Turner v. Commissioner

Last updated
Turner v. Commissioner
Seal of the United States Tax Court.svg
Court United States Tax Court
Full case nameReginald Turner and Marie Terrell Turner v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue
DecidedMay 13, 1954 (1954-05-13)
Citation(s) T.C. Memo 1954-38; 13 T.C.M. (CCH) 462 (1954)
Court membership
Judge(s) sitting J. Edgar Murdock
Case opinions
Decision byMurdock
Laws applied
Internal Revenue Code
Keywords

Turner v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo 1954-38 (T.C. 1954) [1] was a United States Tax Court case, concerning the proper valuation for tax purposes of lottery winnings.

Contents

Background

Prize won

Reginald Turner won 2 first class steamship tickets from New York City to Buenos Aires on a radio call-in show. His name had been selected by chance from a telephone book, he was called on the telephone on April 18, 1948 and was asked to name a song that was being played on a radio program. He gave the correct name of the song and then was given the opportunity to identify a second song and thus to compete for a grand prize. He correctly identified the second song and in consideration of his efforts was awarded a number of prizes, including two round trip first-class steamship tickets for a cruise between New York City and Buenos Aires. The prize was to be one ticket if the winner was unmarried, but, if he was married, his wife was to receive a ticket also. The tickets were not transferable and were good only within one year on a sailing date approved by the agent of the steamship company.

Exchanged prize

Marie, his wife, was born in Brazil. The petitioners had two sons. Reginald negotiated with the agent of the steamship company, as a result of which he surrendered his rights to the two first-class tickets, and upon payment of $12.50 received four round trip tourist steamship tickets between New York City and Rio de Janeiro. The petitioners and their two sons used those tickets in making a trip from New York City to Rio de Janeiro and return during 1948.

The award of the tickets to Reginald represented income to him in the amount of $1,400.

Tax return/issues

In their joint return for 1948 with the collector of internal revenue for the District of North Carolina, the Turners reported the award of the two tickets as $520 worth of income. The Commissioner, in determining the deficiency, increased the income from this source to $2,220, the retail price of such tickets.

The question for decision was the amount which should be included in income: the retail price of the tickets won, or the amount at the Turners reported the award.

Opinion of the court

Persons desiring to buy round trip first-class tickets between New York and Buenos Aires in April 1948, similar to those to which the petitioners were entitled, would have had to pay $2,220 for them. The petitioners, however, were not such persons. The winning of the tickets did not provide them with something which they needed in the ordinary course of their lives and for which they would have made an expenditure in any event, but merely gave them an opportunity to enjoy a luxury otherwise beyond their means. Their value to the petitioners was not equal to their retail cost. They were not transferable and not salable and there were other restrictions on their use. But even had the petitioner been permitted to sell them, his experience with other more salable articles indicates that he would have had to accept substantially less than the cost of similar tickets purchased from the steamship company and would have had selling expenses. Probably the petitioners could have refused the tickets and avoided the tax problem. Nevertheless, in order to obtain such benefits as they could from winning the tickets, they actually took a cruise accompanied by their two sons, thus obtaining free board, some savings in living expenses, and the pleasure of the trip. It seems proper that a substantial amount should [*4] be included in their income for 1948 on account of the winning of the tickets. The problem of arriving at a proper fair figure for this purpose is difficult. The evidence to assist is meager, perhaps unavoidably so. The Court, under such circumstances, must arrive at some figure and has done so. Cf. Cohan v. Commissioner, 39 Fed. (2d) 540. [1] [2]

Related Research Articles

Old Colony Trust Co. v. Commissioner, 279 U.S. 716 (1929), was an income tax case before the Supreme Court of the United States.

Eva Perón Foundation

The Eva Perón Foundation was a charitable foundation begun by Eva Perón, a prominent Argentine political leader, when she was the First Lady and Spiritual Leader of the Nation of Argentina. It operated from 1948 to 1955.

For federal income tax purposes, the doctrine of constructive receipt is used to determine when a cash-basis taxpayer has received gross income. A taxpayer is subject to tax in the current year if he or she has unfettered control in determining when items of income will or should be paid. Unlike actual receipt, constructive receipt does not require physical possession of the item of income in question.

Zwi Migdal Protestution ring

Zwi Migdal was an organized-crime group by Polish Jewish individuals, founded in Poland and based mainly in Argentina, that trafficked in Jewish women from Central Europe for sexual slavery and forced prostitution.

Crane v. Commissioner, 331 U.S. 1 (1947), was a case heard before the United States Supreme Court concerning the value, for tax purposes, of inherited property with a nonrecourse mortgage encumbering it. According to Boris I. Bittker, Crane "laid the foundation stone of most tax shelters."

<i>Jenkins v. Commissioner</i>

In Jenkins v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo 1983-667, the U.S. Tax Court held that the payments Conway Twitty, a country singer, made to investors in a defunct restaurant business known as "Twitty Burger, Inc." were deductible under § 162 of the Internal Revenue Code as ordinary and necessary business expenses of petitioner's business as a country music performer.

Rules concerning income tax and gambling vary internationally.

<i>Teschner v. Commissioner</i>

Teschner v. Commissioner, 38 T.C. 1003 (1962) was a tax-law case involving the United States IRS in 1962.

<i>Carpenter v. Commissioner</i>

Carpenter v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1966-228 (1966) was a case decided by the United States Tax Court. Carpenter v. Commissioner addressed the issue of whether a husband and wife could deduct the aggregate fair market value of the wife’s engagement ring from their income tax return, as a casualty loss under §165(a) and (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, after the husband inadvertently dropped the ring in their garbage disposal.

<i>Salvatore v. Commissioner</i>

Salvatore v. Commissioner is an opinion from the United States Tax Court that holds that a taxpayer cannot avoid paying taxes on the sale of property by first conveying that property to someone else. This opinion was later affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. This case outlines some limitations on the "fruit-and-tree" metaphor established in Lucas v. Earl, 281 U.S. 111 (1930) and further developed in Helvering v. Horst, 311 U.S. 112 (1940). Decided in 1970, the case arose when a taxpayer tried to avoid paying capital gains tax from sale of property by giving a share in that property to her children. She then paid a gift tax, which is significantly less than the tax on the gain would have been if she had not given a share to her children.

<i>Mt. Morris Drive-in Theatre Co. v. Commissioner</i>

Mt. Morris Drive-in Theatre Co. v. Commissioner, 25 T.C. 272 (1955), was a case in which the court considered whether the $8,224 spent to construct a drive-in theatre's drainage system was deductible as an ordinary and necessary business expense, as a loss or if it was a non-depreciable capital expenditure. The court held that it was a capital expenditure.

Schlude v. Commissioner, 372 U.S. 128 (1963), is a decision by the United States Supreme Court in which the Court held that, under the accrual method, taxpayers must include as income in a particular year advance payments by way of cash, negotiable notes, and contract installments falling due but remaining unpaid during that year. In doing so, the Court tossed aside the matching principle in favor of the earlier-of test.

The 861 argument is a statutory argument used by tax protesters in the United States, which interprets a portion of the Internal Revenue Code as invalidating certain applications of income tax. The argument has uniformly been held by courts to be incorrect, and persons who have cited the argument as a basis for refusing to pay income taxes have been penalized, and in some cases jailed.

Tax protester Sixteenth Amendment arguments are assertions that the imposition of the U.S. federal income tax is illegal because the Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which reads "The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration", was never properly ratified, or that the amendment provides no power to tax income. Proper ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment is disputed by tax protesters who argue that the quoted text of the Amendment differed from the text proposed by Congress, or that Ohio was not a State during ratification, despite its admission to the Union on March 1st, 1803. Sixteenth Amendment ratification arguments have been rejected in every court case where they have been raised and have been identified as legally frivolous.

Dobson v. Commissioner, 320 U.S. 489 (1943), was a United States Supreme Court case related to income tax.

Clark v. Commissioner, 40 B.T.A. 333 (1939) was an important early United States income tax case.

Jordan Marsh Co. v. Commissioner, 269 F.2d 453 was a United States income tax case decided by the Second Circuit.

Cressington Court was a 7,359 GRT cargo ship that was built in 1943 as Empire Earl by William Doxford & Sons Ltd, Sunderland, Co Durham, United Kingdom for the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT). In 1945, she was sold into merchant service and renamed Cressington Court. A further sale in 1958 saw her renamed East Wales. She was sold again in 1966 and renamed Universal Skipper, serving until she was scrapped in November 1970.

Fayga Ostrower

Fayga Perla Ostrower was a Polish-Brazilian engraver, painter, designer, illustrator, art theorist and university professor.

SS <i>Brazil</i> (1928)

SS Brazil was a US turbo-electric ocean liner. She was completed in 1928 as Virginia, and refitted and renamed Brazil in 1938. From 1942 to 1946 she was the War Shipping Administration operated troopship Brazil. She was laid up in 1958 and scrapped in 1964.

References

  1. 1 2 Turner v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo 1954-38 (T.C. 1954).
  2. Cohan v. Commissioner, 39F.2d540 (2d. Cir.1930).