Maurice M. Wills and Gertrude E. Wills v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

This case arises upon a petition to review a decision of the Tax Court sustaining the Commissioner’s determination of deficiencies in the taxpayers’ income taxes paid for the years 1962 and 1963. The opinion of the court below is reported at 48 T.C. 308 (1967). Jurisdiction is conferred on this court by 26 U.S.C. § 7482 .

Taxpayers Maurice M. Wills and Gertrude E. Wills are husband and wife. They filed joint income tax returns on a cash basis for the calendar years 1962 and 1963. Taxpayer Maurice M. Wills has been a professional baseball player since 1951. From June 1959 through November 1966, he played baseball for the Los Angeles Dodgers, whose club home is Los Angeles, California.

The 1962 and 1963 contracts between Wills and the Dodgers provided that Wills was to be paid semimonthly at the Dodger headquarters in Los Angeles. About half the Dodgers’ games were played each season in Los Angeles, and in 1962 and 1963 taxpayer spent at least 87 days in Los Angeles as a member of the Dodger baseball team. In 1963, he spent four additional days in this city in connection with the World Series, and additional time there (perhaps three weeks) preparing for a night club routine with…