Donald H. Mathes and Patricia Marie Mathes v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

Taxpayers, Donald and Patricia Mathes, are husband and wife and filed their 1973 and 1974 tax returns jointly. On May 20, 1975, taxpayers filed a Form 1040 return which they denominated “Amended 5-19-75 for Statutory Dollars” for 1973. On this amended return they reported as income approximately 40% of the amount on the original return. They repeated this process for their 1974 return. This discount upon the face value was, according to taxpayers, based upon statutes which define “the standard United States dollar ... as either a specific weight of gold in a coin or a specific weight of…