Source: http://www.halestewartlaw.com/blog
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 14:24:38+00:00

Document:
A taxpayer may deduct all interest paid or accrued within the taxable year on indebtedness.
Number 1 – the actual text of §163(a) – suffers from the same awkward and convoluted wording of many tax code sentences. The second sentence employs a clear, “subject, verb, predicate” structure that a reader can quickly grasp. While the second sentence is editorially preferable, we’re stuck with the first sentence.
The statute’s first four words follow a pattern similar to §162 – a dummy subject followed by a verb phrase where “shall” is substituted for “will,” to indicate future tense. The verb “allow” means, “to let someone … do something.” The complete impact of the first four words is that the government is granting taxpayers permission to do something. Ideally, the next five words would clearly tell the taxpayer what that is.
Generally, under an accrual method, income is to be included for the taxable year when all the events have occurred that fix the right to receive the income and the amount of the income can be determined with reasonable accuracy.
The preposition “on” has numerous meanings. It’s use in the phrase “on indebtedness” connotes, “used to indicates a source or basis.” There are several ways to defines indebtedness. I like the definition contained in UCC §3-104(a): “an unconditional promise or order to pay fixed amount of money, with or without interest or other charges described in the promise or order.” While this is the definition of a check, it has the same elements as a debt and is a well-written sentence.
What Can a Business Deduct? Practically Anything, Part II.
In my last post on business deductions, I argued that the statutory language of §162 allows taxpayers to deduct a wide range of business expenditures. The Treasury Regulations support that analysis, largely due to a verb and preposition contained in the opening paragraph of the accompanying regulations.
“Include,” is a transitive verb that means, “to … comprise as a part of a whole or group.” The verb’s object is a member of a larger category of items. For example, “The complete list of Hall of Fame Baseball players incudes Joe DiMaggio.” The verb’s object (Joe DiMaggio) is a member of a larger group (all the members of the Baseball Hall of Fame). The opening paragraph of the §162 Treasury Regulations states, “Business expenses deductible from gross income include the ordinary and necessary expenditures directly connected with or pertaining to the taxpayer's trade or business…” This sentence is clear: the large number of deductions allowed thanks to the adjectives, “ordinary” and “necessary” are part of an even larger group of allowed expenses.
Among the items included in business expenses are management expenses, commissions), … labor, supplies, incidental repairs, operating expenses of automobiles used in the trade or business, traveling expenses while away from home solely in the pursuit of a trade or business (see § 1.162-2), advertising and other selling expenses, together with insurance premiums against fire, storm, theft, accident, or other similar losses in the case of a business, and rental for the use of business property.
This is a fairly broad list of potential deductions, covering most of the major expenses taken by a business. The preposition “among” means that this list is non-exhaustive – it is part of a larger number of potential deductions.
Finally, the Treasury Regulations contain 35 specific entries that explain a number of specific deductions. This is the final piece of evidence supporting the contention that the tax laws grant the taxpayer broad discretion to deduction expenses incurred in the production of income.
 Merriam-Webster online dictionary, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/include, last visited on February 11, 2019.

References: §163
 §162
 §3
 §162
 §162
 § 1