Tatt v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 12186.
| Decision Date | 23 March 1948 |
| Docket Number | No. 12186.,12186. |
| Citation | 166 F.2d 697 |
| Parties | TATT v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Chester Bedell, Jos. M. Glickstein, and Joseph Hartman, all of Jacksonville, Fla., for petitioner.
Theron L. Caudle, Asst. Atty. Gen., Louise Foster, Sewall Key, and George A. Stinson, Sp. Assts. to Atty. Gen., and Charles Oliphant, Chief Counsel, Bureau of Internal Revenue, and Rollin H. Transue, Sp. Atty., Bureau of Internal Revenue, both of Washington, D. C., for respondent.
Before SIBLEY, WALLER, and LEE, Circuit Judges.
This is a petition for review of a decision by the Tax Court of the United States involving the correctness of the Tax Court's ruling which upheld the Commissioner in his disallowance of losses sustained by the petitioner in the operation of a twenty-acre farm in each of the years 1941, 1942, and 1943. The Commissioner held that the farm was not operated for profit and therefore did not constitute a business with respect to which losses might be deducted. The Tax Court affirmed, and this appeal followed.
Petitioner was born in Roumania and lived on his father's farm there until he came to this country in 1910. After arriving in America, he worked for two years on a farm in Rhode Island. In 1919, he moved to Jacksonville, Fla., and opened a produce business in which he has since been continuously engaged.
About the year 1932, petitioner conceived the idea that by raising some of the produce, especially vegetables and chickens, to be marketed in connection with his produce business, he could create additional income. In furtherance of this idea, he purchased twenty acres of land near Jacksonville, in a farming community. The land, for which he paid the sum of $3500, was unimproved. Following his purchase, he cleared and improved the land, purchased the necessary farm equipment and implements, built chicken houses, and started a poultry farm. A three-room house for a white family and a smaller house for a colored family were also built. Petitioner's total investment in buildings and equipment exceeded $7,000. Within two years, he had 4200 chickens on his farm and marketed fryers and eggs. At that time he had as many as six employees. During the year 1934, petitioner moved his wife to the farm, and in 1935 constructed a home there. The house cost him between $4,000 and $5,000.
From the very beginning, petitioner's farm operations resulted in loss; but trying in succession one thing after another, raising truck, raising citrus fruit, raising milch cows, he persisted in his attempts successfully to farm the land. During the tax...
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Whitman v. United States, Civ. A. No. 10518
...whether a taxpayer was engaged in a venture for profit or merely for pleasure is his intention at the outset. Tatt v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 166 F.2d 697 (5 Cir. 1948); Hirsch v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 315 F.2d 731 (9 Cir. Reg. § 1.165-6 states that, subject to certain......
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In re Ward
...on the presumption of law in favor of the Commissioner's assessment. A. & A. Tool & Supply Co. v. Commissioner, supra; Tatt v. Commissioner, 5 Cir., 166 F. 2d 697; Wilson v. Eisner, In the final analysis the question here is one of burden of proof. The government offered no witnesses; it de......
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Penton v. United States, 13408.
...is not necessary that the taxpayer be engaged in only one business. Marsch v. Commissioner, 7 Cir., 110 F. 2d 423, 424-425; Tatt v. Commissioner, 5 Cir., 166 F.2d 697. Under these tests the taxpayer qualified for the carry-back deduction unless the necessary continuity of his business was a......
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DuPont v. United States
...a taxpayer is engaged in a venture for profit or merely for pleasure is the intention of the taxpayer. Tatt v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 166 F.2d 697, 698 (5th Cir. 1948). It is not essential that the taxpayer be engaged solely in the one activity which he claims to be his business.......