Sherrel and Leslie Stephen Jones - Page 7




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          materials in issue are original documents, and none contain an              
          original signature or notation of McVeigh or any other person.              
               Petitioners claimed a deduction of $294,877 on their joint             
          Federal income tax return for 1997 for the donation of the                  
          materials.  The deductions at issue in this case were carried               
          over from petitioners’ 1997, 1998, and 1999 Federal income tax              
          returns.                                                                    
               Respondent disallowed the charitable deduction claimed by              
          petitioners for the donation of the materials related to the                
          criminal prosecution of McVeigh for the Oklahoma City bombing               
          because respondent determined that petitioner did not personally            
          own the materials that were provided to him for the purpose of              
          preparing McVeigh’s legal defense.                                          
                                       OPINION                                        
               In order to be eligible for a charitable contribution                  
          deduction under section 170(a), a taxpayer must make a gift of              
          property to a qualifying charitable organization.  Sec. 170(c).             
          The parties agree that the University of Texas is a qualifying              
          charitable organization for purposes of section 170, but they               
          disagree about whether petitioner legally owned the materials and           
          thus whether his donation and transfer of possession of the                 
          materials effected a valid gift.  In applying a provision of                
          Federal tax law, State law controls in determining the nature of            
          a taxpayer’s legal interest in property.  United States v. Natl.            







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