Szloch v. United States

558 F. Supp. 292, 51 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 637, 1982 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16867
CourtDistrict Court, D. Massachusetts
DecidedDecember 21, 1982
DocketCiv. A. No. 80-442-K
StatusPublished

This text of 558 F. Supp. 292 (Szloch v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Massachusetts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Szloch v. United States, 558 F. Supp. 292, 51 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 637, 1982 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16867 (D. Mass. 1982).

Opinion

Memorandum

KEETON, District Judge.

I.

Plaintiff Michael Szloch is suing the United States to recover a federal income [293]*293tax deficiency assessed against him and his wife for the 1977 taxable year. Plaintiff’s 1977 income tax return was audited by the Internal Revenue Service and, as a result of the audit, the Service assessed a deficiency of $3,253 against him. He paid that deficiency in late 1978, and in 1979 filed an amended tax return for 1977 in which he requested a refund of $3,070.85. It is that refund, disallowed by the Service, that is at issue here.

Plaintiff claims that he was required by the demands of his profession to maintain two residences in 1977, one in the Boston area and the other in Connecticut, and that his travel to and from Connecticut and his meals and lodging while in Connecticut are deductible business expenses under Section 162(a)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code.1

The United States argues, inter alia, that plaintiffs expenses are not properly seen as incurred in the pursuit of a trade or business or as incurred away from home, and are not therefore deductible. Currently before the court is defendant’s motion for summary judgment.

II.

In order for the United States to prevail on its summary judgment motion, it must show that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that it is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law. Rule 56(c), Fed.R.Civ.Pro. In considering the motion for summary judgment, the court must view the record “in the light most favorable to . . . the party opposing the motion ... . ” Poller v. Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc., 368 U.S. 464, 473, 82 S.Ct. 486, 491, 7 L.Ed.2d 458 (1962). See Hahn v. Sargent, 523 F.2d 461, 464 (1st Cir.1975), cert. denied, 425 U.S. 904, 96 S.Ct. 1495, 47 L.Ed.2d 754 (1976). In a case like this, where fairly extensive discovery has occurred and the court has before it depositions and affidavits submitted in support of and in opposition to the motion for summary judgment, summary judgment should be granted only if it is clear that the evidence is such that the factfinder at trial could not, with support in the evidence, find for the plaintiff.

III.

The facts as established by the evidence and construed most favorably to the plaintiff are as follows. Plaintiff is a sixty year old engineer who has maintained his family residence in Stoneham, Massachusetts from 1954 to the present. From 1957, when he graduated from Northeastern University, until 1974, when he lost his job with the firm J.J. Main, Inc., he was employed as an engineer with a number of Boston area engineering firms and “developed ... expertise in the areas of civil structural industrial and power plant design.” Pl.Aff. at 1-2. Following his termination from C.T. Main, plaintiff had difficulty finding work in the Boston area “because of the recession and the turn away from nuclear power plants ...,” id. at 2. He began to look for work outside Boston, hoping to be able to return to work in the Boston area when conditions improved. He took a job with Peabody Engineering Systems in Stamford, Connecticut that lasted 15 months. His next job, which began in July, 1976, was with the firm of Burns & Roe. He was employed by Burns & Roe throughout 1977, the year at issue in this case, in their Stamford, Connecticut office. He was assigned to work on a specific project — the design and engineering of a coal-fired power plant (Cajun Project) — that was expected to last about a year and one half. During 1977 plaintiff maintained his Stoneham residence, although he resided during the week in Connecticut and drove to Stoneham to spend weekends with his family:

Because at this time it would still have been difficult for me to find work in Boston, I decided to accept the position with Burns & Roe but, for the time that [294]*294work continued on the Cajun project, to live in Stamford during the week and return to Stoneham on weekends. When the Cajun project was completed, I would then once again look for a permanent position in the Boston area unless, of course, the prospects of continued employment by Burns & Roe appeared more attractive. While I worked in Stamford, I resided first at the Y.M.C.A., and later rented rooms in private homes.

Pl.Aff. at 8.

Following completion of the Cajun Project work, plaintiff was offered another position with Burns & Roe in Florida. He made the decision then to relocate himself and his family to Florida, and he put his Stoneham home up for sale. Before he reported to the new job, however, the offer was withdrawn and plaintiff found himself without employment. He has lived in Stoneham since that time and is currently “endeavoring to build a consulting engineering practice in the Boston area.” PI. Aff. at 6.

IV.

Situations like the present, where a taxpayer maintains two residences and attempts to deduct as business expenses some or all of his travel, meal and lodging costs, have generated a considerable amount of caselaw. The leading case, of course, is Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Flowers, 326 U.S. 465, 66 S.Ct. 250, 90 L.Ed. 203 (1945), where the Court denied the deduction to an individual who maintained one home in Mississippi and another where he worked in Alabama. The Court established three criteria that must be satisfied before the travel and related expense deductions can be taken:

(1) The expense must be a reasonable and necessary traveling expense, as that term is generally understood. This includes such items as transportation fares and food and lodging expense incurred while traveling.
(2) The expense must be incurred “while away from home.”
(3) The expense must be incurred in pursuit of business. This means that there must be a direct connection between the expenditure and the carrying on of the trade or business of the taxpayer or of his employer. Moreover, such an expenditure must be necessary or appropriate to the development and pursuit of the business or trade.

Flowers at 470, 66 S.Ct. at 252.

The first of these criteria — whether the expense is reasonable and necessary — is not at issue in this case. Whether the expense was incurred away from home in pursuit of business is at issue. The First Circuit recently considered this issue in Hantzis v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 638 F.2d 248 (1st Cir.1981). The court there denied a deduction for transportation and living expenses to a taxpayer who maintained her Boston residence while she worked during the summer in New York. The court determined that to deduct as a business expense the costs associated with one residence, the taxpayer must have a business reason, as opposed to a personal reason, for maintaining both residences. The court said:

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Related

Commissioner v. Flowers
326 U.S. 465 (Supreme Court, 1946)
Poller v. Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc.
368 U.S. 464 (Supreme Court, 1962)
Robert C. Hahn v. Francis W. Sargent
523 F.2d 461 (First Circuit, 1975)

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Bluebook (online)
558 F. Supp. 292, 51 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 637, 1982 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16867, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/szloch-v-united-states-mad-1982.