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19 B.T.A. 895

Harris v. Commissioner

United States Board of Tax Appeals · decided 1930-05-09

The petitioner is the principal stockholder of a corporation to which he advanced on open account $6,800 to December 10, 1924. The corporation had not sufficient funds or assets to pay its indebtedness. The petitioner, who was the principal creditor, accepted the corporation's note for $1,500 in settlement of its obligation to him. He charged off the balance of $5,300 on his books of account as a bad debt.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1930-05-09

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently August 1970

1 federal appellate ·

2019301940195019601970decided

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*896OPINION.

Smith:

¶2Section 214(a) of the Revenue Act of 1924 provides that an individual in computing net income shall be allowed, among others, the following deductions:

(7) Debts ascertained to be worthless and charged off within the taxable year …; and when satisfied that a debt is recoverable only in part, the Commissioner may allow such debt to be charged off in part.

¶3The deduction of the alleged bad debt in the amount of $5,300 has been disallowed by the respondent upon the ground that the petitioner, almost the only stockholder of the corporation, to save the *897corporation from bankruptcy, canceled a portion of the corporation’s indebtedness to him and that the transaction was in the nature of a capital contribution by the petitioner.

¶4We are of the opinion that the transaction by which the petitioner advanced money to the corporation was in good faith. The results of operations in 1924 proved to be disastrous. There can be no question as to the advancement of the moneys by the petitioner nor any question as to the fact that the corporation was not at the close of 1924 in a position to pay more than a small portion of its indebtedness. It had but few assets of value. Upon the record we are of the opinion that the $5,300 claimed as a deduction constituted a bad debt ascertained to be worthless and charged off within the year.

¶5Judgment will l>e entered for the petitioner.

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