Henry P. White and Estate of Nancy A. White, Deceased, T. Leo Sullivan, Administrator, C.T.A. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

We are asked by the petitioners to reverse a decision of the Tax Court upholding the Commissioner’s disallowance of certain deductions taken by the petitioner husband (herein called the “taxpayer”), and his since deceased wife in their joint income tax returns for 1948 and 1949. At issue is the question whether expenses incurred in the operation of a ballistics laboratory owned by the taxpayer were ordinary and necessary expenses of a trade or business or losses in a transaction entered into for profit, and thus deductible under Section 23 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1939. 1 The Tax Court…