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12 T.C. 201

Odle v. Commissioner

United States Tax Court

Decided February 16, 1949

United States Tax Court · decided 1949-02-16

Family Partnership -- Wife Recognized. -- A husband who managed a business but who contributed only a small percentage of the capital, is not taxable on his wife's share of the partnership income where the wife's mother contributed most of the capital and dictated the terms of the partnership agreement, including the provision that his wife should have a one-fourth interest and where the wife contributed more capital than the husband and took an active part in partnership…

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently March 1952

Relies on Commissioner v. Tower · Lusthaus v. Commissioner · Anderson v. Commissioner

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1949-02-16

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¶1OPINION.

Mttjrdock, Judge:

¶2This is not a family partnership case in which a husband attempts to divide his successful business for tax purposes by gifts to his wife. Cf. Commissioner v. Tower, 327 U. S. 280; Lusthaus v. Commissioner, 327 U. S. 293. This petitioner had no assets to give when this partnership was formed. His mother-in-law decided to give him an opportunity to operate a business. She supplied most of the money, without which there-would have been no business, no partnership, and no income to tax, and she dictated the terms of the oral .partnership agreement. She named her daughter as an equal partner with the petitioner. The latter was entirely satisfied to receive a one-fourth interest as his share. He had no money and his managerial abilities were then untried and unproven. Furthermore, Ruth contributed some of her own money to the business at the beginning. She assumed the risk involved. She also contributed services in the office for a few years but they were not “vital.” She actively participated in the firm councils and exercised her rights as a partner in making decisions, sometimes being the deciding factor on important decisions. She was intended to be and she was a real partner, not a sham one. Her right to one-fourth of the 1944 income is not to be denied merely because no account was set up in her name on the partnership books until after 1944. Willis B. Anderson, 6 T. C. 956. Those books were clumsily kept, which is an explanation but a poor excuse. She made withdrawals freely, many for her own purposes. The petitioner had no right to Ruth’s share of the partnership income and the Commissioner erred in taxing it to him, since Ruth was a real partner. Cf. Willis B. Anderson, supra.

¶3Decision will he entered under Bule 50.

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