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detailed, almost minute-by-minute logs required for this test to
work.7
Other tests are possible. One could conceive of a test that
looked to the value of the mobility of the motor home to the
renter versus the value of its capacity to be used for lodging.
Or one could try to identify the “primary function” of a motor
home (though this would seem to be the same as trying to identify
its “primary use.”)8 But none of these tests--including both
petitioners’ and respondent’s--suggests a way out of the
7 Respondent’s position is weakened by the reality that
property undoubtedly used for transportation--cars, for
example--are at rest in garages and parking lots much longer than
they are on the road. We do note that in LaPoint v.
Commissioner, 94 T.C. 733, 735 (1990), the parties stipulated
that the taxpayer used a car for business uses “85 percent of the
time”, but we are not sure how to construe it. It seems unlikely
this meant total time rather than percentage of time in use, but
it could also have meant percentage of trips or even mileage (if
the taxpayer in LaPoint kept the usual log for those wishing to
deduct car-related expenses). In any event, the key issue in
that case was whether the car was used “predominantly * * * in
connection with the furnishing of lodging” id. at 736, and so it
gives limited help in analyzing the question of simultaneous use
of motor homes for both lodging and transportation.
8 In L.L. Bean, Inc. v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1997-175,
affd. 145 F.3d 53, 56 (1st Cir. 1998), we had to decide whether a
rack system inside a warehouse, which both held merchandise and
supported the warehouse’s walls and roof, was tangible personal
property. Taxpayers proposed a primary function test, as opposed
to a strict structural function test. The Court, however, found
that even a primary function test would not favor petitioners
because the necessity of the rack system to prevent a collapse of
the building did not allow the structural function to be
categorized as secondary.
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