Alioto v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-125. (Urda)

Rodriguez v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2009-22 (stating, with respect to the Cohan rule, that "we can't just guess")

Alioto v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-125. (Urda)

Hopkins v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2005-49 ("A taxpayer's general statement that his or her expenses were incurred in pursuit of a trade or business is not sufficient to establish that the expenses had a reasonably direct relationship to any such trade or business.")

Alioto v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-125. (Urda)

Hughes v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2015-89 ("As a general matter, a donor does not realize income from making a gift.")

Alioto v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-125. (Urda)

But see Peracchi v. Commissioner, 143 F.3d 487, 493 n.14 (9th Cir. 1998) (finding basis in the face amount of a promissory note "contributed to an operating business which is subject to a non-trivial risk of bankruptcy or receivership")

Bederman v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-127. (Copeland)

It is well settled that the payment of an obligation of a preceding owner of property by the person acquiring such property, whether or not such obligation was fixed, contingent, or even known at the time such property was acquired, is not an ordinary and necessary business expense. Rather, when paid, such payment is a capital expenditure which becomes part of the cost basis of the acquired property.

Bederman v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-127. (Copeland)

Beatty v. Commissioner, 106 T.C. 268, 273 (1996); Treas. Reg. § 1.61-3(a) ("In a manufacturing, merchandising, or mining business, 'gross income' means the total sales, less the cost of goods sold, plus any income from investments and from incidental or outside operations or sources.")

Bederman v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-127. (Copeland)

Guy F. Atkinson Co. of Cal. v. Commissioner, 82 T.C. 275, 298 (1984) ("[W]here a business is engaged primarily in the providing of service, rather than mining, manufacturing, or merchandising, the business gross receipts will constitute gross income [without any reduction for cost of goods sold].")

Bederman v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-127. (Copeland)

Hahn v. Commissioner, 30 T.C. 195, 198 (1958) (holding that amounts claimed by a blacksmith-welding business as cost of goods sold were claimed improperly, since the business was selling "not a material product" but rather "services")

Bederman v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-127. (Copeland)

INDOPCO, Inc. v. Commissioner, 503 U.S. at 84 ("The notion that deductions are exceptions to the norm of capitalization finds support in various aspects of the Code. Deductions are specifically enumerated and thus are subject to disallowance in favor of capitalization.")

Bederman v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-127. (Copeland)

United States v. Gilmore, 372 U.S. 39, 49 (1963) ("[T]he origin and character of the claim with respect to which an expense was incurred, rather than its potential consequences upon the fortunes of the taxpayer, is the controlling basic test of whether the expense was 'business' or 'personal' and hence whether it is deductible or not . . . .")

Chernomordikov v. Commr., T.C. Memo. 2025-129. (Pugh)

We also have held that "[t]he use of funds for personal purposes indicates dominion and control, even if these funds are in an account titled in a name other than the taxpayer's." E.g., Edwards v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2016-117, at *15.

Mission Organic Center, Inc. v. Commr., 165 T.C. No. 13 (2025). (Buch)

Cunningham v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2014-200, at *15 (holding that the Commissioner's policy of not entering into offers-in-compromise or installment agreements with taxpayers who are not up to date in filing required tax returns is not an abuse of discretion)

Mission Organic Center, Inc. v. Commr., 165 T.C. No. 13 (2025). (Buch)

Conn. Nat'l Bank v. Germain, 503 U.S. 249, 253-54 (1992) ("[C]ourts must presume that a legislature says in a statute what it means and means in a statute what it says there.")

Mission Organic Center, Inc. v. Commr., 165 T.C. No. 13 (2025). (Buch)

Cent. Laborers' Pension Fund v. Heinz, 541 U.S. 739, 748 (2004) ("[N]either an unreasoned statement in the manual nor allegedly longstanding agency practice can trump a formal regulation . . . .")

Mission Organic Center, Inc. v. Commr., 165 T.C. No. 13 (2025). (Buch)

"[I]t 'is a well-settled principle that the [IRM] . . . is not binding on the [Commissioner].'" See Palmolive Bldg. Invs., LLC v. Commissioner, 152 T.C. 75, 85 (2019) (quoting Thompson v. Commissioner, 140 T.C. 173, 190 n.16 (2013)).

Mission Organic Center, Inc. v. Commr., 165 T.C. No. 13 (2025). (Buch)

It has also held that internal agency guidelines that are not sent through notice-and-comment rulemaking are mere "interpretive" rules, and do not "have the force of law." Erringer v. Thompson, 371 F.3d 625, 630 (9th Cir. 2004).

Mission Organic Center, Inc. v. Commr., 165 T.C. No. 13 (2025). (Buch)

It further held that only legislative rules, not interpretive rules, "can amend a prior legislative rule."

Mize Farm, LLC v. Commr., . (Buch)

Wortmann v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2005-227 (finding that the most persuasive evidence of the property's fair market value was its actual sale price 17 months before the contribution)

Mize Farm, LLC v. Commr., . (Buch)

Chandler v. Commissioner, 142 T.C. 279, 293 (2014) ("The [Pension Protection Act of 2006, Pub. L. No. 109-280, 120 Stat. at 1083] . . . eliminated the reasonable cause exception for gross valuation misstatements of charitable contribution property.")

Riddle Aggregates, LLC v. Commr., 165 T.C. No. 12 (2025). (Kerrigan)

Mathes v. Commissioner, 576 F.2d 70, 71-72 (5th Cir. 1978) ("[A] taxpayer who elects to bring his suit in the Tax Court has no right, statutory or constitutional, to a trial by jury.")

Riddle Aggregates, LLC v. Commr., 165 T.C. No. 12 (2025). (Kerrigan)

"It is well settled that there is no right or mechanism to a trial by jury in either this Court or the Court of Federal Claims." Silver Moss Props., LLC, 165 T.C., slip. op. at 4-5.