Friday, December 18, 2015

You Can't Make This Stuff Up

The tax world is a boring place. What tax preparers find exciting would make your eyes glaze over but a recent tax briefing hit my email that changed all that. The headline was:

Baiting Wild Hogs with Kool-Aid Counts toward Material Participation

The headline alone was enough to make my day but it gets better. The rest of the story goes something like this:

  • An attorney owns a farm.
  • The farm is located in Turkey, Texas.
  • Mr. Pigg grows crops on the attorney's farm.
  • Wild hogs are a problem on the farm, but not Pigg.
  • Attorney baits wild hogs with Kool-Aid.
  • Mr. Pigg might like Kool-Aid but he's not the problem.
  • There is no problem with turkeys.
  • Attorney waits in a tripod stand to eradicate wild hogs with semiautomatic weapons.
  • Neither Mr. Pigg nor any turkeys are injured.
  • Attorney's other duties include maintaining Bush Hogs.
  • Bush Hogs are not wild.
  • Mr. Pigg is not responsible for any hogs or turkeys.
  • Attorney works more hours on the farm than Mr. Pigg.
  • Therefore, Tax Court finds attorney's Kool-Aid expenses are deductible.
You can read the whole thing here. If you were ever inclined to read a Tax Court Memo, this is the one.

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