- 17 - the Capital Fund shares (and received the sales proceeds) as Landtrak’s “nominee” or other agent. Of course, there may be an agency relationship between a corporation and its sole shareholder, and the tax consequences of property held by a genuine agent are attributed to the principal. See Commissioner v. Bollinger, 485 U.S. 340, 349 (1988) (corporation was agent of its shareholders); Montgomery v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1989-295 (shareholder/president was agent of corporation). However, as the Supreme Court stated in Bollinger, the Commissioner is entitled to demand unequivocal evidence of the genuineness of the agency relationship, in the corporation-shareholder context, in order to prevent avoidance of the principle that a corporation and its shareholders are separate taxable entities. Moline Props., Inc. v. Commissioner, 319 U.S. 436 (1943). There is no such evidence in the cases at hand. As we have explained, the record establishes that, contrary to petitioners’ claims, Mrs. Comey neither acquired Landtrak’s stock nor transferred the Capital Fund shares to Landtrak’s capital on January 1, 1987. Moreover, there is no credible, much less any unequivocal, evidence that Mrs. Comey transferred beneficial ownership of the Capital Fund shares to Landtrak at any later time and then acted as Landtrak’s agent. There is no evidence that Landtrak or Mrs. Comey informed any third partyPage: Previous 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Next
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