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5 T.C. 1032

Marshall v. Commissioner

United States Tax Court

Decided November 5, 1945

United States Tax Court · decided 1945-11-05

Petitioners, residents of California, claimed deductions on their returns computed on community property basis, for legal fees and expenses paid during the taxable years for services rendered in… Held: under section 23 (a) (2) of the Internal Revenue Code, that petitioner Herbert Marshall is entitled to deduction for the legal expenses claimed by him.

Relies on Bingham's Trust v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue · Cammack v. Commissioner

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decisions will be entered under Rule 50 · Decided 1945-11-05

How this case has been cited

Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently June 1968

60194519501960decided

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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¶1OPINION.

Turner, Judge:

¶2Petitioners contend that the payments for legal fees and expenses were ordinary and necessary for the conservation of property held for the production of income. Respondent’s contention is that the expenditures were nothing more than personal.

¶3Since the briefs have been filed in this case, the United States Supreme Court rendered its opinion in Bingham Trust v. Commissioner, 325 U. S. 365, in which it held that the taxpayer trustees were entitled to deduct as nonbusiness expenses, under section 23 (a) (2) of the Internal Revenue Code, counsel fees and expenses paid in contesting unsuccessfully an income tax deficiency and fees paid for legal advice in connection with the payment of a cash legacy and in connection with tax and other problems arising upon expiration of the trust and relating to the final distribution of a trust fund among three residuary legatees. On July 19, 1945, this Court, in Howard E. Cammack, 5 T. C. 467, followed the Supreme Court’s decision in the Bingham case, and held that legal fees incurred in connection with litigation for refund of income taxes that were paid as a result of disallowance of a deduction were deductible under section 23 (a) (2), supra.

¶4The rationale of these cases is applicable to petitioner Herbert Marshall, and the deductions claimed by him for legal fees and expenses paid during the taxable years shall be allowed.

¶5The deductions claimed by petitioner Elizabeth R. Marshall for the legal fees and expenses paid during the taxable years are disallowed, for the reason that such expenditures were for services rendered to someone other than this petitioner to conserve community income in which she had no interest. The liabilty was related to the community of Herbert Marshall and his former wife. It had no connection with the community of petitioners.

¶6Decisions will be entered v/nder Rule 50.

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