Walter L. Medlin - Page 25

                                       - 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 make            






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Last modified: May 25, 2011