Cite as: 506 U. S. 168 (1993)
Thomas, J., concurring in judgment
There will, of course, be the extraordinary cases where the focal point inquiry will provide no answer. One example is the sole proprietor who buys jewelry wholesale through a home office, and sells it both at various craft shows and through mail orders out of his home office. In that case, the focal point test would yield more than one location where income is generated, including the home. Where the taxpayer's business involves multiple points of sale, a court would need to fall back on a totality-of-the-circumstances analysis. That inquiry would be rationally guided, of course, by the two factors set out in the Court's opinion: an analysis of the relative importance of the functions performed at each business location and the time spent at each. The error of the Tax Court's original construction of the focal point test was the implicit view that the test allowed no escape valve. Clearly it must. Nevertheless, since in the vast majority of cases the focal point inquiry will provide a quick, objective, and reliable method of ascertaining a taxpayer's "principal place of business," I think the Court errs today in not unequivocally adopting it.
The difficulty with the Court's two-part test can be seen in its application to the facts of this case. It is uncontested that the taxpayer is paid to provide one service—anesthesiology. It is also undisputed that he performs this service at several different hospitals. At this juncture, under the focal point test, a lower court's inquiry would be complete: On these facts, the taxpayer's home office would not qualify for the § 280A(c)(1)(A) deduction. Yet under the Court's formulation, the lower court's inquiry has only just begun. It would need to hear evidence regarding the types of business activities performed at the home office and the relative amount of time the taxpayer spends there. It just so happens that in this case the taxpayer spent 30 to 35 hours per week at the hospitals where he worked. But how would a court answer the § 280A(c)(1)(A) question under the standard announced today if the facts were altered slightly, so that
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