Melissa S. Spranger - Page 11




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               A.  With the prior years and losses?                                   
               Q.  Yeah.                                                              
               A.  I would have no idea off the top of my head.                       
               *  *  *                                                                
               Q.  During 1989 and subsequent years for the business,                 
               did you keep any records that would show the                           
               expenditures made with respect to any individual dog?                  
               A.  No, sir.                                                           
               Q.  Okay.  Did you make any attempt, since 1989 and                    
               subsequent years, to apportion the expenses to                         
               determine how much each animal was costing you?                        
               A.  No, sir.                                                           

               Since 1989 only five of petitioner's dogs generated any                
          income, although she owned 28 dogs during 1993, and deducted the            
          costs of maintaining all of those dogs.  Petitioner has an                  
          obvious interest in owning, raising, and showing Pomeranian dogs;           
          however, we find that during the year in issue, her interest,               
          which developed when she was a child, was personal in nature and            
          not based upon the necessary profit motive that would allow for             
          the activity to be considered a trade or business within the                
          meaning of section 162(a).  Of course, deriving personal                    
          satisfaction out of an activity does not necessarily indicate the           
          absence of an intent to profit; however, "where the possibility             
          for profit is small (given all the other factors) and the                   
          possibility for gratification is substantial, it is clear that              
          the latter possibility constitutes the primary motivation for the           
          activity."  Smith v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1997-503 (citing              


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