- 14 - payments will constitute income to the recipient. Moorman v. Commissioner, 26 T.C. 666, 674 (1956). These payments are nothing more than disguised salary. Beaver v. Commissioner, 55 T.C. 85, 90 (1970). In the situation where the advances are actually loans, when the repayments are offset directly by the future earned commissions, then the recipient will have either commission income or cancellation of indebtedness income at the time of such offsets. Cox v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1996-241; cf. Warden v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1988-165. The advance insurance sales commissions here were received during the 1988, 1989, 1990, and 1991 tax years. At the time petitioner's contract with American was terminated, petitioner had a debit balance in his advance commissions account of approximately $156,000. This balance had been paid by the time of trial in this case. Petitioner testified that he never defaulted on repayments of the advance commissions, so there was never any need for demand to be made. Although demand was not made, under the contract and note, had petitioner defaulted, American had the right to demand payment under the contract and loan agreement. Thus, petitioner was personally liable on the loans. This is the distinguishing feature between this case and other advance commission cases, where no personal liability existed in the event of a termination. Beaver v. Commissioner, 55 T.C. 85 (1970); Moorman v. Commissioner, supra; George Blood Enterprises, Inc. v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1976-102. InPage: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Next
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