New Tax Court Rulings IN FAVOR of the Taxpayer!

As you know, I read lots of business and tax stuff. And I subscribe to The Kiplinger Tax Letter which has two great pieces of information in its most recent edition (March 6th). These could be two very important Tax Court rulings in favor of the taxpayer.

One has to do with Real Estate Professional status for real estate agents (and possibly others) and taking an ordinary loss on an abandoned investment.

Here are portions of the quotes (their copyright policy prohibits me from providing the full entries):

"Real estate agents ... rental real estate losses are exempt from the passive loss rules if they spend more than one-half of their time and at least 750 hours per year materially involved in real estate, the Tax Court says. ... The Service said that agents were not covered, but the Tax Court disagreed (Agarwal, TC Summ. Op. 2009-29)." Copyright 2009. The Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc.

and

"The loss on an abandoned investment is deducted as an ordinary loss,
the Tax Court says in a case where a couple gave up the $25,000 they paid
for a franchise. ... (Alami El Moujahid, TC Memo. 2009-42)." Copyright 2009. The Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc.