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cannot be ascertained, the original transaction may be considered
open and later payments treated as capital gains, as they would
have been if received at the time of the liquidation. See Waring
v. Commissioner, 412 F.2d 800, 801 (3d Cir. 1969), affg. per
curiam T.C. Memo. 1968-126. In petitioner’s case, however, the
property he received was cash, determined on the basis of prices
of publicly traded stock. There is no reason to treat the sale
of stock as an open transaction. Moreover, petitioner received
the sale proceeds from the stock under a claim of right and
without restriction as to their disposition. He himself chose to
engage in litigation that, however improbably, might affect the
results of the sale. Under these circumstances, his receipt of
income is a fortiori taxable in the year of receipt. See sec.
451(a); Hope v. Commissioner, 471 F.2d 738, 742 (3d Cir. 1973),
affg. 55 T.C. 1020 (1971).
C. Income on Payment of Indebtedness
In general, a payment made in satisfaction of a person’s
debt is income to that person. See Old Colony Trust Co. v.
Commissioner, 279 U.S. 716 (1929). Thus the amounts Kidder
Peabody retained to pay off petitioner’s obligations were income
to petitioner. Here, Kidder Peabody retained $141,577.37
pursuant to its contractual right to offset petitioner’s margin
obligations. These margin obligations were consistently
reflected as a “net debit balance” in Kidder Peabody’s statements
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