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While small tools with a useful life of less than 1 year
are currently deductible, Clemons v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo.
1979-273, the cost of tools with a useful life that exceeds 1
year are recovered by depreciation, secs. 167(a) and 168(b);
Clemons v. Commissioner, supra.
At trial, petitioner testified that he spent, on average,
$2,400 per year on tools. He failed, however, to describe the
type, number, expected useful life, and cost of each tool
purchased. Some of the tools he used may have required at least
annual replacement, which would be a currently deductible
expense. Others could have been expected to survive well beyond
the year in which they were purchased, and their costs would be
recoverable through depreciation deductions over a number of
years. Without evidence of these matters, we have no basis for
an appropriate estimate.
Petitioner has specified neither the amount of the deduction
that should be allowed for each tool he purchased in 1992 and
1993 nor the amounts spent for tools in these and prior years for
which depreciation should be allowed. With no guidance in the
record beyond petitioner’s own testimony of the total amounts
spent on tools, we will not speculate on the amount that
petitioner should be allowed to deduct. To allow any deduction
would be “unguided largesse.” Williams v. United States, 245
F.2d 559, 560 (5th Cir. 1957). We sustain respondent’s position
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