DocketNo. 3239
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 94 F.2d 483 (Powell v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Powell v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 94 F.2d 483, 20 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 951, 1938 U.S. App. LEXIS 4443 (5th Cir. 1938).

Opinion

BINGHAM, Circuit Judge.

This is a petition to review an order or decision of the Board of Tax Appeals. The Commissioner determined a deficiency of $8,882.12 in the petitioner’s income tax return for the year 1930. In determining the deficiency, the Commissioner passed upon two questions: First, was the sum of $9,-442.38, which the petitioner spent for traveling expenses, expended in connection with a trade or business regularly carried on by him? The Commissioner disallowed it as a deduction in determining the deficiency; but before the Board of Tax Appeals he conceded that traveling expenses in that amount were paid out by the petitioner in 1930, and the Board found that sum was expended by him while away from home in pursuit of his trade or business and was an ordinary and necessary expense paid during the taxable year for carrying on his trade or business. No question in relation to that is before us on this petition. The main question is whether the petitioner is entitled to a deduction of $86,135.11, which he claims to have lost in the sale of shares of stocks and notes. The Commissioner disallowed nearly [484]*484all of this amount, determinéd a deficiency-in the sum of $8,882.12, and the Board affirmed the Commissioner’s determination to the extent of $7,687.20. It is from this order or decision that the petition for review is prosecuted.

The alleged losses here in question, the disallowance of which as a deduction was affirmed by the Board, arose out of alleged sales of the following stocks and notes:

American Hawaiian Steamship Co. shares

Atlas Tack Corporation, shares...........

Manhattan Co. shares...................

1052 First Avenue, Inc., notes of $41,000 face value ...........................

It appears that the petitioner was the sole trustee of a trust, known as the B. O. Powell Trust, established by his wife shortly prior to 1930, from property largely given her by the petitioner; that the income of the Trust was payable to the wife for life at such times and in such amounts as the petitioner, in his discretion, saw fit; that he had extremely broad powers and a practically unlimited discretion in dealing with the Trust property, and could buy from, sell to, borrow from, or lend to, the Trust, and “exercise all the powers of owner of the Trust Estate”; and that, during the period of the transactions here involved, the Trust was in existence.

As to the 200 shares of American Hawaiian Steamship Company stock it appears that the petitioner, on December 1, 1930, directed Spencer, Trask & Co., brokers, to sell 200 shares of that stock for his individua al account, and, on the same day, instructed F. S. Moseley & Co., brokers, to purchase for him as trustee a like amount of the same stock, and that the brokers sold and bought the 200 shares as directed at the market price prevailing for the stock on the New York Stock Exchange on that day; that, on January 26, 1931, after the lapse of thirty days from the alleged sale, the petitioner as trustee of the Trust directed Moseley & Co., brokers, to sell for the Trust 200 shares of the Steamship Company’s stock, and, as an individual, to buy for him 200 shares of the stock, which transactions the brokers effected at the market price prevailing on the New York Stock Exchange on that day.

The next transaction relates to 3,150 shares of the stock of the Atlas Tack Corporation. As to this stock it appears that the petitioner, on December 1, 1930, directed Moseley & Co. to sell 3,150 shares of that stock for his individual account and to purchase a like amount of the same stock for the Trust; and that the brokers effected the transactions at the market price prevailing on the New York Stock Exchange ’ on that day; that on January 26, 1931, and more than thirty days after the date of the alleged sale, the petitioner directed Moseley & Co. to sell for the Trust, 3,150 shares of the Atlas Tack Corporation stock and to purchase for him individually a like number of shares; and that the brokers effected these transactions at the market price prevailing on the 'New York Stock Exchange on that day.

Number Amount Claimed

sold Cost realized loss

200 $ 6,705.00 $ 1,627.00 $ 5,078.00

3,150 31,302.02 9,092.44 22,209.58

525 63,525.00 37,714.18 25,810.82

41,000.00 24,947.75 16,052.25

• $69,150.65

As to the alleged sale of the 525 shares of the Bank of the Manhattan Company it appears that the petitioner in the latter part of December, 1930, was the owner of 525 shares of stock in that company, which he had pledged as collateral for a loan at the Chase Bank; that the Trust owned a like amount of the sam'e stock; that on December 29, 1930, the petitioner borrowed the 525 shares belonging to the Trust and pledged them with the Chase Bank in substitution for his own shares pledged to that bank; that, on the same day, as a favor to the petitioner, the New York & Hanseatic Corporation, a trading company, received from the petitioner the 525 shares of the Manhattan Company stock he had taken out of pledge at the Chase Bank and gave him a check for $37,714.18, the then current price for the stock; and delivered 525 shares of the same stock to the petitioner as trustee for the Trust and received from the Trust $37,714.18; that the petitioner then deposited the check for $37,714.18 which he, as an individual, had received from the [485]*485New York & Hanseatic Corporation, in a bank to the account of the Trust as security for the stock which he had borrowed from the Trust; that, thereafter, the Trust paid interest to the petitioner on the $37,714.18 and received the dividends on. the stock, loaned to the petitioner and pledged with the Chase Bank, down to May 18, 1931; that on that day, and more than thirty days after the alleged transactions of December 29, 1930, the petitioner bought from the Trust the S25 shares which he had borrowed and pledged with the Chase Bank, paying the Trust therefor $38,325, the then current price of the stock.

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Bluebook (online)
94 F.2d 483, 20 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 951, 1938 U.S. App. LEXIS 4443, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/powell-v-commissioner-of-internal-revenue-ca5-1938.