- 26 - contributions to the partnership cannot be made given the state of BBP’s records. Thus, the evidence in the record is insufficient to determine the partners’ relative contributions to capital. The second factor to consider is the partners’ interests in the economic profits and losses of the partnership. Melvin and Russell generally allowed each other to withdraw the profits from the respective activity each brother primarily conducted. Both Russell and Mr. Feldmann testified that they believed that Melvin withdrew more money from BBP over the years than Russell did. Russell testified that he and Melvin had a great working relationship and that they agreed that they would report the income and loss from BBP equally on both the partnership and their individual income tax returns. Russell testified that the amount of income from each activity varied because sometimes the price of grain was good and other times the price of oil was good. The amount of profits earned by each activity varied year to year depending on various factors, including the market prices for grain or oil. For the taxable years 1980 through 1994, the evidence in the record reflects that the oil and gas activity was more profitable overall than the farming activity during this period. The profits and losses varied from year to year as between the two activities, and the evidence in the record is insufficient from which to define the partners’ interests in thePage: Previous 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 Next
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