- 113 - Same way with the orange grove. I was setting there with the orange grove, paying for my house anyway, and so it was suggested to me, Why are you letting the grove go to hell. And so then I started fixing it up which--probably, very little fruit came off in the beginning because, like I say, I wasn’t paying any attention to it. I just thought, well, gee, nobody makes money off groves, but if you already own the grove and you can buy a tractor and buy a sprayer and stuff like this--I always bought used equipment, and you can see in all the repair things, I had to fix up old tractors and discs and sprayers and stuff-- [Emphasis added.] Mr. Partin also testified that, prior to petitioner’s purchase of the cattle; “He loved the cattle. He’d come--he’d be at my place off and on, and you know, he just loved the cattle. And we thought, you know, with his love of the cattle, that’s what it takes to be in the cattle business.” And, certainly, it is beyond doubt that the Ferrari automobile has an inherent pleasure quality, and petitioner has not presented any evidence to suggest otherwise. Elements of personal pleasure do not alone negate a profit motivation, see Burger v. Commissioner, supra at 360; McCarthy v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2000-135; however, on the record before us we find considerable evidence that the activities were engaged in for hobby and as a personal diversion. Petitioner did not maintain any books or records for any of these purported businesses, and his only method of bookkeeping with respect to the orange grove and cattle business was his “checkbook”. The lack of a bookkeeping system such that the taxpayer could not monitor expenses or losses and could not makePage: Previous 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011