- 22 - that “Mr. Schelble’s payments are tied to the quantity and quality of his prior services performed for the Companies.” Id. at 1393. The Court of Appeals in Schelble also distinguished Gump v. Commissioner, supra. Id. The “extended earnings” payments in Gump were calculated in the same way as the termination payments in Milligan and differently from the “extended earnings” in Schelble. The Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit rejected the taxpayer’s suggestion that the label attached to the payments has any tax significance. However, the payment scheme in Gump is nearly identical to that in Milligan and distinguishable from Mr. Schelble’s payment scheme. For the same reasons we reject Milligan, we also find Gump does not apply [to] Mr. Schelble’s case. [Schelble v. Commissioner, supra at 1393-1394.] In Jackson v. Commissioner, 108 T.C. 130 (1997), the Tax Court, in a reviewed opinion, followed Milligan in a case that would not have been appealable to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Like Milligan, Jackson involved termination payments to a State Farm agent under a contract providing for a 2-year qualification period, payments based on a fixed percentage of the final-year’s compensation without regard to the length of service, and a reduction for commission chargebacks on policies canceled after termination. Following Milligan, this Court held that the termination payments were not subject to self-employmentPage: Previous 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Next
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