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taxpayer or his advisers; (3) the time and effort expended by the
taxpayer in carrying on the activity; (4) the expectation that
the assets used in the activity may appreciate in value; (5) the
success of the taxpayer in carrying on other similar or
dissimilar activities; (6) the taxpayer’s history of income or
losses with respect to the activity; (7) the amount of occasional
profits, if any, which are earned; (8) the financial status of
the taxpayer; and (9) elements of personal pleasure or
recreation.
These factors are not merely a counting device where the
number of factors for or against the taxpayer is determinative.
Instead, all facts and circumstances must be taken into account,
and more weight may be given to some factors than to others.
Dunn v. Commissioner, 70 T.C. 715, 720 (1978), affd. 615 F.2d 578
(2d Cir. 1980). Some of the factors summarized above are
inapplicable to this situation, and others provide little
guidance to the resolution of the question here. Therefore, we
focus on the factors that lead to our decision.
The most significant factors by far in this case are
petitioners’ long history of failure in Amway activities and
their almost total lack of gross revenue from those activities
during the period in issue. Three times before the years in
issue Mr. Landrum had attempted Amway activity, and Mrs. Landrum
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