Carter v. Commissioner

40 T.C.M. 654 (1980)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P resided in New York City. He reported his income for 1975 as a cash basis taxpayer. P was unemployed from January through September 1974. He began working for the city of New York as a laboratory technician in the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in October 1974. Several weeks later, he transferred to the City Health Department. P received continuous service credit for the time he was with the Chief Medical Examiner. Subsequent to the transfer, there was a delay in processing his payroll checks, arising out of tardiness in forwarding his records from the Chief Medical Examiner and a backlog in payroll processing in the Health Department. P did not get paid for 6 weeks. He was paid [$1,073.01 in gross wages on January 3, 1975. This represented 4 weeks' back pay ($715.34) and 2 weeks' timely pay ($357.67). From this point, his paycheck was up to date. Had P received the money in 1974, he would have owed no extra taxes. His total income for 1974 would have been $818.30. P was advised by an Internal Revenue employee who assisted him in preparing his 1975 Federal income tax return to exclude the $1,073.01 from his 1975 wages because it was attributable to 1974. D assessed a $195 deficiency in P's 1975 taxes. P that he constructively received the income in 1974, because the work was performed in 1974. D's position is that P must be taxed when he actually received the money in 1975.