Droge v. Commissioner
United States Board of Tax Appeals
Petitioner and his wife each purchased two tickets in the Irish Hospitals' Sweepstakes and contemporaneously agreed, that if any ticket won, the proceeds whould be shared equally. One of the tickets purchased by petitioner won and he, in compliance with the agreement, immediately paid over to his wife one-half of the amount received.
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Petitioner and his wife each purchased two tickets in the Irish Hospitals' Sweepstakes and contemporaneously agreed, that if any ticket won, the proceeds whould be shared equally. One of the tickets purchased by petitioner won and he, in compliance with the agreement, immediately paid over to his wife one-half of the amount received. Held, that although the agreement was void and unenforceable, nevertheless, since it was specifically complied with, petitioner is taxable only upon the portion which he retained, the portion received by the wife having been reported as gross income by her, and…
1Opinion of the Court
*831OPINION.
Mellott:
The facts set out in the findings will not be repeated. It may not be amiss, however, to set out herein a portion of the testimony relied upon as furnishing the basis for claiming that the amount paid to the wife constituted income to her rather than to petitioner.
Petitioner, called as a witness in his own behalf, testified that the understanding which he had with his wife was “that whatever we would get out of it [the investment in sweepstakes tickets] we Avould share it half in half. The arrangement was that we would go half and half on it, like we always have done in…
2Cases cited5 opinions
- United States v. SullivanSupreme Court of the United States · 1927
- Goodrich v. . HoughtonNew York Court of Appeals · 1892
- Crutchfield v. RamboCourt of Appeals of Texas · 1905
- Matta v. KatsoulasWisconsin Supreme Court · 1927
- Roselle v. Farmers' BankSupreme Court of Missouri · 1897
3Cited by13 opinions
- McKnight v. Commissioner of Internal RevenueCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit · 1942
- Jose Tavares v. Commissioner of Internal RevenueCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit · 1960
- Stevens v. CommissionerUnited States Tax Court · 1971
- Tavares v. CommissionerUnited States Tax Court · 1959
- Braunstein v. CommissionerUnited States Tax Court · 1962
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