Felix Frankfurter

“ We should leave no doubt in the minds of the Tax Court, of the Courts of Appeals, of the Treasury and of the bar that the essential holding of the Tower case is that there is 'no reason' why the 'general rule' by which the existence of a partnership is determined 'should not apply in tax cases where the Government challenges the existence of a partnership for tax purposes.'
In plain English, if an arrangement among men is not an arrangement which puts them all in the same business boat, then they cannot get into the same boat merely to seek the benefits of §§ 181 and 182. ”

“ Recognition of the importance, in applying §§ 181 and 182, of the appraisal of facts makes manifest why, quite apart from the definition contained in § 3797, a determination by a State court should not, as the Tower opinion pointed out, foreclose a contrary determination by a federal tribunal charged with administration of the tax laws. Such an inconsistency would not mean that the legal standards applied by each were inconsistent; it would be a result simply of the common-place that no finder of fact can see through the eyes of any other finder of fact. ”

“ But these circumstances were not cited as giving the term 'partnership' a content peculiar to the Internal Revenue Code. They were characterized, rather, simply as 'more than ample evidence to support the Tax Court's finding that no genuine union for partnership business purposes was ever intended' and, as a corollary, 'that the husband earned the income.' 327 U.S. at page 292, 66 S.Ct. ”