The tax aspects of Joseph G. Bucci & Elaine T. Bucci, Docket No. 29127-21, filed 8/7/23, are ordinary hobby-loss operations. The farm earns nothing, and exists so that Joe B’s neighbors bale the hay, keep half, and give Joe the rest for his horseracing operation. Joe B. was once a broker and appraiser in his hometown of Retsof, NY, but now runs an investment operation with his son that makes nothing. And the horseracing makes money, but loses much more.

Judge Mark V. Holmes feels obliged, as Joe B. is Golsenized to 2 Cir, to trudge through the “goofy regulation,” Reg. Section 1.183-2(a), for each, with identical results.

Joe B. loses on all counts, except Judge Holmes is sentimental about octogenarian Joe B’s desire to own a Kentucky Derby winner. So am I, as long as Joe B. doesn’t insist upon us taxpayers paying for it. Joe B earns $8 million per year; he can afford his dream.

There isn’t enough here for me to shout it out to my colleague Peter Reilly, CPA, snapper-up of unconsidered hobby-loss trifles.

And the Genius Baristas have again put the text of Judge Holmes’ off-the-bencher in undragable format, so I can’t cut-and-paste the tale of how Joe B. and partners saved his home town from the briny deep, sealed off the flood, and operated the largest salt mine in America.

That’s the best part of the story.

Joe B. and partners became the best friends the automobile companies ever had, because their salt is strewn each snowy winter on every highway and byway in the Northern Tier of these Estados Unidos, to turn vehicles into rustbuckets.