Elizabeth Smith v. United States

PICKETT, Circuit Judge.

This appeal involves a deficiency in income taxes for the year 1945, in the sum of $25,253.61. The item of income in question was rental from a lease covering property owned by the plaintiff, Elizabeth Smith, and received after July 26, 1945, the effective date of the Oklahoma Community Property Act of 1945, Okl.Sess.Laws 1945, p. 118, Title 32 Secs. 1, 2, 3 (herein referred to as “the Act”), but earned prior to that date. In their income tax returns for the year 1945, the plaintiff and her husband, J. H. Smith, treated the rentals as community property. The…