Phipps v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

AUGUSTUS N. HAND, Circuit Judge.

The taxpayers, who were two brothers and a sister, purchased a tract of land in 1916 at Palm Beach, Fla. They took the title in the name of an agent Robbins, had the tract surveyed, cleared, plotted into about seventy lots, ornamented with trees, and .furnished with roads, water, sewers, and electric light. Soon after the lots were plotted, a price was fixed at which they might be sold at a profit and sales were made through brokers, which continued for some years. Profits of $42,367.74 were realized from these sales in 1924, and of $41,948.35 in 1925. Robbins,…