Court Opinion

ID: 9642468
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:59:07.480537+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:48.254907
License: Public Domain

MARTIN, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
This case was, in my judgment, correctly decided by the Tax Court upon its findings of fact, amply supported by evidence, that the petitioner’s wife made no actual *392contribution, either of capital or of services, to the partnership, had no voice in its conduct, and received a portion of the profits, not really as a partner, but only by virtue of her marital relationship; and that there was no real partnership between the petitioner and his wife for the conduct of a business enterprise. The petitioner, being the person who earned the income which was credited to his wife’s account, was, therefore, taxable on the income which he sought to attribute to his wife.
In my view, the opinion of the Tax Court, moreover, conforms to the reasoning of the Supreme Court authorities which it cites, and also to the rationale of Mead v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 5 Cir., 131 F.2d 323, and Earp v. Jones, 10 Cir., 131 F.2d 292, both of which cases seem closely in point. Humphreys v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 2 Cir., 88 F.2d 430, seems to me to be far afield from the case at bar in factual circumstances.
Even were I in disagreement with the inferences drawn by the Tax Court, the strong inhibitions which, to my thinking, have been placed by the highest authority upon the function of appellate court review in a tax case of this character would prevent my concurrence in reversal. Reference is made to expressions of the Supreme Court in Dobson v. Commissioner, 320 U.S. 489, 498, 501, 502, 64 S.Ct. 239, 88 L.Ed. 248; Commissioner v. Heininger, 320 U.S. 467, 475, 64 S.Ct. 249, 88 L.Ed. 171; Commissioner v. Scottish American Investment Company, 323 U.S. 119, 124, 125, 65 S.Ct. 169; and Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Wemyss, 65 S.Ct. 652. Cf. Merrill v. Fahs, U. S. Collector of Internal Revenue, 65 S.Ct. 655.