Capital assets
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 350 U.S. 46 - Corn Products Refining Company v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue · 1955Most cited · 1,577 citing opinions
Congress intended that profits and losses arising from the everyday operation of a business be considered as ordinary income or loss rather than capital gain or loss. The preferential treatment provided by § 117 applies to transactions in property which are not the normal source of business income. It was intended 'to relieve the taxpayer from * * * excessive tax burdens on gains resulting from a conversion of capital investments, and to remove the deterrent effect of those burdens on such conversions.' … the definition of a capital asset must be narrowly applied and its exclusions interpreted broadly.
How often courts cite the cases defining “Capital assets”
Court decisions citing the 2 opinions that defined “Capital assets” — 2,146 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 2 definitions, chronological · 1934–1955
- ORIGINAL
property acquired and held by the taxpayer for profit or investment for more than two years