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emphasizing the importance of the taxpayer’s evidentiary basis to
support tax deductions relating to customer-based intangible
assets (even though some of the referenced opinions allowed the
deductions in dispute as did the Supreme Court in Newark Morning
Ledger Co.). We quote below these additional statements from the
Supreme Court’s opinion in Newark Morning Ledger Co.:
(1) “The courts that have found these assets depreciable
have based their conclusions on carefully developed factual
records.” * * * [Id. at 560];
(2) “The * * * [Court of Claims in Richard S. Miller & Sons,
Inc. v. United States, 210 Ct.Cl. 431, 537 F.2d 446 (1976)]
concluded that the taxpayer had carried its heavy burden of
proving that the expirations had an ascertainable value
separate and distinct from goodwill and had a limited useful
life * * *.” [Id. at 560];
(3) “The Tax Court [in Citizens & S. Corp. v. Commissioner,
91 T.C. 463 (1988), affd. 919 F.2d 1492 (11th Cir. 1990)]
rejected the Commissioner’s position, concluding that the
taxpayer had demonstrated with sufficient evidence that the
economic value attributable to the opportunity to invest the
core deposits could be (and, indeed, was) valued * * *.”
[Id. at 562];
(4) “The * * * [Tax Court in Co. Natl. Bankshares v.
Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1990-495, affd. 984 F.2d 383 (10th
Cir. 1993)] specifically found that the deposit accounts
could be identified; that they had limited lives that could
be estimated with reasonable accuracy; and that they could
be valued with a fair degree of accuracy.” * * * [Id. at
563];
(5) “The Court of Appeals [in Newark Morning Ledger Co. v.
United States, 945 F.2d 555 (3d Cir. 1991), revd. 507 U.S.
546 (1993)] concluded further that in ‘the context of the
sale of a going concern, it is simply often too difficult
for the taxpayer and the court to separate the value of the
list qua list from the goodwill value of the customer
relationships/structure.’ [Id. at 568.] We agree with that
general observation. It is often too difficult for
taxpayers to separate depreciable intangible assets from
goodwill. But sometimes they manage to do it. And whether
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