Estate of Levine v. Commissioner, Docket No. 5993-78.
| Decision Date | 11 January 1982 |
| Docket Number | Docket No. 5993-78. |
| Parties | Estate of Joseph R. Levine, Deceased, Rose Levine, Executrix, and Rose Levine v. Commissioner. |
| Court | U.S. Tax Court |
Rose Levine, pro se, 630 Shore Road, Long Beach, N.Y. Harvey S. Sander, for the respondent.
Memorandum Findings of Fact and Opinion
Respondent determined deficiencies in petitioners' Federal income taxes as follows:
Year Deficiency in Income Tax
1968 .................. $1,936.42
1969 .................. 2,422.84
1970 .................. 1,412.02
1971 .................. 1,296.78
The issues for decision involve whether certain expenditures are deductible as medical expenses under section 213.1
Some of the facts have been stipulated and are so found. The stipulation of facts and exhibits attached thereto are incorporated herein by this reference.
Joseph Levine and Rose Levine were husband and wife during the years in question. They timely filed their joint Federal income tax returns for the years 1968 through 1971, inclusive, with the Internal Revenue Service Center in Andover, Massachusetts. Sometime before the petition in this case was filed, Mr. Levine died and Mrs. Levine was appointed as executrix of his estate. At the time the amended petition was filed in this case, Rose Levine resided in Long Beach, New York. The term "petitioners" will hereinafter refer to Rose Levine and the late Joseph Levine.
Petitioners' daughter, Marci, was born in November of 1950. When Marci was 13 years old, she developed a serious emotional disturbance or mental condition as a result of which she was severely depressed and withdrawn. In 1967 when she was 16 years old, Marci secluded herself in the house for the whole year and made no attempt to get involved in life. Throughout that period, Marci never looked outside through doors or windows and watched only the activities of her two sisters. During this time, Marci's parents could not have anyone around her other than the immediate family. Marci left the house only a few times during 1967 to visit different doctors. However, traditional medical treatment from psychiatrists did not improve Marci's condition.
By the end of 1967, Joseph Levine had given up on Marci and decided that she should be put in a hospital in order to get her out of the house. However, Marci did not want to go into a hospital and petitioner prevented her husband and doctors from placing Marci in an institution. Around this time, Marci began to improve somewhat and started to look outside through doors and windows and to take walks and drives with her mother and sisters. Shortly thereafter, Marci was persuaded to leave the house and take a trip to Atlantic City with her mother and sisters. While in Atlantic City, Marci participated in some recreational activities with her sisters and met other people.
Sometime during the trip to Atlantic City, petitioner decided, independently of any doctor's advice, that the only way to get Marci involved in life and to improve her mental condition was to travel with her to different places in search of schools and activities in which she could become involved. Petitioner did not believe that Marci's condition would improve if she returned home or went to a hospital or institution. Accordingly, petitioner and one of her other daughters stayed with Marci in Atlantic City in motels and a house from late fall of 1967 until the summer of 1968. Throughout most of this period, Marci stayed inside the motel rooms and house. During the summer of 1968, petitioner and Marci stayed in motels near South Hampton College, and Marci went on drives with her mother and went swimming and bicycling.
From the fall of 1968 through the spring of 1969, petitioner and Marci traveled to various southern cities in search of special schools for Marci. Sometime during that period, Marci enrolled in an adult school, joined a health club, and did well both academically and socially. Petitioner and Marci spent the summer of 1969 in motels near South Hampton College, and Marci apparently participated in activities similar to those in which she had engaged during the summer of 1968. From the fall of 1969 through April or May of 1970, petitioner and Marci stayed in New York City. During this period, Marci went shopping, took walks, and attended dancing school.
Near the end of her stay in New York City, Marci decided that she was ready to go back to school. Petitioner and Marci thus spent the summer of 1970 traveling to various locations in Connecticut and Rhode Island in search of a school for Marci. In early fall of 1970, Marci attended a hospital program for young adults in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but disliked the program and left after only 10 days. From the fall of 1970 through the end of 1971, Marci attended two different colleges in New Hampshire on a full-time basis. Nevertheless, during this same time, petitioner and Marci stayed in various motels in New York, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Vermont.
On their Federal income tax returns for the years 1968 through 1971, petitioners listed the following expenditures made during the travels with Marci and deducted the total amount of them as medical expenses paid for Marci: motels, rent, long distance telephone calls, shipping charges for clothing and kitchen utensils, automobile mileage, train and bus fares for various family members, housekeeper, health studio, dancing school, babysitter, television rental, records, beauty aids, and electricity. None of these expenditures were incurred pursuant to the advice or suggestion of any doctor. In his statutory notice of deficiency, respondent disallowed all of the claimed deductions for Marci as personal expenses under section 262 rather than medical expenses under section 213.
Throughout most of the time that Marci and her mother were traveling, Joseph Levine stayed at home with the other two daughters. However, he took a number of trips to Atlantic City and Florida during each of the years 1968 through 1971. The record does not show the purpose or the amount spent for each individual trip. The record does show that Joseph Levine took two trips to Atlantic City and one trip to Florida during 1968, two trips to Atlantic City and two trips to Florida during 1969, and an unspecified number of trips to both areas during each of the years 1970 and 1971. He made some of these trips to visit his wife and daughter during their travels. He made other trips at the recommendation of a doctor who had suggested that it might help a heart condition that he had had since the first days of his marriage at least 18 years earlier. The record is silent as to when the doctor gave that advice or as to the specific nature of the advice.
During 1968 and 1969, Joseph Levine paid various individuals to watch his other two daughters during his trips to Atlantic City and Florida. In addition, he incurred expenditures in the years 1968 through 1971 for massages, sun lamp, and liquor allegedly recommended by his physician.
On their Federal income tax returns for the years 1968 through 1971, petitioners deducted the cost of all of the husband's trips to Atlantic City and Florida, massages, sun lamp, and liquor as medical expenses related to his heart condition. On their tax returns for the years 1968 and 1969, petitioners also deducted as medical expenses amounts paid to the individuals who watched their other two daughters during the father's trips. Respondent disallowed all of these claimed deductions as personal and family expenses except for $90 of unspecified travel expense during 1970.
OpinionSection 262 provides that no deduction shall be allowed for personal living, or family expenses except as otherwise provided in chapter 1 of the Code. Section 213(a) carves out a limited exception to section 262 and allows a deduction for expenses paid during the taxable year for the "medical care" of the taxpayer, his spouse, and dependents to the extent that such expenses exceed three percent of the taxpayer's adjusted gross income and are not compensated for by insurance or otherwise. Section 213(e)(1)(A) and (B) define the term "medical care" as amounts paid for the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, or for the purpose of affecting any structure or function of the body, and for transportation primarily for and essential to such medical care. Petitioners have the burden of establishing that they are entitled to their claimed deductions for medical expenses. New Colonial Ice Co.v. Helvering 4 USTC 1292, 292 U.S. 435, 440 (1934); Welch v. Helvering 3 USTC ¶ 1164, 290 U.S. 111, 115 (1933); Rule 142(a), Tax Court Rules of Practice and Procedure.
The parties agree that Marci's severe depression constituted a mental disease or disorder for purposes of section 213(e)(1)(A) and section 1.213-1(e)(1)(ii), Income Tax Regs.2 Petitioners argue that traveling to different environments was the only way to treat Marci's mental condition and that the lodging and miscellaneous expenses incurred during that travel therefore constituted deductible medical expenses. Respondent contends that such expenses are personal in nature and are not deductible either as amounts paid for medical care under section 213(e)(1)(A) or as amounts paid for transportation primarily for and essential to medical care under section 213(e)(1)(B). Respondent further argues that even if the travel itself is held to constitute medical care, the lodging and related expenses incurred during such travel would be nondeductible as expenses incurred while away from home receiving medical care under section 1.213-1 (e)(1)(iv), Income Tax Regs.
To constitute a deductible expenditure for medical care under section 213(e)(1)(A), an amount must be paid for goods or services directly or proximately related to the diagnosis, cure, mitigation,...
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