168
OCTOBER TERM, 1992
Syllabus
certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the fourth circuit
No. 91-998. Argued October 5, 1992—Decided January 12, 1993
During the 1983 tax year, respondent Soliman, an anesthesiologist, spent
30 to 35 hours per week administering anesthesia and postoperative care in three hospitals, none of which provided him with an office. He also spent two to three hours per day in a room in his home that he used exclusively as an office, where he did not meet patients but did perform a variety of tasks related to his medical practice. His claimed federal income tax deduction for the portion of his household expenses attributable to the home office was disallowed by petitioner Commissioner, who determined that the office was not Soliman's "principal place of business" under 26 U. S. C. § 280A(c)(1)(A). The Tax Court disagreed and allowed the deduction. In affirming, the Court of Appeals adopted the test used in the Tax Court, under which a home office may qualify as the "principal place of business" if (1) the office is essential to the taxpayer's business; (2) the taxpayer spends a substantial amount of time there; and (3) there is no other location available for performance of the business' office functions.
Held: Soliman was not entitled to a deduction for home office expenses.
Pp. 172-179. (a) The test used by the Court of Appeals is rejected because it fails to undertake a comparative analysis of the taxpayer's various business locations. This Court looks to words' "ordinary, everyday senses" in interpreting a revenue statute's meaning. E. g., Malat v. Riddell, 383 U. S. 569, 571. Section 280A(c)(1)(A) refers to the "principal place of business," and both the commonsense and dictionary meanings of "principal" demonstrate that this constitutes the most important or signifi-cant place for the business, as determined through a comparison of all of the places where business is transacted. Contrary to the Court of Appeals' suggestion, the statute does not allow for a deduction whenever a home office may be characterized as legitimate. Pp. 172-174. (b) Although no one test is always determinative and each case turns upon its particular facts, there are two primary considerations in deciding whether a home office is the principal place of business. First, the relative importance of the functions performed at each business location must be analyzed. This requires, as a preliminary step, an objective
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