Flowers v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 11242.
| Decision Date | 23 March 1945 |
| Docket Number | No. 11242.,11242. |
| Citation | 148 F.2d 163 |
| Parties | FLOWERS v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
James N. Ogden, of Mobile, Ala., for petitioner.
Helen Goodner, Sewall Key, Mamie S. Price, and Robert N. Anderson, Sp. Assts. to Atty. Gen., Samuel O. Clark, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., and J. P. Wenchel, Chief Counsel, Bureau of Internal Revenue, and C. R. Marshall, Sp. Atty., Bureau of Internal Revenue, both of Washington, D. C., for respondent.
Before HUTCHESON, HOLMES, and McCORD, Circuit Judges.
This appeal involves income taxes for the calendar years 1939 and 1940. The question presented is whether deductions taken by the taxpayer for traveling expenses between Jackson, Mississippi, his place of residence, and Mobile, Alabama, his principal place of employment, and living expenses while in Mobile, are allowable, under the provisions of Section 23 (a) (1) of the Internal Revenue Code, 26 U.S.C.A. Int. Rev. Code, § 23(a) (1), as traveling expenses while away from home in the pursuit of a trade or business. The Tax Court sustained the Commissioner's disallowance of the deductions.
The taxpayer was born in Mississippi, and has been a citizen of that state all of his life. Early in his career as a lawyer, he moved to Jackson, and has lived there with his family since 1903. The house that constitutes his present residence is on the same plot of ground where he has lived since 1912. He built that house and, in the usual and ordinary meaning of the word, it is his home. In a broader sense, Jackson may be called his home. His church and club affiliations are there; he has been a qualified voter in Jackson since 1903; there he pays all of his taxes; there, each year since 1903, he has duly paid his license fee to practice law, the only business or profession he has ever had. Since he entered private practice, he has always been a member of a law firm in Jackson, and he is now the senior member of the firm of Flowers, Brown, and Hester, which firm he organized in 1922.
During the years 1939 and 1940, the taxpayer was general counsel and vice-president of the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Railroad Company, and was in charge of the law business of that company. His duties were of a purely legal nature, and his principal office was in Mobile, Alabama. As an attorney, he had been connected with this company and its predecessors for many years, but had continued to reside in Jackson and to retain his law office there. This was satisfactory to the company, provided he paid his own traveling expenses to and from Mobile and his living expenses while in each of the two cities. During 1939 he spent 203 days in Jackson and 66 in Mobile, making 33 trips between the two places; during 1940 he spent 168 days in Jackson and 102 in Mobile, making 40 trips. In his income tax returns, he deducted his traveling expenses incurred on those trips. He received no professional income in those years except from the railroad company.
In addition to social reasons, the petitioner had a substantial business purpose in maintaining his home and law office in Jackson. It takes time to acquire a general law practice, and the good will of clients is the most valuable asset a lawyer can have. While his present position with the railroad company seems permanent, he must be elected each year; and there is inherently an element of uncertainty in such a situation. He wanted to keep his professional connections as far as he could, so that he would have a place to go and something to do if he should resign or not be reelected at any time. He could not afford to sever all connections with his clients and acquaintances of...
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