Nusbaum v. Commissioner

Decided February 13, 1928

United States Board of Tax Appeals · decided 1928-02-13

Petitioner and another party employed a geologist to investigate the oil possibilities of a certain tract of land. After investigation the geologist advised the acquisition of a lease on such land. Held: that the amounts so paid were capital expenditures.

Relies on Appeal of McCandless · D. N. & E. Walter & Co. v. Commissioner · Crompton Bldg. Corp. v. Commissioner

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1928-02-13

How this case has been cited

Cited by 5 later decisions — most recently August 1946

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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¶1 *665OPINION.

Lansdon:

¶2The only question here is whether the amount paid by the petitioner to Carney was a capital expenditure or an expense in the nature of a fee for professional services. Even if the payment was a fee for services rendered, the respondent maintains that it was not an expense deductible from gross income of the petitioner for the taxable year, but a capital outlay incident to the acquisition of the lease.

¶3Upon authority of many cases already decided by the Board, we must approve the determination of the respondent. Appeal of Crompton Building Corporation, 2 B. T. A. 1056; Appeal of D. N. & E. Walter & Co., 4 B. T. A. 142; Appeal of Lincoln L. McCandless, 5 B. T. A. 1114.

¶4No evidence relating to the deficiency for 1921 having been presented, the determination of the respondent is approved.

¶5Reviewed by the Board.

¶6Judgment will Toe entered for the respondent.