Weil v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

The “constructive receipt” of income is a creation of the Treasury, aimed at preventing taxpayers from selecting the year in which it will be most to their advantage to include in their gross income such items as those here at bar. It is a just corollary of such a doctrine that it shall be applied in favor of taxpayers as well as against them; and we all agree that Ross v. Commissioner,1 was right in so holding. Therefore our decision ought not to be different from what it would be, had the taxpayers had no losses in 1932, and had been assessed in that year for the receipt of the sums in…