Commissioner of Corporations & Taxation v. Adams

These are two appeals by the commissioner of corporations and taxation from decisions of the Appellate Tax Board granting partial abatements of income taxes assessed on income received by the appellees in the years 1938 and 1939 and reported in returns filed in 1939 and 1940.

The taxpayers are the Massachusetts residents of a partnership engaged in the stock brokerage business in Boston. The firm during the two years in question had four sources of income: (1) interest from customers on their margin accounts; (2) interest and dividends on securities held for sale in the course of business; (3)…