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Tax Court Holds Defense Attorney in Oklahoma City Bombing Case Not Entitled to Charitable Deduction for Donation of McVeigh’s Case File to University
The Tax Court today issued an opinion holding that the Oklahoma attorney who
was the lead counsel representing Timothy McVeigh in the 1995 Oklahoma City federal building bombing trial was not entitled to a charitable contribution deduction for donating to the University of Texas certain government-provided photocopies of materials relating to the McVeigh trial.
The taxpayer entered into an agreement with the University of Texas in 1997, after he was allowed to withdraw from representation of McVeigh, concerning the transfer of the trial materials. The donation of about 171 boxes of hundreds of thousands of items was subsequently appraised at just under $295,000. The IRS denied the charitable deduction claimed by the taxpayer on the basis that the taxpayer did not personally own the materials that were provided to him for the purpose of preparing McVeigh’s legal defense.
The Tax Court upheld the IRS notice of deficiency finding that under Oklahoma law, an attorney does not own his client’s case file, but rather has custodial possession of the file. Accordingly, the attorney did not have an ownership interest in the materials and was incapable of making a valid gift of the materials under state law.
Jones v. Commissioner, 129 T.C. No. 16 (November 1, 2007).
For an electronic version of the 23-page opinion:
Jones
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