- 8 - establishment of trusts has no real economic effect, the substance of the transactions involving the trusts will control over the form. See Zmuda v. Commissioner, 731 F.2d 1417, 1420-1421 (9th Cir. 1984), affg. 79 T.C. 714, 719 (1982); Markosian v. Commissioner, 73 T.C. 1235, 1241 (1980); Christal v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1998-255. This Court and the U.S. Courts of Appeals have long rejected attempts similar to Alsop’s herein to avoid taxation by the use of abusive family trusts. See Holman v. United States, supra; Hanson v. Commissioner, 696 F.2d 1232 (9th Cir. 1983), affg. per curiam T.C. Memo. 1981-675; Schulz v. Commissioner, 686 F.2d 490 (7th Cir. 1982), affg. T.C. Memo. 1980-568; Vnuk v. Commissioner, 621 F.2d 1318 (8th Cir. 1980), affg. T.C. Memo. 1979-164; Vercio v. Commissioner, 73 T.C. 1246 (1980); Wesenberg v. Commissioner, 69 T.C. 1005 (1978); Buckmaster v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1997- 236. Such trusts are treated as lacking in economic substance and as constituting a nullity for Federal income tax purposes. See Hanson v. Commissioner, supra; Markosian v. Commissioner, supra; Wenz v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1995-277. Attempts by chiropractors, in particular, who have sought to avoid taxation on income relating to their chiropractic practices by assigning or attributing income from the practices to "family trusts" have been rejected. See Sandvall v. Commissioner,Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011