Estate of MacCrowe v. Commissioner
Estate of MacCrowe v. Commissioner
Opinion of the Court
This is the second appeal in the case which was before us in Estate of MacCrowe v. Commissioner, 4 Cir., 240 F.2d 841. On the former appeal, it appeared that the Commissioner had arrived at deficiencies in the reported income of a deceased physician for the years 1948 and 1949 by estimating the number of patients operated on by the physician on the basis of morphine tablets purchased by him and multiplying this by a charge of $400 per patient. This resulted in a total of $192,000 for 1948 and $96,000 for 1949. The Tax Court found these determinations to be incorrect but that the physician’s gross income from medical practice was $115,-
Under the circumstances there is nothing to do but remand the case again to the Tax Court to find the facts, with full power to go into the case de novo and make findings, either on the evidence already taken or on further evidence, without feeling bound in any way by the determination heretofore made. Judgments in tax cases, as in other cases, must have a reasonable basis on facts duly found by the court; and we cannot regard the method based on morphine tablets purchased by a physician as furnishing an adequate basis for assessment of his income tax, especially when this method is rejected by the Tax Court itself. Such evidence is, of course, competent as evidence of circumstances to be considered along with other evidence in the case in arriving at income.
The judgment of the Tax Court will be vacated and the case will be remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent herewith.
Vacated and remanded.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- ESTATE OF Albert E. MacCROWE, James C. L. Anderson, Administrator, de bonis non, with the will annexed, and Hazel B. MacCrowe (now Hazel B. Keen), surviving wife v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE
- Cited By
- 3 cases
- Status
- Published