Sente Inv. Club Partnership v. Commissioner

95 T.C. No. 19, 95 T.C. 243, 1990 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 85
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedSeptember 11, 1990
DocketDocket No. 21056-87
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 95 T.C. No. 19 (Sente Inv. Club Partnership 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
Sente Inv. Club Partnership v. Commissioner, 95 T.C. No. 19, 95 T.C. 243, 1990 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 85 (tax 1990).

Opinion

OPINION

RUWE, Judge:

This case was heard by Special Trial Judge Peter J. Panuthos pursuant to the provisions of section 7443A of the Code.2 The Court agrees with and adopts the Special Trial Judge’s opinion, which is set forth below.

OPINION OF THE SPECIAL TRIAL JUDGE

PANUTHOS, Special Trial Judge:

This case is before the Court on respondent’s motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction and to strike and petitioner’s motion to strike answer. The issues for decision are (1) whether this case must be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction to the extent the petition seeks redetermination of adjustments to the partnership return of Sente Investment Club Partnership of Utah (Sente) that are attributable to adjustments to the partnership returns of partnerships in which Sente held an interest, and (2) whether this Court should strike respondent’s answer because it was allegedly not timely filed.3

Factual Background

On March 30, 1987, respondent issued notices of final partnership administrative adjustment (FPAA’s) determining adjustments to the 1983 and 1984 partnership returns of Sente. Petitioner’s amended petition was served on respondent by the Court on October 5, 1988. Respondent filed his answer to the amended petition on November 30, 1988.

On its partnership returns for the years at issue, Sente reported items of loss, income, and credit from two partnerships in which it held limited partnership interests, Union Energy Drilling Fund 1983 (Drilling) and Sente Equipment Ltd. (Equipment).

Drilling filed a partnership return for its 1983 taxable year on which it reported an ordinary loss in the amount of $3,506,733. A Schedule K-l identifying Sente as a partner of Drilling reflects Sente’s distributive share of that loss as $2,432,166. On its 1984 partnership return, Drilling reported ordinary income of $37,000. A Schedule K-l issued to Sente by Drilling for 1984 reported $36,640 as Sente’s distributive share of that income.

Equipment filed a 1983 partnership return reporting an ordinary loss in the amount of $1,944,684. A Schedule K-l identifying Sente as a partner of Equipment reflects Sente’s distributive share of the loss as $1,925,237. Equipment’s 1983 return also reported new recovery property eligible for investment credit as distributive share items of Sente. On its 1984 partnership return, Equipment reported an ordinary loss of $2,522,264. A Schedule K-l issued to Sente reported $2,497,041 of the loss as the distributive share of Sente.

Sente filed a partnership return for its 1983 taxable year reporting items of loss and credit. On its 1983 return, Sente claimed flowthrough losses from the two partnerships in which it was a limited partner, Drilling and Equipment. Sente reported the following amounts on its 1983 and 1984 partnership returns:

1983
Ordinary loss from Equipment K-l. ($1,925,237)
Ordinary loss from Drilling K-l. (2,432,166)
Other deductions. (158,717)
Ordinary loss reported to Sente partners. (4,516,120)

Sente also reported that its partners were entitled to an investment credit for the year 1983.

1984
Gross receipts. $12,000
Ordinary loss from Equipment K-l. (2,497,041)
Ordinary income from Drilling K-l. 36,640
Other deductions. (12,000)
Ordinary loss reported to Sente partners. (2,460,401)

Respondent issued an FPAA dated March 23, 1987, with respect to Drilling’s 1983 taxable year disallowing the $3,506,733 ordinary loss reported by Drilling. A petition for readjustment of partnership items was filed in the Tax Court at docket No. 29815-87 by Sente as a partner other than the tax matters partner contesting the proposed adjustments to Drilling’s 1983 return. The Court subsequently granted respondent’s motion to dismiss for lack of prosecution and entered an order of dismissal and decision in that case on January 4, 1990. No adjustments were proposed to Drilling’s 1984 partnership return.

On March 30, 1987, respondent issued an FPAA with respect to the 1983 and 1984 partnership returns of Equipment on which all of the claimed ordinary losses and investment credit were disallowed. No petition for readjustment of partnership items was filed in response to the FPAA.

The FPAA issued to the tax matters partner of Sente disallowed all of the ordinary losses Sente reported on its 1983 and 1984 partnership returns and the investment credit claimed for 1983, even though most of these amounts were partnership items of Equipment and Drilling that had been separately adjusted by respondent in FPAA’s issued to those partnerships. The only item on the FPAA issued to Sente that did not flow from either Drilling or Equipment was $158,717 reported as “other deductions” for Sente’s 1983 taxable year.

DISCUSSION

1. Respondent’s Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Jurisdiction and to Strike

Respondent argues in his motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction that the only adjustment in the FPAA issued to Sente over which this Court has jurisdiction is the disallowance of the $158,717 of “other deductions” for the year 1983. This Court lacks jurisdiction over the flowthrough items from Drilling and Equipment, respondent contends, because the partnership items of Drilling and Equipment must be determined in separate unified partnership proceedings involving those partnerships. We agree.

A partnership item is:

any item required to be taken into account for the partnership’s taxable year to the extent that the Secretary provides by regulations that “such item is more appropriately determined at the partnership level than at the partner level.” Section 6231(a)(3). * * * [N.C.F. Energy Partners v. Commissioner, 89 T.C. 741, 743 (1987).]

The regulations provide that the partnership aggregate and each partner’s share of “Items of income, gain, loss, deduction or credit of the partnership” are more appropriately determined at the partnership level. Sec. 301.6231(a)(3)-1(a)(1)(i), Proced. & Admin. Regs. Partnership losses or credits are items taken into account by Drilling and Equipment for their 1983 and 1984 partnership taxable years. Investment credits and partnership losses of Drilling and Equipment are thus partnership items of Drilling and Equipment. Maxwell v. Commissioner, 87 T.C. 783, 790 (1986).

Section 6221 provides that the tax treatment of any partnership item, with certain exceptions, is to be determined at the partnership level. In this regard, this Court has stated:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
95 T.C. No. 19, 95 T.C. 243, 1990 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 85, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sente-inv-club-partnership-v-commissioner-tax-1990.