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a qualified retirement plan only if he performs personal
services”).
We have found no case in which a person’s desire,
willingness, or intent to render personal services satisfied the
earned income requirement. Instead, we have upheld the
requirement that personal services be actually performed in order
to yield earned income that will support a deduction under
section 404.
In Kramer v. Commissioner, 80 T.C. 768 (1983), Jack Kramer,
a former U.S. tennis champion, received royalty payments from
Wilson Sporting Goods, a tennis racquet manufacturer, which were
attributed to the use of his name and reputation, and for
services actually rendered in promoting Wilson’s premier tennis
racquet, which bore his name. We made an allocation between the
royalties paid for the use of Kramer’s name and reputation, which
were not earned income, and royalties paid for promotional
services actually rendered on Wilson’s behalf, which were earned
income. We held that, to the extent the royalties did not
qualify as earned income, Kramer was not entitled to take them
into account in computing his deductible contributions to his
Keogh plan.
Similarly, in Frick v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1983-733,
affd. without published opinion 774 F.2d 1168 (7th Cir. 1985),
the Court denied Mr. Frick’s claimed Keogh plan contribution
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