Rubin v. Commissioner

26 T.C. 1076, 1956 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 87
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedSeptember 20, 1956
DocketDocket No. 45971
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 26 T.C. 1076 (Rubin 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
Rubin v. Commissioner, 26 T.C. 1076, 1956 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 87 (tax 1956).

Opinion

OPINION.

Tietjens, Judge:

The first issue in this case involves the propriety of the Commissioner’s disallowance of $2,329.52 in claimed business deductions for the year 1946 for lack of substantiation. The amount disallowed consisted of three items: Living expenses at the Herring Hotel in Amarillo, Texas, in the amount of $1,131.76; transportation expenses between Amarillo and Dallas, Texas, in the amount of $508.49; and “cash expenditures” in the amount of $689.27. Petitioners argue that these amounts represent ordinary and necessary expenses paid by them during the taxable year in carrying on their trade or business and thus they are deductible under section 23 (a) of the Internal Eevenue Code of 1939.

The Commissioner determined that the living expenses incurred at the Hotel Herring were personal expenses and with this we agree. If travel expenses, including the entire amount spent for food and lodging, are to be deductible they must be ordinary and necessary and they must be paid or incurred by the taxpayer while away from home in the pursuit of his trade or business. Sec. 23 (a) (1) (A). Swenson, the accountant who prepared petitioners’ income tax returns, testified that petitioners’ home in 1946 was in Dallas and that they made several business trips to Amarillo that year. On the other hand, Eubin testified that in 1946 his home was in Amarillo. Also petitioners’ 1946 income tax return, prepared by Swenson, gave an Amarillo address. Though the evidence as to residence is contradictory we have found that petitioners’ home in the year 1946 was in Amarillo, not Dallas. Therefore, their expenses at the Hotel Herring in Amarillo were not deductible since not paid or incurred while away from home. They were personal expenses as the Commissioner had determined.

The Commissioner disallowed transportation expenses between Amarillo and Dallas for the year 1946 in the amount of $508.49. He determined that these represented personal expenses. We do not agree. Dave Eubin had business dealings in both Amarillo and Dallas during 1946. His testimony indicated that he maintained a business office in Dallas that year. He also testified that he traveled between Amarillo and Dallas on business during 1946. Twenty-four canceled checks, totaling $537.81, paid to the order of Brániff Airways Incorporated and drawn by Dave Eubin were also presented in evidence. The Commissioner argues that petitioners have not overcome the burden of proof that is placed upon them. In view of the evidence, we hold that the Commissioner erred in disallowing travel expenses in the amount of $508.49 for the year 1946.

Petitioner Dave Eubin drew many checks payable to tbe order of “cash” during the year 1946. He claimed that certain of them were spent on ordinary and necessary business expenses during that year and deducted them on his income tax return. The Commissioner disallowed these deductions to the extent of $689.27. Eubin testified that although he could read, he was unable to write any words other than “Dave Eubin” and “cash,” hence the necessity for drawing his checks to the order of cash and not to specific persons. Petitioners introduced into evidence 27 ¿hecks totaling $873, drawn to the order of cash. On examination we find that 17 of these checks, totaling $530, had been cashed by Eubin at his own bank in Dallas, at a store called Morris Mens Wear in Dallas, or at the Herring Hotel in Amarillo. No other documentary evidence was introduced to substantiate petitioners’ position. In view of the evidence, or lack of it, we hold that petitioners have not shown that the Commissioner erred in determining that “cash expenditures” in the amount of $689.27 were personal expenses and hence not allowable as deductions.

Petitioners argue that they are entitled to a deduction on their 1946 income tax return in the amount of $52,487.91 under section 23 (s) of ■the Internal Eevenue Code of 1939 as a net operating loss carry-forward from the year 1944.

Section 23 (s) allows a deduction for a net operating loss as computed under section 122. The relevant provisions of section 122 are as follows:

(a) Definition of Net Operating Loss. — As used in this section, the term “net operating loss” means the excess of the deductions allowed by this chapter over the gross income, with the exceptions, additions, and limitations provided in subsection (d).
(b) Amount of Carry-Back and Carry-Over.— *******
(2) Net Operating Loss Carry-Over.—
(A) Loss for Taxable Tear Beginning Before 1948. — Except as provided in subparagraphs (D) and (E), if for any taxable year beginning before January 1,1948, the taxpayer has a net operating loss, such net operating loss shall be a net operating loss carry-over for each of the two succeeding taxable years, except that the carry-over in the case of the second succeeding taxable year shall be "the excess, if any, of the amount of such net operating loss over the net income for the intervening taxable year computed—
(i) with the exceptions, additions, and limitations provided in subsection (d) (1), (2), (4), and (6),and
* * * * • • •
(d) Exceptions, Additions, and Limitations. — The exceptions, additions, and limitations referred to in subsections (a), (b), and (c) shall be as follows:
(1) The deduction for depletion shall not exceed the amount which would be allowable if computed without reference to discovery value or to percentage depletion under section 114 (b) (2), (3), or (4);
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(4) Gains and losses from sales or exchanges of capital assets shall be taken into account without regard to the provisions of section 117 (b). As so computed the amount deductible on account of such losses shall not exceed the amount includible on account of such gains.
(5) Deductions otherwise allowed by law not attributable to the operation of a trade or business regularly carried on by the taxpayer shall (in the case of a taxpayer other than a corporation) be allowed only to the extent of the amount of the gross income not derived from such trade or business. For the purposes of this paragraph deductions and gross income shall be computed with the exceptions, additions, and limitations specified in paragraphs (1) to (4) of this subsection.

Petitioners sustained a net loss in the year 1944, which after being carried back to the years 1942 and 1943, and after being adjusted as provided by section 122(d), produced a net operating loss carryover in the amount of $52,487.91. Petitioners argue that since they sustained a net loss of $10,828.39 in the year 1945, then they need not adjust the carryover for any section 122(d) items used in computing the net loss in 1945, but may carry forward directly to the year 1946, the $52,487.91 net operating loss. This is the proper result, they argue, since section 122(b) (2) (A) only requires that the carryover be adjusted where there is net income in the intervening years and here there was a net loss.

We cannot agree with petitioners. Their argument ignores the plain language of the statute. Section 122(b) (2) (A) says in part that—

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Related

Heape
1992 T.C. Memo. 660 (U.S. Tax Court, 1992)
Rubin v. Commissioner
1959 T.C. Memo. 223 (U.S. Tax Court, 1959)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
26 T.C. 1076, 1956 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 87, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rubin-v-commissioner-tax-1956.