- 11 - activity for purposes of section 183.8 The Court acknowledged in that case: The treasure hunting activity was different from petitioner’s other businesses. Different record keeping methods are therefore expected, and lack of record keeping is not determinative of intent. Treasure hunting is not the type of business where thorough records of gains and losses are necessary to a successful operation. Cf. Farrell v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1983-542. This type of activity is likely to generate only expenditures with no income until a find is made at which time the income will come in one lump sum. Therefore, we find that * * * contemporaneous handwritten lists of expenses were sufficient records for this type of activity. In this case, petitioner did not maintain any contemporaneous written record of the timing, location, and amount of gold he recovered. He stored his gold in vials that would hold only specified amounts. While the vials could provide some visual indication of the amount of gold on hand, they were kept buried in ammunition boxes under water at dredging sites, making regular visual inventory difficult. He maintained no records of the gold so stored. Such a practice, while permissible, is hardly businesslike. In addition, when petitioner sold small amounts of gold, he kept no receipts. Petitioner did maintain some written records of his expenses, although not in an organized or systematic way and not 8 In Harrison v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1996-509, the Court treated the taxpayer’s gold mining and treasure salvaging operations as one activity for purposes of sec. 183.Page: Previous 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Next
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