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under * * * [section 162(a)] of an expense paid or incurred
in carrying on any trade or business.” [Estate of Davis v.
Commissioner, 79 T.C. 503, 507 (1982) (quoting from H. Rept.
2333, 77th Cong., 2d Sess. (1942), 1942-2 C.B. 372, 430; S.
Rept. 1631, 77th Cong., 2d Sess. (1942), 1942-2 C.B. 504,
571, the legislative history to the predecessor of section
212).
For purposes of the instant case, section 212 must be
applied in the light of section 262(a),5 which generally
disallows deductions for personal expenses. In United States v.
Gilmore, 372 U.S. 39, 44, 45-46 (1963), the Supreme Court
described as follows the relevant relationships between the 1939
Code predecessors of sections 162(a) (sec. 23(a)(1)), 212 (sec.
23(a)(2)), and 262(a) (sec. 24(a)(1)):
I.
For income tax purposes Congress has seen fit to regard
an individual as having two personalities: “one is [as] a
seeker after profit who can deduct the expenses incurred in
that search; the other is [as] a creature satisfying his
needs as a human and those of his family but who cannot
deduct such consumption and related expenditures.”11 The
Government regards � 23(a)(2) as embodying a category of the
expenses embraced in the first of these roles.
* * * * * * *
A basic restriction upon the availability of a
� 23(a)(1) deduction is that the expense item involved must
be one that has a business origin. That restriction not
only inheres in the language of � 23(a)(1) itself, confining
5 SEC. 262. PERSONAL, LIVING, AND FAMILY EXPENSES.
(a) General Rule.--Except as otherwise expressly
provided in this chapter [chapter 1, relating to normal
taxes and surtaxes], no deduction shall be allowed for
personal, living, or family expenses.
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