Notes & Comments
NOTES & COMMENTS THE TAX-STRADDLE CASES The use of commodity futures "straddle" or "spread" transactions to reduce tax burdens is a time-honored practice.' Because of their in- creased popularity over the past decade, tax straddles have recently re- ceived a great deal of attention from the Treasury Department2 and from Congress.3 The Treasury Department has issued revenue rulings disapproving of the practice 4 and has challenged thousands of tax re- turns in which taxpayers offset losses generated by straddle transactions against other income. 5 In the first case to reach trial, Smith v. Commis- sioner,6 the United States Tax Court denied the straddle losses claimed by the taxpayers because the taxpayers lacked the requisite profit mo- 1. 12 TAX NOTES 209, 209 (1981) (testimony of Secretary of the Treasury Donald T. Regan at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee (Jan. 6, 1981)). 2. See IRS, EXAMINATION TAX SHELTERS HANDBOOK, reprinted in Silver Prices and the Adequacy ofFederalActions in the Marketplace,1978-80. HearingsBefore the Subcomm. on Com- merce, Consumer and Monetary Affairs of the House Comm on Government Operations, 96th Cong., 2d Sess. 368-69 (1980) (hereinafter cited as Silver Prices); Lewis, The Treasury'r Latest Attack on Tax Shelters, I1 TAX NOTES 723, 723 (1980). 3. See Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, Pub. L. No. 97-34, §§ 501-509, 95 Stat. 172. This statute dramatically alters the tax treatment of commodity futures transactions by prospec- tively eliminating the claimed losses from tax straddles. Section 503 of the Act requires unrealized gains and losses in open futures positions to be valued by referral to their market prices on the last day of the tax year and to adjust taxable income accordingly.
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