An appropriate order will be issued granting respondent's motion for partial summary judgment and denying petitioners' crossmotion for partial summary judgment.
KROUPA,
The following facts have been assumed solely for resolving the pending motions. Petitioners purchased a personal residence in Albuquerque, New Mexico (the personal residence) in 1997 from Donald and Denise Midkiff (the Midkiffs). Petitioners paid the Midkiffs $1,578,000 for the personal residence.
Petitioners financed the personal residence purchase with a $1,578,000 loan (the Merrill loan) from Merrill Lynch Credit Corp. (Merrill). The Merrill loan was secured by the personal residence and 8,750 shares of Intel Corporation stock (the Intel stock) that petitioner husband owned as an Intel employee. The Intel stock was worth approximately $650,000 at the time. The Intel stock was pledged as security for repayment of the Merrill loan in lieu of a down payment.
Petitioners refinanced the Merrill loan with a loan from ABN AMRO Mortgage Group, Inc. (ABN) of $1,605,000 (the ABN loan). Petitioners used $1,578,000 of the ABN loan proceeds to repay the Merrill loan. Petitioners used $17,282 of the ABN loan proceeds to pay 2011 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 190">*192 ABN settlement charges. The ABN loan was secured solely by the personal residence.
Petitioners deducted a portion of the interest accrued on the Merrill loan and the ABN loan as investment interest for 2006 and 2007. Petitioners never sold the Intel stock. Respondent disallowed the deductions. Petitioners timely filed a petition for redetermination while residing in New Mexico.
We are asked to decide whether partial summary judgment is appropriate. Summary judgment is intended to expedite litigation and avoid unnecessary and expensive trials. See, e.g.,
The parties agree there is no genuine issue of material fact but disagree, however, whether interest accrued on the Merrill loan and the ABN loan included any deductible investment interest under
Petitioners argue that they may deduct interest accrued on the Merrill loan and ABN loan as investment interest to the extent it is not qualified resident interest and is attributable to the Intel stock. Generally, investment interest is deductible up to the amount of net investment income.
Debt and interest are allocated to expenditures according to the use of the debt proceeds.
Petitioners argue that interest accrued on the Merrill loan is allocable to the Intel stock because the Merrill loan was partly secured by the Intel stock. We disagree. The allocation of debt and related interest is not affected by the use of property to secure repayment.
Here, petitioners used investment property to secure repayment of a loan for a personal residence rather than a car. This distinction is without a difference. The use of investment property to secure repayment of indebtedness has no effect on the allocation of debt and interest. Rather, it is the "use" of the debt proceeds that determines the allocation.
Petitioners finally argue that
We have considered all arguments the parties made in reaching our holdings, and, to the extent not mentioned, we find them irrelevant or without merit.
To reflect the foregoing,
1. All Rule references are to the Tax Court Rules of Practice and Procedure, and all section references are to the Internal Revenue Code in effect for the years at issue, unless otherwise indicated.↩
2. Respondent now concedes that petitioners may deduct interest accrued on $1.1 million of indebtedness secured by their personal residence as qualified resident interest. See
3. Petitioners argue that a portion of the interest accrued on the ABN loan is deductible as investment interest to the extent that the Merrill loan included deductible investment interest. We have determined that no interest accrued on the Merrill loan is deductible investment interest. This argument is of no moment.