2010-05-30
Continuing our series on Famous Tax Quotes (quotes from court opinions with language that is colorful or that concisely states an important tax principle), today's tax quote is:
[T]he fact a taxpayer is a broker does not require a determination that he is in the business of buying and selling real estate for his own account (in other words, a dealer).
A broker is, in effect, a middleman or go-between who brings buyers and sellers together and who receives compensation for such efforts in the form of commissions. Brokerage activities necessarily relate to property owned by others. The activities of a dealer, on the other hand, more closely resemble those performed by a merchant or retailer of goods. A dealer is a person who buys and sells property as stock in trade for his own account.
Although a taxpayer can be both a broker and a dealer, the two terms are not synonymous.
Buono v. Commissioner, 74 T.C. 187 (1980) (citations omitted)