- 11 - activities. An allocation of litigation costs, if and when applicable, rests on the origin of the claims relating to those expenses. See Woodward v. Commissioner, 397 U.S. at 577-578; United States v. Gilmore, 372 U.S. at 44-45; see also Peckham v. Commissioner, 327 F.2d at 856. We recognize that, when appropriate, litigation costs must be apportioned between business and personal claims, and that business litigation costs are nondeductible to the extent that they constitute capital expenditures. See, e.g., Kurkjian v. Commissioner, 65 T.C. 862 (1976) (deduction disallowed for portion of attorney's fees attributable to personal matters); Buddy Schoellkopf Prods., Inc. v. Commissioner, 65 T.C. 640, 646- 647 (1975) (deduction disallowed for portion of attorney fees attributable to acquisition of intangible assets); Merians v. Commissioner, 60 T.C. 187 (1973) (deduction disallowed for portion of attorney's fees attributable to personal matters); see also Boagni v. Commissioner, supra, (recognizing that litigation costs can be characterized as both deductible and nondeductible when the litigation is rooted in situations giving rise to both types of expenditures). This principle of allocation is inapposite to our decision herein for two main reasons. First, petitioner's legal costs were all attributable to claims which originated in his business activity, the primary claim being that of conversion. Second, in contrast to cases where each of the underlying claims could have resulted in an award of damagesPage: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Next
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