David H. and Suzanne Hillman - Page 11




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          of section 469, unrelated.  SMC provides services for the real              
          estate entities and receives income in exchange.  The real estate           
          entities’ correlative expense or deductions are not costs                   
          incurred by SMC in the performance of the management services.              
          Finally, petitioner’s ownership in the real estate entities is              
          not exclusive, and it was not exclusive in all years for SMC.               
               Unfortunately, petitioners have been snared by the reach of            
          section 469 in, what appears to be, most inequitable                        
          circumstances.  As we discussed in our prior opinion, section 469           
          was designed to limit the use of losses generated by passive                
          activities to offset unrelated income generated by nonpassive               
          activities.  Although section 469 was designed to stop these                
          practices, Congress recognized that it would be inappropriate to            
          treat certain transactions between related taxpayers as giving              
          rise to passive expense and nonpassive income.                              
               The Secretary was charged with issuing regulations to                  
          implement section 469.  Commentary contained in the legislative             
          history suggests that self-charged items should be provided for             
          in the regulations.  In 1991, regulations were proposed that                
          provided for self-charged interest.  Although more than 15 years            
          have passed since the enactment of section 469 and 10 years have            
          passed since the self-charged regulation for interest was                   
          proposed, no action has been taken to relieve inequity that may             








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