Also known as: tax deductions · deduction
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An amount subtracted from gross income or the value of a taxable estate to arrive at the base subject to tax.
Tanya Tang received a large cash transfer from her father during his lifetime. After his death the personal representative applied the transfer against the amount Tanya was to receive under the will. The court treated the transfer as satisfying the devise in full because the required contemporaneous writing existed.
Tracy Torres inherited property subject to a mortgage. When she later sold the property the IRS allowed her to include the full amount of the mortgage in her basis. The resulting tax deduction for depreciation and loss was calculated on that adjusted basis.
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Tyler Taylor's university denied admission to students in interracial marriages. The IRS revoked the school's tax-exempt status. Without the exemption the university could no longer claim tax deductions for contributions or related expenses.
Trevor Tate's organization engaged in substantial lobbying. Congress denied tax-deductible status for contributions to the group. Donors could no longer treat their gifts as tax deductions on their returns.
Theo Thomas claimed a tax deduction for business expenses on his return. The figures were prepared using data from an illegal wiretap. The court considered whether the deduction calculations derived from the wiretap could be admitted.
Thomas Thompson offered expert testimony on the proper valuation of business assets for a tax deduction. The trial court applied the general acceptance test to the expert's method. The deduction was disallowed when the method failed that test.
The will must provide for deduction of the gift, the testator must declare in a contemporaneous writing that the gift satisfies the devise, or the devisee must acknowledge the same in writing.
Basis includes the amount of any mortgage to which the property is subject, and that basis determines the amount of depreciation or loss that may be deducted.
An organization loses exempt status when it engages in practices contrary to public policy, such as racial discrimination, thereby eliminating the deductibility of contributions.
Yes. Congress may deny tax-deductible status to organizations that engage in substantial lobbying while still permitting deductions for other qualifying groups.
…of our values as a people. It is a comparison of the relative strengths of opposing claims that informs the judicial task, not a deduction from some first premise. Thus informed, judicial review still has no warrant to substitute one reasonable resolution of the contending positions for another, but authority to supplant the…