Topek v. Commissioner

9 T.C. 763, 1947 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 55
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedOctober 27, 1947
DocketDocket Nos. 11718, 11719
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 9 T.C. 763 (Topek 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
Topek v. Commissioner, 9 T.C. 763, 1947 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 55 (tax 1947).

Opinion

OPINION.

Johnson, Judge:

The Commissioner determined a deficiency in the income and victory tax for the calendar year 1943 of petitioner Fervel Topek (Docket No..11718) in the amount of $811.80, and of petitioner Sarah Topek (Docket No. 11719) in the amount of $811.80. The two proceedings, being identical as to issues and sums involved, were consolidated.

Originally, petitioners had three assignments of error, but one of them, the third, related to a deduction for depreciation, was withdrawn by petitioners, leaving only two, as follows:

(1) Petitioners assail the Commissioner’s disallowance of $4,412.02 bonus paid as additional compensation for services to D. A. Topek.

(2) Petitioners assail the Commissioner’s disallowance of $4,057.02 bonus paid as additional compensation for services to Max Posen.

The facts were stipulated, which, with the exhibit attached thereto, we adopt as our findings and from which it appears:

Petitioners are husband and wife, residing in Houston, Texas, and under the community property laws of Texas each filed a separate income tax return, on the accrual basis of accounting, for the calendar year 1943 with the collector of internal revenue for the first district of Texas;

Petitioners are engaged in the wholesale produce business and during the year 1943 employed more than eight employees, among whom was D. A. Topek, their son, and Max Posen, their son-in-law, both serving in key positions. The compensation of the son and the son-in-law under their contracts of employment was a drawing account of $40 a week each, plus an additional bonus, the amount to be determined and based on the annual net profits of the business. For years it had been petitioners’ custom to wait until near the end of the year, when their approximate net income was known, before determining the bonuses to be paid to key employees. Profits of the business for 1942 were approximately $48,000, and for 1943 were in excess of $80,000. On or about December 1, 1943, it was agreed that the bonus for 1943 would be $11,000 for D. A. Topek and $8,500 for Max Posen, and on December 3,1943, petitioners made application to the Dallas, Texas, regional office of the Salary Stabilization Unit for permission to pay bonuses to these two parties for such amounts. The application was in prescribed form and based upon petitioners’ contractual obligation to pay same.

On February 1,1944, the Dallas regional office approved the application in part only, .to wit: Bonus .payment of $6,587.98 was approved for D. A. Topek and $4,442.98 for Max Posen, and petitioners were directed not to pay the balance of the bonus. Shortly thereafter the bonuses for the amounts approved were paid. On February 10, 1944, petitioners applied for review of the ruling by the regional office and the case was forwarded to the Deputy Commissioner, Salary Stabilization Unit, Washington, D. C., for review. No decision on their appeal having been received on March 15,1944, petitioners filed their income tax returns, wherein they deducted the amounts of the bonuses paid as allowed by the regional office, and attached thereto a rider reading as follows:

This income tax return is subject to change pending approval of increased bonuses for 1943 for two employees by the Salary Stabilization Unit at Washington, D. O.

On the same date the son and the son-in-law filed their individual income tax returns on the cash receipts and disbursements basis and reported their salaries and the amounts of bonus paid them.

On March 16, 1944, petitioners, by their attorney, again wrote the Deputy Commissioner of the Salary Stabilization Unit in Washington about their appeal and finally, on April 26, 1944, the Deputy Commissioner, in a letter to petitioners, modified the February 1,1944, ruling of the regional office and allowed the full amount of the bonus, to wit, $11,000 to D. A. Topek and $8,500 to Max Rosen; whereupon petitioners, promptly upon receipt of such authority, paid the balance of the bonus due, to wit, the additional sum of $4,412.02 to D. A. Topek and $4,057.02 to Max Rosen, and thereupon petitioners each filed amended income tax returns for 1943, wherein the' additional bonuses paid were reflected in arriving at the net income shown therein. ■The son and son-in-law then also filed amended income tax returns for 1943 and reported the said additional amounts paid them.

In his deficiency notice to petitioners, respondent disallowed the deduction of $4,412.02 paid to D. A. Topek and $4,057.02 paid to Max Rosen on the sole ground that such additional bonus payments were not paid within two and one-half months after the close of petitioners’ taxable year, and therefore that such deductions were not allowable under the provisions of section 24 (c) of the Internal Revenue Code.

Having accrued the full amount of the salary and bonus payable to the son and son-in-law for 1943 in December of that year, petitioners applied to the Salary Stabilization Unit for approval, and refrained from payment of the part here in controversy until approval was granted on April 26, 1944, after decision of an appeal from a contrary ruling in February. While the full salary and bonus would be*normally deductible under section 23 (a), Internal Revenue Code, the Commissioner disallowed deduction of the part not approved, paid, or reported by March 15, 1944, by virtue of section 24 (c) ,1 set out below. To warrant this disallowance it must appear that all three of the conditions prescribed by that section coexist, Michael Flynn Mfg. Co., 3 T. C. 932; P. G. Lake, Inc., 4 T. C. 1; McDuff Turner, 5 T. C. 1261. As the amounts in controversy were not paid within two and a half months after the close of 1943, the first condition is met. As the recipients of these amounts reported income on the cash basis, they could not properly include such amounts in their income for 1943, while petitioners, on the accrual basis, should take the deduction in that year — thus the second condition is met. There remains for decision whether or not the third condition is met, to wit: Were the taxpayer and the payee “persons between whom losses would be disallowed under section 24 (b)?”

Persons between whom losses are disallowed under section 24 (b) as here pertinent are, inter alia, declared to be “(A) Between members of a family, as defined in paragraph (2) (D).” Paragraph (2) (D) reads as follows:

(D) The family of an individual shall include only his brothers and sisters (whether by the whole or half blood), spouse, ancestors, and lineal descendants ; * * *

To meet the requirement of subdivision (3) of section 24 (c), the family relationship of the employee the payment to whom is in question must fall within the category above defined, otherwise section 24 (c), invoked by the respondent, is not applicable.

Max Rosen is the son-in-law of petitioners. A son-in-law of an individual is not his lineal descendant and therefore is not included within the meaning of paragraph (2) (D). of section 24 (b). See Walter Simister, Jr., 4 T. C. 470, in which case the Commissioner made no claim that the son-in-law of the taxpayer was a member of his family within the meaning of said subsection. We sustain petitioners’ second assignment of error and hold deductible the additional compensation paid Max Rosen.

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Topek v. Commissioner
9 T.C. 763 (U.S. Tax Court, 1947)

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Bluebook (online)
9 T.C. 763, 1947 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 55, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/topek-v-commissioner-tax-1947.