- 28 - agreement and covenant should be treated as a constructive dividend to Mr. Langdon. In determining whether an expenditure by a corporation represents a constructive dividend to the shareholder, it is also necessary to decide whether the expenditure primarily benefited the shareholder personally rather than furthered the interest of the corporation. Hagaman v. Commissioner, 958 F.2d 684, 690-691 (6th Cir. 1992), affg. on this issue T.C. Memo. 1987-549; Ireland v. United States, 621 F.2d 731, 735 (5th Cir. 1980); see also Loftin & Woodard, Inc. v. United States, 577 F.2d 1206, 1214 (5th Cir. 1978); Hood v. Commissioner, 115 T.C. 172, 179-180 (2000) Where the expenses are those of the shareholder, the showing a corporation must make to deduct those expenses is a strong one. To avoid constructive dividend treatment, the taxpayer must show that the corporation primarily benefited from the payment of the shareholder's expenses. Hood v. Commissioner, supra at 181. In the instant cases, BDC did not require Mr. Langdon to pay his pro rata share of the transaction's selling expenses. Mr. Langdon received $200,000 for his consulting agreement and $334,000 for the covenant, or a total of $534,000 of the $2,017,461 total purchase price. Petitioners have not addressed this issue, either at trial or on brief; we thus deem the issue waived. We hold that BDC's payment of the selling expenses allocable to Mr. Langdon's consulting agreement and covenantPage: Previous 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011