Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Duckwitz

EVANS, Circuit Judge.

Petitioner assessed respondent with a deficiency income tax for the taxable year 1919, the amount of which was based upon the sum he received through the liquidation of the Iowa-Burk Syndicate of which ho was the owner of a beneficial interest. Tho propriety of the additional tax turns upon whether the syndicate was taxable as a corporation or as a trust.

A stipulation of facts tolls the story of this venture.

In 1918, four men acquired an oil and gas lease of ten acres of land in Texas paying $2,000 therefor. As they did not have the $30,000 necessary to drill a well, the…