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fees and litigation costs on the ground that the taxpayer
had "assigned" those amounts to her attorneys. Id. The
court reasoned that the judgment in the wrongful
termination action was fully includable in the taxpayer's
gross income under the broad sweep of section 61, which
defines gross income as "all income from whatever source
derived" and the taxpayers had "simply used a portion of
the award subsequently to discharge their personal
liability to their attorneys." Id. at 1190-1191. The
Court of Appeals noted that, under longstanding authority
of the U.S. Supreme Court, income must be taxed to the
person who earns it, and a taxpayer cannot escape such
taxation by procuring payment directly to creditors or by
making an anticipatory assignment of the income. See
United States v. Basye, 410 U.S. 441, 449 (1973); Helvering
v. Eubank, 311 U.S. 122, 124-125 (1940); Helvering v.
Horst, 311 U.S. 112 (1940); Lucas v. Earl, 281 U.S. 111,
114-115 (1930).
Most recently, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth
Circuit again declined to follow Cotnam in Sinyard v.
Commissioner, ___ F.3d ___ (9th Cir. 2001), affg T.C. Memo.
1998-364. That case involved attorney's fees paid in
connection with the settlement of two class actions brought
under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, Pub. L. 90-
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