Meinhardt v. Commissioner

LOKEN, Circuit Judge.

In 1976, architect Donald Meinhardt and his wife Arvilla purchased 140 acres of farmland in rural Minnesota consisting of three contiguous parcels of tillable land and pasture land and an eighty-year-old farmhouse in need of substantial repair and renovation. In the years following, the Meinhardts at times farmed the tillable and pasture land themselves but regularly rented the farmland to neighboring farmers for cash rent. On their income tax returns for 2005, 2006, and 2007, the Mein-hardts deducted, as ordinary and necessary business expenses, substantial expenses that…