William J. Goeden and Carol S. Goeden - Page 11

                                       - 11 -                                         

          U.S. 323 (1995), alleged that petitioner had causes of action               
          against the credit union for libel and age discrimination.                  
                                       OPINION                                        
          Issue 1.  Excludability of Settlement Payments                              
               Petitioners contend that the payments received by petitioner           
          from the credit union pursuant to the terms of the settlement               
          agreement were based entirely on tort or tort type claims and               
          therefore all of the payments are excludable from gross income              
          under section 104(a)(2).  To the contrary, respondent contends              
          that all of the payments received by petitioner are includable in           
          his gross income because they were made by the credit union for             
          reasons which rendered them subject to tax.  We agree with                  
          petitioners in part and with respondent in part.  Based on this             
          record, we conclude that an allocation should be made.                      
               Section 61(a) provides that, except as otherwise provided in           
          the Code, gross income means "all income from whatever source               
          derived".  The Supreme Court has stated that the statutory                  
          definition of gross income is broad and reflects Congressional              
          intent to exert the full measure of its taxing power and to bring           
          within the definition of income any accession to wealth.  United            
          States v. Burke, 504 U.S. 229, 233 (1992).  Thus, any receipt of            
          funds or other accession to wealth received by a taxpayer is                
          presumed to be gross income unless the taxpayer can establish               
          that the accession fits into one of the specific exclusions                 





Page:  Previous  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20  Next

Last modified: May 25, 2011