Wodehouse v. Commissioner’s Empirical Analysis
177 F.2d 881 · 1949
Citation profile
16 federal appellate · 1 district · 3 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 31 later decisions — most recently February 2006 · most notably Fairmont Aluminum Co. v. Commissioner (1955), 215 Ill. App. 3d 763 - In Re Marriage of Davis (1991)
16 federal appellate · 1 district · 3 state decisions
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.
Relationships
Applies 26 U.S.C. § 211
Relies on Commissioner v. Sunnen · Helvering v. Taylor · Cohan v. Commissioner · Helvering v. Horst · Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Culbertson
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 31 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“`The power to dispose of income is the equivalent of ownership of it,' Helvering v. Horst, 311 U.S. 112 , 118, 61 S.Ct. 144, 147, 85 L.Ed. 75, 131 A.L.R. 655; and my brothers concede, as in the light of Helvering v. Eubank, 311 U.S. 122 , 61 S.Ct. 149, 85 L.Ed. 81, they must, that if Wodehouse had given his wife a half-interest in the royalties after he had sold the novel, the income would be taxable to him. To let him escape taxation because the assignment was made before, rather than after, the assured sale of the novel seems to me to rely on the kind of nice distinction which the Supreme Court has often told us is not to be permitted to inhibit the taxing power. Our decision seems to me to provide a very easy way around taxes from property, over which in the eyes of the world the taxpayer retains full control.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“The respondent asserts that this case falls within the rule that formal assignments of property, of which the assignor by virtue of his control remains in substance, or for practical purposes, the true owner, are not operative to relieve the assignor from tax on the income from the property which is paid to his assignee. He contends that the situation is essentially the same as in Helvering v. Eubank, 311 U.S. 122 , 61 S.Ct. 149, 85 L.Ed. 81. We think that case distinguishable. There the donor assigned the right to collect insurance commissions on a contract already performed by him. Here the donor had no contract right to royalties when he made the gift.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“In my opinion the testimony of Mr. Reynolds furnished sufficient evidence that the purchaser bought the Canadian rights, as well as the American, and that the Canadian rights had some independent value. Accordingly I think it was an error for the Tax Court to refuse to allocate any part of the purchase price to the Canadian rights and I would remand the cause with directions that such an allocation be made.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.