- 14 - part of the residence, noting that the taxpayer had used some of this area to conduct helicopter experiments, which detracted from its characterization as a residence. More importantly, the taxpayer in Beckwith only regarded the house itself and 5 appurtenant acres as his residence. However, in the instant case, the petitioner regards and uses all of the Clayton property as his residence, except for the portion allocated to his business. At trial, the petitioner repeatedly and unequivocally testified that he moved to the Clayton premises, because he appreciates nature, admires unobstructed views of the countryside, enjoys living in open spaces where he can hike and ride horseback, and ultimately desires to live the rest of his life there. We find petitioner's testimony to be credible. On brief, the respondent relies on Grace v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1961-252, for the proposition that occasional or insignificant use of property, such as for storage of business tools, is not sufficient to determine its character as business property. In Grace, we found a taxpayer's business use of his residence to be "insignificant," where he merely stored construction tools in part of his basement. Accordingly, we held that an allocation between the business and residential use was not required for purposes of section 1034(a) nonrecognition. Respondent, treating the instant case as the converse of Grace, contends that the petitioner here used the upper, steeply hilled section of the Clayton property only "insignificantly," and thusPage: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011