- 18 - profitable.10 See Poast v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1994-399 (“for the most part, petitioners’ advisers were not experts as much as they were upliners with a financial stake in petitioners’ retail and downline sales”); Ogden v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1999-397 (“Amway distributors may be biased when discussing Amway because they have a natural desire to advance the organization and/or obtain income from a downliner.”). Petitioners’ refusal to seek meaningful counsel from disinterested third parties is all the more telling given the fact that the advice received from interested Amway individuals did nothing to reverse petitioners’ history of uninterrupted and substantial losses. Furthermore, the record suggests that the “advice” petitioners received consisted of little more than platitudes, generalities, and encouragement to “give it all you’ve got”. A fourth factor militating against petitioners’ claim is the amount of time that petitioners devoted to the Amway activity. See sec. 1.183-2(b)(3), Income Tax Regs. In this vein, Mrs. Meyer repeatedly testified that the key to a successful Amway “business” was not selling products, but rather establishing an extensive network of “downline” distributors in order to “change 10 We do not regard general encouragement given by Mrs. Meyer’s divorce lawyer to “stick with it” to constitute meaningful business counsel. In any event, Mrs. Meyer admitted that this individual never gave her advice concerning how the Amway activity might be made profitable.Page: Previous 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Next
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