10 T.C.M. 186 | Tax Ct. | 1951
RAUM, Judge: The respondent determined a deficiency in the income tax of petitioner for the calendar year 1945 in the amount of $1,655.27. The sole question is whether the petitioner has sustained his burden of proving that his deductions for business expenses, properly allowable under the provisions of
[The Facts]
The petitioner is a resident of Milton, Massachusetts, and during the year 1945 lived at 29 Washington Street in that city. He filed his income tax return for 1945, on the cash receipts and disbursements basis, with the collector of internal revenue for the district of Massachusetts.
Petitioner is a manufacturer's representative. He represents seven or eight manufacturers in the automotive industry, selling their parts and equipment to wholesalers on a commission basis. There were about 250 automotive wholesalers in New England, and petitioner traveled throughout that territory calling on them. His sales were confined to this territory. About 20 per cent of his customers were in the Greater Boston area. The remaining 80 per cent were in other parts of New England.
Although petitioner had a telephone listing at 36 Cummington Street in Boston and made and received telephone calls there, practically all of his office work was done at his home in Milton. It was his custom to call on all of his customers as often as he could in the course of a year. He had more accounts in Boston than in any other city in New England.
The petitioner usually left1951 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 311">*313 the area of Metropolitan Boston on a Monday and returned home on Thursday, or left on Tuesday and returned home on Friday, thus spending Friday and Saturday, or Saturday and Monday, in the area of Metropolitan Boston. Sometimes, however, he would be in Metropolitan Boston only on one day a week, as on Saturday, while on other occasions he might be in that area longer if he happened to be installing or servicing machinery. He had no regular or pre-arranged routine for calling upon customers. He tried to give all of his customers the same attention.
In his income tax return for the year 1945 the petitioner reported a gross income of $23,571.26 and claimed the following deductions:
Meals | $ 1,676.25 |
Hotels | 308.15 |
Railroad | 397.77 |
Taxi | 50.70 |
Postage and mailing | 120.60 |
Telephone | 1,804.09 |
Tips | 1,256.66 |
Clerk hire | 416.00 |
Warehouse rent | 60.00 |
Commissions paid | 6,240.00 |
Miscellaneous | 229.50 |
Gas and oil | 301.94 |
Garage | 196.35 |
Car wash and repair | 477.69 |
Car greasing | 6.75 |
Car insurance | 72.27 |
Car depreciation | 350.00 |
Auto taxes | 7.83 |
Auto tires | 84.03 |
Total | $14,056.58 |
The petitioner kept a record of various expenditures made by him on a weekly printed form, called a "Salesmen's Expense Record", which was subdivided to show expenditures of various kinds made on each day of the week. Fifty-two of these forms, one for each week of the year, were introduced in evidence. Most of the expenditures recorded thereon were not substantiated by receipts.
[Opinion]
An examination of the amounts recorded by petitioner for meals indicates that the $1,676.25 deduction claimed for this item includes many expenditures made for meals during the days of each week which petitioner spent in the Greater Boston area. This Court has held "that
The petitioner claimed a deduction of $6,240 for commissions paid. Of this amount, $6,000 represents payments of $250 semimonthly to T. H. Balestrieri, an employee of petitioner. Canceled checks drawn on the First National Bank of Boston, evidencing these payments, were introduced by petitioner. One of the checks for $250 is dated1951 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 311">*316 December 29, 1944, and was cashed on January 2, 1945. Since the amount of this check would be deductible in the year 1944 (cf.
Although we think petitioner actually made many*317 of the expenditures for which he claims deductions, some of them are not adequately substantiated, and we are not satisfied that all of them were made in connection with his trade or business. After a careful consideration of all of the evidence, it is our conclusion, and we find as a fact, that the business and traveling expenses of petitioner for the year 1945, deductible under the provisions of
Meals | $ 1,224.00 |
Hotels | 272.50 |
Railroad fares | 198.73 |
Taxi fares | 50.70 |
postage and mailing | 87.00 |
Telephone | 901.32 |
Tips | 627.83 |
Clerk hire | 416.00 |
Warehouse rent | 60.00 |
Commissions paid | 5,990.00 |
Miscellaneous | 114.66 |
Gas and oil | 250.00 |
Garage rental | 196.35 |
Car wash and repair | 415.00 |
Car greasing | 6.75 |
Car insurance | 72.27 |
Car depreciation | 350.00 |
Auto taxes | 7.83 |
Auto tires | 100.82 |
Total | $11,341.76 |
Decision will be entered under Rule 50.