Gregory v. Helvering

Gregory v. Helvering
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued December 4–5, 1934 Decided January 7, 1935
Full case name	Evelyn Gregory v. Guy T. Helvering, Commissioner of Internal Revenue
Citations	293 U.S. 465 (more) 55 S. Ct. 266, 79 L. Ed. 596, 1935 U.S. LEXIS 4
Case history
Prior	69 F.2d 809 (2d Cir. 1934); cert. granted, 293 U.S. 538 (1934).
Holding
For a business reorganization to affect tax liability, the reorganization must have economic substance, not be merely an attempt to reduce tax. However, "the legal right of a taxpayer to decrease the amount of what otherwise would be his taxes, or altogether avoid them, by means which the law permits, cannot be doubted."
Court membership
Chief Justice Charles E. Hughes Associate Justices Willis Van Devanter · James C. McReynolds Louis Brandeis · George Sutherland Pierce Butler · Harlan F. Stone Owen Roberts · Benjamin N. Cardozo
Case opinion
Majority	Sutherland, joined by unanimous

Gregory v. Helvering, 293 U.S. 465 (1935), was a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court concerned with U.S. income tax law.^[1] The case is cited as part of the basis for two legal doctrines: the business purpose doctrine and the doctrine of substance over form. The business purpose doctrine is essentially that if a transaction has no substantial business purpose other than the avoidance or reduction of Federal tax, the tax law will not regard the transaction. The doctrine of substance over form is essentially that for Federal tax purposes, a taxpayer is bound by the economic substance of a transaction if the economic substance varies from its legal form.