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insurance premium payments made by Kenmore are, or are not,
income to Gleave. We thus conclude that the tax treatment of the
checks in the amounts of $2,070.50 for 1980, $2,095.76 for 1981,
and $239.40 for 1982 that Kenmore issued to Western-Southern Life
Insurance Co. as premium payments is to be determined in
accordance with the burden of proof.
(d) Blue Cross
During 1982 Kenmore issued at least four checks to Blue
Cross. Gleave claims that these checks were not income to him
because they were payments for health insurance premiums for
Gleave and his family.
Section 10617 provides that “Gross income does not include
contributions by the employer to accident or health plans for
compensation (through insurance or otherwise) to his employees
for personal injuries or sickness.” The regulations provide that
the gross income of an employee also does not include
contributions by the employer to health plans that include the
employees’s spouse and dependents. Section 1.106-1, Income Tax
Regs. However, section 106 requires, by its terms, that the
employer’s contributions (here, Kenmore’s payments of premiums to
Blue Cross) be for compensation to the employer’s employees. See
Larkin v. Commissioner, 48 T.C. 629, 632 n.3 (1967), affd. 394
17 Later amendments to this provision, providing
exceptions for highly compensated individuals, did not apply
until 1987, and so do not affect the instant cases.
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