No, That’s Not a Typo

Indu Rawat is back. IRS has folded her non-inventory gain when she unloaded her US partnership interest, but Judge David Gustafson has held that the Form 870-LT she and IRS signed did not preclude her fighting whether she was an NRA (not a gunslinger, a Non Resident Alien) or wasn’t taxable on inventory gain per Sections 741 and 751. See my blogpost “Maybe Not So Perduto,” 7/28/22, and the blogposts therein cited.

Now, Indu wants summary J she’s not taxable on inventory gain. She sold out years before the enactment of Section 864(c)(8), so that’s not in play; Grecian Magnesite still is. Sale of a partnership is a sale of a business, not each asset separately, for this case. With the usual exceptions, of course; whatever would we lawyers do without exceptions?

Indu says neither Section 741 nor Section 751 is a sourcing section, and Judge Gustafson buys that. “Admittedly, section 751 and Treasury Regulation § 1.751-1(a)(1) do not tell us the source of the proceeds nor their effective connection to a U.S. business; rather, they tell us the nature of the property considered to have been sold and the nature of the income that is to be taxed (or not). To find the sourcing rules and their effect on the nonresident alien’s liability, we look elsewhere.” T. C. Memo. 2023-14, filed 2/7/23.

The problem is, Section 751 and the Regs. treat inventory gain and receivables gain different to other gain on sale of a partnership interest. And Section 751 explicitly overrides Section 741. Inventory gain is gain other than gain on sale of a capital asset.

Once again, IRS doesn’t cross-move for summary J, but turns to the sourcing rules. Judge Gustafson finds those help IRS. “Consequently, since Ms. Rawat’s motion is based on her contention, which we reject, that the sourcing rule for the Inventory Gain is the general rule of section 865(a)(2), we will deny her motion.” T. C. Memo. 2023-14, at p. 20.

So Indu is out, indubitably, right?

Not on Judge David Gustafson’s obliging watch. He’ll tell your trusty attorneys, however white-shoe their affiliations, how to maybe win their case. Like maybe actually read the law…all of the law.

“Despite our rejection of Ms. Rawat’s principal contention about the effects of sections 741 and 751 and her reliance on the default sourcing rule of section 865(a), she might nonetheless prevail in whole or in part by showing, pursuant to section 865(b), that the source of the Inventory Gain was ‘without the United States’ under sections 861(a)(6), 862(a)(6), and 863. In the pending motion, however, she has not attempted to make that showing.” T. C. Memo. 2023-14, at p. 20.

Obliging? Just file your petition, ask to be assigned to Judge David Gustafson, and sit back. He’ll try your case for you.