capital asset
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 302 U.S. 238 - Helvering v. Gowran · 1937Most cited · 1,833 citing opinions
stock dividend holding period
Whether taxed by Congress or not, it was income, substantially equivalent for income tax purposes to cash or property... In no sense, therefore, can it be said to have been 'held' by Gowran prior to its declaration.
How the Supreme Court has restated “capital asset”
Each Supreme Court definition of “capital asset,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “capital asset”
Court decisions citing the 4 opinions that defined “capital asset” — 2,712 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 4 definitions, chronological · 1937–1972
the term 'capital asset' is to be construed narrowly in accordance with the purpose of Congress to afford capital-gains treatment only in situations typically involving the realization of appreciation in value accrued over a substantial period of time, and thus to ameliorate the hardship of taxation of the entire gain in one year
not everything which can be called property in the ordinary sense and which is outside the statutory exclusions qualifies as a capital asset. This Court has long held that the term 'capital asset' is to be construed narrowly in accordance with the purpose of Congress to afford capital gains treatment only in situations typically involving the realization of appreciation in value accrued over a substantial period of time, and thus to ameliorate the hardship of taxation of the entire gain in one year.
Since the security is of value in more than one taxable year, it is a capital asset within the meaning of § 1221 of the Internal Revenue Code, and its cost is nondeductible.