DocketNumber: Docket Nos. 13335-12, 14342-12.
Judges: HOLMES
Filed Date: 1/26/2017
Status: Non-Precedential
Modified Date: 11/21/2020
Decisions will be entered under
HOLMES,
Mr. Goldsmith practiced law for almost 30 years. He spent the early years of his career working as a litigator for the Minneapolis firm of Rider Bennet. After fourteen years there he moved to another Minneapolis firm, Popham Haik. After Popham Haik merged with another firm in 1997, Mr. Goldsmith decided to set out on his own and formed Goldsmith & Associates, Ltd. (G&A), a Minnesota corporation treated as an S corporation for federal tax purposes.*21 he had four associates working for him.
G&A had problems from the start. Mr. Goldsmith had a clear vision of the type of law he wanted to practice, but he was a self-proclaimed micromanager *22 without the know-how to manage. He testified that he had "no personal experience, education or background in accounting or the operation of a business or financial background." He "micromanaged virtually about everything and * * * did not have the clarity of vision to * * * try to see how things should run." He did not keep sufficient accounting records, and for the first four months of G&A's existence, he didn't even keep company funds in a corporate account. He kept track of cashflow and expenses on a legal pad, but the legal pads would pile up. Chaos ensued, and Mr. Goldsmith hired a CPA to set up a better way to keep books and records. The investment proved to be a poor one: The firm's records were entered into software that didn't make them usable to Mr. Goldsmith or his associates. The CPA was expensive, and the pressure on G&A's cashflow began to build.
The firm did have a fair number of clients, but it mostly worked on contingency. When a contingent-fee*22 firm has good business, it can pile up costs much more rapidly than offsetting fees. And that's what began to happen at G&A. The firm had no credit and was unable to get a loan from a bank. Without much money coming in, Mr. Goldsmith was forced to fund its operations by taking out mortgages on his personal residence. During the years at issue he used the proceeds to make at least thirteen advances to G&A. For each advance he would *23 draft a contract between G&A and himself that detailed repayment terms and the consequences of a default. Mr. Goldsmith poured money into the business and didn't always pay his personal bills. By late 1999 one of the two mortgages on his residence went into default, and the house entered foreclosure. Mr. Goldsmith credibly testified that he thought he'd hit bottom when he traveled to Florida to represent a client in a difficult race-discrimination case. After more than a week of trial he ended up with a hung jury. He'd used every last penny he had getting to Florida and was stuck at a motel in Tampa with no money to pay the bill or buy an airline ticket home. It took two weeks, but he managed to find someone willing to lend him $2,500 so he could return*23 to Minnesota.
Then his luck turned.
Or at least it seemed to.
After he struggled to get back home, a massive settlement from an old antitrust case came through. G&A got a fee of $880,000. Mr. Goldsmith took the full amount as a distribution from G&A, wrote a $700,000 check to redeem his personal residence from foreclosure, and put what was left back into the firm. This decreased the firm's debt to him and so reduced his aggregate basis in G&A stock. Within a month, though, G&A was sinking again. By August 2000 it *24 didn't have enough money to make payroll, and Mr. Goldsmith again began eyeing the newly restored equity in his home.
Mr. Goldsmith looked for help from a two-person operation that lent money against a borrower's personal credit at higher than average interest rates--
That money lasted until March 2001. When it ran out, G&A borrowed another $50,000. But this loan was for a term of less than a year and with an interest rate of 5%
Mr. Goldsmith just couldn't keep up with the work. He tried to set his clients up with other attorneys, but it never made a difference. Cashflow dropped to a trickle, and by early 2002 Mr. Goldsmith had defaulted on all four of the high-interest loans. Two creditors foreclosed on his residence, and he and his wife were*25 evicted in May 2002. He and his wife were left with only redemption rights in their home.
In a last effort to save it, he contracted with yet another lender on yet harsher terms. Believing he had equity in his home, Mr. Goldsmith and his wife--not G&A--contracted with Eric Mitchell. Mr. Mitchell promised to use the Goldsmiths' redemption rights to buy the property and according to Mr. Goldsmith gave him a chance to buy it back later in exchange for $300,000 plus the cost of redemption. After the deal closed Mr. Mitchell held title to the property, but he at least gave Mr. Goldsmith and his wife permission to live there. The home was worth about $1.5 million, and Mr. Mitchell redeemed it for $600,000--which according to Mr. Goldsmith meant it would cost almost *26 $900,000 to buy it back.Criminal Investigation and Imprisonment In June 2005 Mr. Goldsmith was indicted on twelve counts under After Mr. Goldsmith was released, he had to face a civil audit. The Commissioner also examined G&A for the same years. The result was a notice of worker reclassification to G&A that determined Mr. Goldsmith was an employee, and--despite Mr. Goldsmith's lack of good recordkeeping--that G&A was entitled to deduct: *28 As to G&A's financial status, the parties stipulated some numbers, and although those numbers are incomplete, we can find that G&A operated*27 at a loss for the 1999, 2001, and 2002 tax years. The year of the windfall contingent fee, 2000, was the only year G&A made a profit. The consequences flowed through to Mr. Goldsmith, and the Commissioner determined that for his 1999 through 2002 tax years he had: *29 The parties settled many of the issues, and we tried the cases in Minnesota, where Mr. Goldsmith was and remains a resident. To properly present an issue for decision, a taxpayer must raise it in his petition and argue it during trial or in his posttrial brief. *30 • Whether Mr. Goldsmith is entitled to additional increases in his basis in G&A; • Whether he received wages from G&A during the 1999 through 2002 tax years; • Whether he had cancellation-of-indebtedness income for the 2000 tax year; • Whether he owes additions to tax for failing to timely file and timely pay for 1999, 2000, and 2002.1999 $278,537 2000 984,645 2001 259,766 2002 147,242 Business $268,000 $372,000 $396,000 $270,000 expenses Automobile 2,000 4,470 3,800 1,500 expenses Wages $81,760 $91,150 $83,110 $100,960 Schedule E (21,695) 516,455 (159,442) --- income/loss from G&A Standard (3,600) (3,675) (3,800) (3,925) deduction Exemptions (2,750) (2,900) (2,820) Non-employee --- 2,500 --- --- compensation Debt --- 5,596 --- --- forgiveness Capital gain --- 17,829 7,000 471 Self --- (34) --- --- employment tax deduction Qualified --- --- --- 4,874 retirement account income
Mr. Goldsmith argues that the closing costs and the $300,000 he says he paid Mr. Mitchell for the deal on his home are expenses that G&A may deduct because the agreement was to G&A's benefit. This seems at first glance unlikely--the home was the Goldsmiths' personal residence. But his argument is that the payments to Mr. Mitchell were to pay off four separate loans to G&A for a total of $375,000 from two lenders during the 2000 and 2001 tax years. For each loan, Mr. Goldsmith and his wife signed an unconditional guaranty backing G&A's performance. He and his wife secured their guaranties with yet another mortgage on their personal property. When G&A defaulted on those loans, it owed the money to Mr. Goldsmith. He says that by operation of the contracts and Minnesota state law G&A would have been liable upon default*29 to Mr. Goldsmith for his loss
The Commissioner disagrees with this rather convoluted argument and argues more straightforwardly that even if G&A was on the hook to Mr. Goldsmith, there can be no business deduction for G&A for expenses that were personal to Mr. Goldsmith. We agree: The answer here does not rely on the contracts between Mr. Goldsmith and G&A that Mr. Goldsmith analyzes at length under Minnesota law, but rather on the nature of the expense.
• paid or incurred during the tax year, • incurred to carry on its trade or business, and • "ordinary" and "necessary" to the business.
In
It's the same here. Mr. Goldsmith's alleged payments to Mr. Mitchell were personal. The agreement between Mr. Mitchell and Mr. Goldsmith was just that--between them and
As an alternative holding, we find that even if the refinancing primarily benefited G&A, Mr. Goldsmith did not substantiate the amount of those expenditures. To prove deductions under
A shareholder's basis in his S corporation is increased by income passed through to him and decreased by certain distributions, items of loss and deduction, and nondeductible noncapital expenses.
*35 One can see how these rules work if we use 2000, in which G&A collected the $880,000 contingent fee. G&A had been struggling for quite some time, and was operating at a deficit that year. When G&A distributed the fee to Mr. Goldsmith, G&A's lack of accumulated earnings meant that this amount was not necessarily included in Mr. Goldsmith's taxable income. It might well*33 be a return of capital to the extent of his aggregate basis in G&A's stock. Untangling Mr. Goldsmith's records to calculate his basis in G&A is thus important.
The Commissioner allowed many of Mr. Goldsmith's contributions to G&A to count toward his basis. But Mr. Goldsmith wants more. We will address each year in dispute separately.
*36 But Mr. Goldsmith says he also made the following additional payments, contributions and advances:
Corporate expenses paid by Goldsmith | $17,523 |
Corporate expenses paid by Goldsmith | 2,197 |
Personal advance--8/18/1997 | 15,000 |
Personal advance--8/28/1997 | 12,000 |
Total | 46,720 |
Mr. Goldsmith bears the burden of proving that he paid these additional expenses or made these additional advances,
The parties stipulated that Mr. Goldsmith made the following payments, contributions, and advances to G&A that increased his basis in 2002:
May 2 deposit/advance | $400 |
August 12 deposit/advance | 22,009 |
Corporate expenses paid by Goldsmith | 269,934 |
Total | 292,343 |
*38 Mr. Goldsmith claims he paid an additional $297,710 in corporate expenses. As was the case for 1997, Mr. Goldsmith did not substantiate this claim, and we find he is not entitled to this additional amount.Attributed Wages
The Commissioner*35 asserts that because Mr. Goldsmith was an employee of G&A (a fact Mr. Goldsmith conceded during trial) payments made from G&A to him during the years at issue are constructive wages, which would make G&A owe more in payroll tax and Mr. Goldsmith owe more in income tax. Mr. Goldsmith argues that because during those years G&A made no money, it could not have afforded to pay him wages, and any money he took out of G&A was to reimburse him for G&A expenses he himself had paid earlier.
We are very skeptical of the Commissioner's work on this issue. The employee-tax agent assigned to Mr. Goldsmith's case used statistics from the Minnesota Bureau of Labor to find the average salary of attorneys working in the Twin Cities for the years at issue. She then looked at G&A's records and determined that because Mr. Goldsmith was billing time, and G&A was paying him, G&A must have been paying him wages. The first problem here is that the *39 agent did not take into account any loans Mr. Goldsmith made to G&A. We also saw no indication that she considered G&A's operating expenses or whether she even asked herself if she had all the information necessary to make her determination. She admitted that "with*36 [her] experience now, [she] would have taken [expenses and loans] into much more consideration," and that since then she's learned a lot more.
There's no rule that an S corporation
*41 It's the same here. Mr. Goldsmith sought funding for G&A from usurers because reasonable creditors would not finance the firm. Even during the earlier years when he was able to use equity in his home to fund G&A, the business was running at a deficit. From 1997 through 2002 G&A had only one profitable year--2000, the year of the large contingent fee. Even with that fee, however, G&A was still failing--as shown by the losses in the following years and Mr. Goldsmith's own acknowledgment. For these reasons we find that payments that G&A made to Mr. Goldsmith were not wages, as the Commissioner asserts, and were not reimbursements for expenses as Mr. Goldsmith insists, but rather were a nontaxable return of capital to the extent of his basis.
The Commissioner asserts, based on a third-party information return, that Mr. Goldsmith had $5,596 in cancellation-of indebtedness-income for the 2000 tax year. This*38 is presumptively income,
The Commissioner determined additions to tax under
1. An S corporation is a corporation governed under the laws of
2. There's limited documentation on the deal in the record, and we have only Mr. Goldsmith's testimony that he was on the hook for a $300,000 payment. There is no evidence that shows whether and how Mr. Goldsmith bought the property back from Mr. Mitchell. We have only the lease allowing Mr. Goldsmith and his wife to stay on the property, the real-property option agreement between Mr. Mitchell and the Goldsmiths, and loan documentation between Mr. Mitchell and Associated Bank. (Mr. Goldsmith admits that these loan documents in evidence do not require
3. All section references are to the Internal Revenue Code in effect for the years at issue. All Rule references are to the Tax Court Rules of Practice and Procedure.↩
4. Mr. Goldsmith did not address this issue during trial or on brief, and we deem it conceded.
5. In his reply brief, Mr. Goldsmith asserts that he didn't concede any issues, but that in his rush to prepare for trial there was confusion between the parties. He still doesn't
6. The 1997 tax year was not part of the notice of deficiency, but we look at it because it affects basis computation for the years that were.
7. Mr. Goldsmith also asserts that the payments to Mr. Mitchell in 2002 should increase his basis in G&A. We find that Mr. Goldsmith cannot use payments he can't substantiate to increase his basis in G&A.↩
8. The factors this court considers in such an analysis include: (1) the names given to the documents that would be evidence of the purported loans; (2) the presence or absence of a fixed maturity date; (3) the likely source of repayment; (4) the right to enforce payments; (5) participation in management as a result of the advances; (6) subordination of the purported loans to the loans of the corporation's creditors; (7) the intent of the parties; (8) identity of interest between creditor and stockholder; (9) the ability of the corporation to obtain financing from outside sources; (10) thinness of capital structure in relation to debt; (11) use to which the funds were put; (12) the failure of the corporation to repay; and (13) the risk involved in making the transfers.
9. Mr. Goldsmith did testify that he was clinically depressed during the years at issue, but was able to otherwise function and represent between 15-30 clients per month. Even if he had argued his mental illness gave him reasonable cause, a taxpayer must show that his mental or emotional disorder "rendered [him] incapable of exercising ordinary business care and prudence during the period in which the failure to file continued."
Gitlitz v. Commissioner ( 2001 )
Cohan v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue ( 1930 )
Diane S. Blodgett v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue ( 2005 )
Ledcke v. United States ( 2008 )
United States v. Scott Kimrey Goldsmith ( 2007 )
In Re Disciplinary Action Against Goldsmith ( 2004 )