United States v. Harold M. Ekberg and Secrie Ekberg

BLACKMUN, Circuit Judge.

This case involves questions of federal income tax accounting and return treatment of a rancher’s breeding cattle for the calendar years 1954, 1955 and 1956. 1 In the center of the controversy are (a) the 1954 Internal Revenue Code’s § 1231 (b) (3), 26 U.S.C.A. § 1231(b) (3), defining breeding livestock held 12 months or more as “property used in the trade or business”, and (b) § 1.471-6 (f) of the Code’s Regulations providing:

“A taxpayer who elects to use the ‘unit-livestock-price method’ must apply it to all livestock raised, whether for sale or for draft, breeding,…