Karl Meyer and Vickie Meyer - Page 19




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          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.                                    





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