- 12 - liability for both contract and tort claims. The release, however, does not specifically indicate that the lump-sum payment received by petitioner was paid to settle a potential personal injury claim against IBM pursuant to the ADA. We note that where the settlement agreement lacks express language stating what the settlement amount was paid to settle, then the most important factor is the intent of the payor. Knuckles v. Commissioner, 349 F.2d 610, 612 (10th Cir. 1965), affg. T.C. Memo. 1964-33; Stocks v. Commissioner, supra at 10. Here, respondent argues, and we agree, that IBM did not make the payment on account of a personal injury. The release form appears to be a standard document used by IBM for all of its employees who participate in the ITO II Program. Moreover, IBM calculated the amount of the $94,174 lump-sum payment received by petitioner using the same mathematical formula for each participant in the ITO II Program based on the participant's individual years of service. Finally, the release states that if petitioner were rehired by IBM, he could be required to repay some portion of the lump-sum payment based on the number of weeks off the IBM payroll compared with the number of weeks' salary used to calculate the lump-sum payment. As in Sodoma v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1996-275, and Webb v. Commissioner, supra, the lump-sum payment herein appears to have been severance pay rather than a payment for personalPage: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011