Harrington v. Commissioner’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate ·

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 30 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The expression “in trade” in paragraph (b) of the Revenue Act of 1913, which allowed as a deduction losses actually sustained during the year incurred in trade, and the expression a “ trade or business ” contained in section 209 of the Revenue Act of 1917, which imposes a profits tax of 8 per cent on trades or businesses having no invested capital, or only a nominal capital, have been defined by the United States District Court in the case of Woods v. Lewellyn, 289 Fed. 498 , and by the United States Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Mente v. Eisner, 266 Fed. 161 . In the case of Mente v. Eisner, supra, the court quoted Treasury Decision 2090 and approved it, stating as follows: We think that the language “ losses incurred in trade ” is correctly construed by the Treasury Department as meaning in the actual business of the taxpayer as distinguished from isolated transactions. If it had been intended to permit all losses to be deducted it would have been easy to say so. Some effect must be given to the words “ in trade.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Rehm v. Commissioner

2. “In effect it interprets that section as placing a tax upon the vocation of a man who had done business during the year without invested capital. It taxes only income derived from activities in the exercise of the regular occupation, not sums earned incidentally by activities outside that regular occupation.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Rehm v. Commissioner