TaxProf Blog-Classic Lesson From The Tax Court: Twitty Burgers!

TaxProf Blog:
"...The Jenkins case deserves your attention not only because of its lesson about the difference between business and personal deductions but also because of the poetry (?) it inspired both from Tax Court Judge Leo H. Irwin and from the IRS Office  of Chief Counsel 

All that, and more, below the fold.

The Lyrics (Facts):

Harold Jenkins, of course, was the birth name of the man better known as Conway Twitty. 

He was best known as a country music singer, less known as a baseball player and fan, and almost unknown as a chef. 

Still, he thought it would be a great idea to start a restaurant business that featured his favorite hamburger, involving canned pineapple rings deep-fried in graham cracker crumbs....

Twitty Burger went belly up
But Conway remained true.
He repaid his investors, one and all.
It was the moral thing to do.

His fans would not have liked it, 
It could have hurt his fame,
Had any investors sued him 
Like Merle Haggard or Sonny James.

When it was time to file taxes 
Conway thought what he would do 
Was deduct those payments as a business expense 
Under section one-sixty-two.

In order to allow these deductions 
Goes the argument of the Commissioner. 
The payments must be ordinary and necessary 
To a business of the petitioner.

Had Conway not repaid the investors 
His career would have been under cloud, 
Under the unique facts of this case Held: 
The deductions are allowed...."
Must read it all to understand.
worth it!