- 113 - States, supra; Saviano v. Commissioner, supra; Falsetti v. Commissioner, supra. In Frank Lyon Co. v. United States, 435 U.S. 561, 573 (1978), the Supreme Court stated: In applying this doctrine of substance over form, the Court has looked to the objective economic realities of a transaction rather than to the particular form the parties employed. The Court has never regarded “the simple expedient of drawing up papers,” Commissioner v. Tower, 327 U.S. 280, 291 (1946), as controlling for tax purposes when the objective economic realities are to the contrary. “In the field of taxation, administrators of the laws and the courts are concerned with substance and realities, and formal written documents are not rigidly binding.” Helvering v. Lazarus & Co., 308 U.S. [252] at 255 [(1939)]. See also Commissioner v. P.G. Lake, Inc. 356 U.S. 260, 266- 267 (1958); Commissioner v. Court Holding Co., 324 U.S. 331, 334 (1945). Nor is the parties’ desire to achieve a particular tax result necessarily relevant. Commissioner v. Duberstein, 363 U.S. 278, 286 (1960). The Supreme Court, in concluding that the transactions there in issue were to be recognized for tax purposes, held that, where: there is a genuine multiple-party transaction with economic substance which is compelled or encouraged by business or regulatory realities, is imbued with tax- independent considerations, and is not shaped solely by tax-avoidance features that have meaningless labels attached, the Government should honor the allocation of rights and duties effectuated by the parties. * * * [Id. at 583-584.] This Court has articulated a definition of “‘sham in substance’ as the expedient of drawing up papers to characterize transactions contrary to objective economic realities and which have no economic significance beyond expected tax benefits.” Falsetti v. Commissioner, supra at 347; see Rice's Toyota World, Inc. v. Commissioner, 752 F.2d 89, 91-92 (4th Cir. 1985), affg. in part and revg. in part 81 T.C. 184 (1983). In Falsetti, wePage: Previous 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011