2025-02-04
In January 2025, the Tax Court published 17 opinions, which included a total of 374 pages. Below are graphs for the month showing: (i) the top 15 code sections referenced, (ii) the number of opinions by judge, and (iii) the number of pages by judge.
I am always interested in learning well-established tax principles. Often, court cases will explicitly indicate that a tax principle is well established or well settled. Or the court may concisely state the holding of a prior case in a parenthetical. Below are excerpts from the January 2025 Tax Court cases referring to these types of principles or holdings.
Capitol Places II Owner, LLC v. Commr., 164 T.C. No. 1 (2025).
Astoria Fed. Sav. & Loan Ass'n v. Solimino, 501 U.S. 104, 112 (1991) (finding that statutes should be read "so as to avoid rendering superfluous any parts thereof")
Capitol Places II Owner v. Commr., 164 T.C. No. 1 (2025).
Bragdon v. Abbott, 524 U.S. 624, 645 (1998) ("When administrative and judicial interpretations have settled the meaning of an existing statutory provision, repetition of the same language in a new statute indicates, as a general matter, the intent to incorporate its administrative and judicial interpretations as well.")
Chopra v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-2.
Meier v. Commissioner, 91 T.C. 273, 302 (1988) (holding that a taxpayer's inadequate recordkeeping evidenced an intent "to conceal information" from the IRS)
Chopra v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-2.
Good v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2012-323 (finding lack of cooperation where revenue agent was forced to summons taxpayer's bank records)
Sehati v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-3.
Gitlitz v. Commissioner, 531 U.S. 206, 209 (2001) ("Subchapter S allows shareholders of qualified corporations to elect a 'pass-through' taxation system under which income is subjected to only one level of taxation.")
Sehati v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-3.
Factor v. Commissioner, 281 F.2d 100, 114 n.27 (9th Cir. 1960) ("The Tax Court may accept parts and reject other parts of a witness's testimony.")
Sehati v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-3.
Wichita Terminal Elevator Co. v. Commissioner, 6 T.C. 1158, 1165 (1946) ("[T]he failure of a party to introduce evidence within his possession and which, if true, would be favorable to him, gives rise to the presumption that if produced it would be unfavorable.")
Sehati v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-3.
Jasperson v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2015-186, at *9 ("[The taxpayer] wished to prove his case by submitting hundreds of accounting records from an electronic database as replacements for source documents. . . . [W]ithout any sort of direction as to the contents of these documents, this type of voluminous, unverified, and indiscriminate documentation does not provide adequate substantiation of the items [the taxpayer] reported on his tax returns.")
Sehati v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-3.
WB Acquisition, Inc. & Subs. v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2011-36, slip op. at 49 (holding that a general ledger was insufficient to substantiate cost of goods sold because the taxpayers failed to provide "receipts, invoices, canceled checks, or any other evidence to prove the nature of these expenses or whether such expenses were paid")
Seabrook Property, LLC v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-6.
TOT Prop. Holdings, LLC v. Commissioner, 1 F.4th at 1368 (finding that the sale price for a 98.99% interest in a partnership, whose only meaningful asset was property on which an easement was granted shortly thereafter, was representative of the "before" value of the property)
Seabrook Property, LLC v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-6.
BFP v. Resol. Tr. Corp., 511 U.S. 531, 537-38 (1994) ("[M]arket value, as it is commonly understood, has no applicability in the forced-sale context . . . .")
Seabrook Property, LLC v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-6.
TOT Prop. Holdings, LLC v. Commissioner, 1 F.4th at 1371 (describing an arm's-length sale of property just 17 days before a conservation easement was placed on the property as an "overwhelmingly significant fact" in determining its before use value)
Leo v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-9.
Estate of Kaplin v. Commissioner, 748 F.2d 1109, 1111 (6th Cir. 1984) ("In determining the fair market value of property, little evidence could be more probative than the direct sale of the property in question.")
Tooke v. Commr., 164 T.C. No. 2 (2025).
Baughcum v. Jackson, 92 F.4th 1024, 1031 (11th Cir. 2024) ("To have standing, an individual plaintiff must have suffered an injury . . . that the court can redress with an order directed at the defendant.")
Hutcheson v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-1.
It is well established that when taxpayers misappropriate money for their personal benefit, the money is gross income under section 61(a). See James v. United States, 366 U.S. 213, 219-20 (1961).
Franklin v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-8.
It is well established that gross income under section 61(a) includes income earned from illegal activity, such as proceeds from embezzlement. James v. United States, 366 U.S. 213, 219 (1961); * * * Loan proceeds, on the other hand, are excluded from gross income because the benefit of income is offset by a corresponding obligation to repay. See, e.g., Todd v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2011-123, 2011 WL 2183767, at *4, aff’d, 486 F. App’x 423 (5th Cir. 2012).
In January 2025, the IRS published 16 Announcements, Notices, Revenue Procedures, and Revenue Rulings, which included a total of 313 pages.
In January 2025, the IRS published 88 Written Determinations, which included a total of 541 pages.