2025-05-07
In April 2025, the Tax Court published 16 opinions, which included a total of 404 pages. Below are graphs for the month showing: (i) the top 15 code sections referenced, (ii) cases cited 5 or more times, (iii) the number of opinions by judge, and (iv) the number of pages by judge.
I am always interested in learning well-established tax principles. Often, court cases will explicitly indicate that a tax principle is well established or well settled. Or the court may concisely state the holding of a prior case in a parenthetical. Below are excerpts from the April 2025 Tax Court cases referring to these types of principles or holdings.
Dealers Auto Auction of Southwest LLC v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-38. (Buch)
Morales v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2012-341, at *7 n.2 (noting that reliance on tax preparation software might be sufficient to avoid a penalty where the taxpayer "has provided evidence demonstrating a programming flaw or an instructional error")
GWA, LLC v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-34. (Lauber)
Progressive Corp. & Subs. v. United States, 970 F.2d 188, 194 (6th Cir. 1992) (remanding to the District Court for a "determination of whether [certain] call options . . . were so deep-in-themoney as to be the equivalents of the contractual obligations to sell")
GWA, LLC v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-34. (Lauber)
Ragghianti v. Commissioner, 71 T.C. 346, 349-50 (1978) (adopting multifactor test to determine ownership of stock)
GWA, LLC v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-34. (Lauber)
Pac. Coast Music Jobbers, Inc. v. Commissioner, 55 T.C. 866, 876-78 (1971) (finding receipt of dividends to be a factor indicating ownership of stock)
GWA, LLC v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-34. (Lauber)
Estate of Stamos v. Commissioner, 55 T.C. 468, 474 (1970) ("Oversight, poor judgment, ignorance of the law, misunderstanding of the law, unawareness of the tax consequences of making an election, miscalculation, and unexpected subsequent events have all been held insufficient to mitigate the binding effect of elections . . . .")
GWA, LLC v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-34. (Lauber)
Rankin v. Commissioner, 138 F.3d at 1288 (noting that an item is "material" when it affects the timing of reporting income as opposed to "how much income is reported")
GWA, LLC v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-34. (Lauber)
Diebold, Inc. v. United States, 891 F.2d 1579, 1583 (Fed. Cir. 1989) (finding a change in accounting method where nondepreciable inventory was recharacterized as a depreciable capital asset)
Pierce v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-29. (Greaves)
It is well established that the value of an asset on a tax return is an admission against interest by the taxpayer when it conflicts with his subsequent valuation position.
Zajac v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-33. (Kerrigan)
United States v. Gilmore, 372 U.S. 39, 49 (1963) (holding that "the origin and character of the claim with respect to which an expense was incurred . . . is the controlling basic test" for deductibility)
Zajac v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-33. (Kerrigan)
Maniscalco v. Commissioner, 632 F.2d 6, 7-8 (6th Cir. 1980) ("The expenditure of . . . labor does not constitute the payment of an expense within the meaning of [section] 162.")
Zajac v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-33. (Kerrigan)
Morales v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2012-341, at *6 ("[T]he misuse of tax preparation software, even if unintentional or accidental, is no defense to penalties under section 6662.")
In April 2025, the IRS published 7 Announcements, Notices, Revenue Procedures, and Revenue Rulings, which included a total of 49 pages.
In April 2025, the IRS published 66 Written Determinations, which included a total of 377 pages.
