Marion T. Weatherford and Leona A. Weatherford v. United States

The sole question before us is whether a taxpayer may deduct his wife’s traveling expenses incurred in a trip to the Orient with him as an ordinary and necessary business expense, the taxpayer being a wheat farmer.

The facts were agreed upon by the parties. The district court held the taxpayer could deduct his and his wife’s expenses. The Government has not appealed from the allowance of his expenses, but asserts there is insufficient evidence to bring the wife’s expenses within the statutory provisions of Section 162(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954.

Taxpayer’s eighty-six day trip was partly business and partly pleasure. At least thirty-two days were “pure pleasure,” or “mostly a vacation” in taxpayer’s own words. About forty days were part business, but included some sightseeing.

The Government states, and there is no denial, that the record discloses:

“The taxpayer did not sell wheat directly to any of the people he contacted on his trip in 1963 because such foreign sales were beyond the scope of his operation and his facilities. (Dep. 96; II-R. 66.)

“The taxpayer’s wife does not work on the ranch, is not a partner in the ranch business, and is not engaged in public…