Welch v. Helvering’s Empirical Analysis
290 U.S. 111 · 1933
Citation profile
2,281 federal appellate · 163 district · 58 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 14,753 later decisions (53 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2026 · most notably Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Duberstein D Stanton (1960), Deputy v. du Pont (1940)
2,281 federal appellate · 163 district · 58 state decisions — followed in 18 states
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.
Appellate journey
reviewedWelch v. Commissioner (from Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 26 U.S.C. § 955
Relies on M'Culloch v. State of Maryland · Old Colony Co v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue · Kornhauser v. United States · Wickwire v. Reinecke
Cited together with Deputy v. du Pont · Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Heininger · New Colonial Ice Co. v. Helvering · Helvering v. Taylor · Kornhauser v. United States
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 14,753 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“has the support of a presumption of correctness, and the petitioner has the burden of proving it to be wrong.”
130 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“all the ordinary and necessary expenses paid or incurred during the taxable year in carrying on any trade or business”
94 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“rather in the nature of capital expenditures, an outlay for the development of reputation and good will.”
3 later decisions 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.