T.C. Memo. 2000-46
UNITED STATES TAX COURT
DAN E. AND SUSAN J. MARTENS, Petitioners v.
COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Respondent
Docket No. 4652-98. Filed February 10, 2000.
Lawrence R. Jones, Jr., for petitioners.
Candace M. Williams, for respondent.
MEMORANDUM FINDINGS OF FACT AND OPINION
FOLEY, Judge: By notice dated December 10, 1997, respondent
determined deficiencies of $21,977 and $7,266, and section
6662(a) penalties of $4,395 and $1,453, relating to petitioners’
1993 and 1994 Federal income taxes, respectively. All section
references are to the Internal Revenue Code in effect for the
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years in issue, and all Rule references are to the Tax Court
Rules of Practice and Procedure.
After concessions, the issues for decision are
whether petitioners are: (1) Entitled, pursuant to section 166,
to a business bad debt deduction relating to 1993; (2) entitled,
pursuant to section 162, to a business expense deduction
relating to 1994; and (3) liable, pursuant to section 6662(a),
for accuracy-related penalties relating to the deductions.
FINDINGS OF FACT
Mr. Martens, during adolescence, college, and law school,
worked at The Stork Shop, Inc. (the Stork Shop), a maternity wear
retail store owned by his mother, Estele Wooden. In 1966, she
gave him a joint tenancy with right of survivorship in the stock
of the Stork Shop. The store was located in Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma, approximately 200 miles from Dallas, Texas, where
petitioners, husband and wife, have resided and worked since
1982. Mr. Martens has been an attorney since 1974, and Ms.
Martens was a homemaker during the years in issue.
Ms. Wooden operated the Stork Shop until it ceased
operations in 1993. Mr. Martens made management decisions, and
Ms. Martens regularly bought apparel for and monitored inventory
levels at the store, but neither of them received any
compensation. Petitioners made a series of loans to the Stork
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Shop, and, on their 1993 tax return, deducted these loans as a
“business loan loss”.
In 1994, petitioners paid $10,745 to various creditors of
the Stork Shop for ordinary and necessary business expenses that
it had incurred. On their 1994 tax return, petitioners deducted
the $10,745 as business expenses relating to the Stork Shop.
OPINION
I. Bad Debt Deduction
Section 166 allows a deduction for any debt that becomes
worthless during the taxable year and distinguishes between
business and nonbusiness debts. A business bad debt must be
related to the taxpayer’s trade or business. See sec. 166(d)(2).
Respondent concedes that petitioners’ loans to the Stork
Shop became worthless in 1993, but we must determine whether
those loans related to petitioners’ trade or business. Although
they devoted time and energies to the affairs of the Stork Shop,
petitioners earned no income from the corporation. Cf. Whipple
v. Commissioner, 373 U.S. 193, 203 (1963) (stating that someone
in a trade or business gets “income received directly for his own
services rather than indirectly through the corporate
enterprise”). Petitioners’ efforts were consistent with those of
shareholders or of a dutiful son and daughter-in-law. See Garner
v. Commissioner, 987 F.2d 267, 271 (5th Cir. 1993) (upholding
conclusion that shareholder-employee’s motive was to protect his
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investment and not his salary, which was zero), affg. T.C. Memo.
1991-569. Mr. Martens was a full-time lawyer, and Ms. Martens
was a homemaker. They were not employees of the Stork Shop and
not in the trade or business of retailing maternity wear.
Accordingly, petitioners are not entitled to the business bad
debt deduction.
II. Expense Deduction
Section 162(a) provides that a taxpayer engaged in a trade
or business may deduct all ordinary and necessary expenses.
Petitioners have failed to establish that the Stork Shop was
their trade or business or that the $10,745 was ordinary and
necessary expenses of Mr. Martens’ law practice or law firm.
Moreover, the law firm and the Stork Shop are corporations.
Petitioners may not deduct the $10,745 of corporate expenses on
their personal return. See Deputy v. DuPont, 308 U.S. 488, 494
(1940) (stating that “well established decisions of this Court do
not permit any such blending of the corporation’s business with
the business of its stockholders.”); sec. 1.162-1(a), Income Tax
Regs. (stating that to be deductible, business expenses must be
“directly connected with or pertaining to the taxpayer’s trade or
business”). Accordingly, respondent’s determinations are
sustained.
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III. Accuracy-Related Penalties
Section 6662 imposes an accuracy-related penalty equal to 20
percent of any underpayment attributable to a substantial
understatement of income tax. See sec. 6662(a) and (b)(2).
Petitioners have not established, pursuant to section 6664(c)(1),
that there was a reasonable cause and that they acted in good
faith in claiming the deductions. Accordingly, petitioners are
liable for the accuracy-related penalties.
To reflect the foregoing,
Decision will be entered
under Rule 155.