Hilla Rebay
United States Tax Court
T.C. Memo. 1963-42 (1963)
- Written by Jessica Rice, JD
Facts
In 1912, Hilla Rebay (plaintiff) took an interest in and began to create nonobjective paintings. Over the years, Rebay donated the paintings to charitable organizations, such as colleges and museums, and deducted the paintings’ fair market value from her gross income as charitable deductions on her 1955–1959 federal income-tax returns. In 1962, Rebay made her first sale of a nonobjective painting for $15,000 to a buyer who was not an art collector. In reviewing her 1955–1959 tax returns, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue (the commissioner) (defendant) issued deficiency notices disallowing Rebay’s charitable deductions, in whole or in part, based on downward determinations of Rebay’s paintings’ fair market value. Rebay appealed, contesting the downward determinations. The commissioner had expert testimony that supported the commissioner’s lower fair-market-value calculations. Rebay’s expert, basing his valuations on Rebay’s one-time sale in 1962, claimed that Rebay’s paintings were worth substantially less than what she claimed the fair market values were but still higher than what the commissioner asserted.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Raum, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 832,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,500 briefs, keyed to 994 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
