Court Opinion

ID: 9469240
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:35:47.911956+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:17.947078
License: Public Domain

THORNBERR-Y, Circuit Judge, specially
concurring:
While I agree with the result reached by the majority, I view the issue of constructive receipt as presenting a much closer question for decision than the majority opinion suggests. In Williams v. United States, 219 F.2d 523 (5th Cir. 1955), this court refused to accept an escrow arrangement as an effective means of deferring taxable income because the purchase price was fully available to the taxpayers when the contract for sale was complete. The majority apparently would distinguish Williams on the ground that the Busbys, unlike the taxpayers in Williams, never received a letter of credit or any similar incidental benefit from the escrow account in 1973. Though I remain troubled by the seemingly broad language of Williams pertaining to self-imposed escrow agreements as a method of income deferral, the absence of any incidental benefit accruing to the Busbys from the escrow account in 1973 persuades me to concur in the judgment of the majority. See Griffith v. Commissioner, 73 T.C. 933 (1980), and Watson v. Commissioner, 69 T.C. 544 (1978) aff’d, 613 F.2d 594 (1980), where the Tax Court rejects escrow deferral arrangements when the bank issued the taxpayers letters of credit on the escrow account for the total deferred price within the tax year.