Brief Fact Summary. Petitioner owned a meat packing plant. Oil began seeping into the basement rooms and Petitioner was forced to spend money to stop the seepage in order to keep the business operating.
Synopsis of Rule of Law. An “ordinary” business expense does not mean that the expense has to be habitual or normal for the same taxpayer.
Ordinary in this context does not mean that the payments must be habitual or normal in the sense that the same taxpayer will have to make them often.
View Full Point of LawIssue. Whether the expenditure for a concrete lining in Petitioner’s basement is deductible as an ordinary and necessary business expense?
Held. Judge Arundell issued the opinion for the Tax Court of the United States in holding for Petitioner and allowing the expense to be deductible as an ordinary and necessary business expense.
Discussion. The expenditure only allowed Petitioner to continue to operate his business as he had in the past. The Tax Court found that ordinary does not habitual or normal in that the same taxpayer will have to make that expense often. Rather, ordinary means the normal thing to do for a taxpayer in that type of business and situation.