- 50 - Section 162(a)(1) allows as a deduction all the ordinary and necessary expenses paid or incurred during the taxable year in carrying on any trade or business, including a reasonable allowance for salaries or other compensation for personal services actually rendered. Petitioner has presented no financial records of the business operations of ECI and Crocus. The incompleteness of the record has been aggravated by respondent’s unexplained failure to follow through with discovery after the Court granted respondent’s application for a letter of request authorizing a foreign deposition. The stipulated facts in this case present a mysterious world where real-life agreements are disregarded, financial records are nowhere to be found, and a myriad of other relevant information is absent. Although both petitioner and respondent have agreed that disregarding the royalty agreement and ECI should not have an adverse effect on either party, the “black hole” surrounding the financial operations of ECI and Crocus has impaired our ability to understand the business and financial relationships of petitioner and Crocus. 23(...continued) not control the vote of petitioner’s Board of Directors because he was one of three directors. There is no evidence in the record that Agalarov controlled petitioner’s business decisions. Thus, we do not find that petitioner and Crocus were owned or controlled by the same interests for purposes of applying sec. 482.Page: Previous 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 Next
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