Determining economic interest in natural resources

Abstract

The term "economic interest" represents an investment in a natural resource that will eventually produce a return on capital. The possession of economic interest is necessary for the taxpayer to (1) claim the depletion deduction and (2) recognize a capital gain rather than ordinary income on the sale of natural resources. This study used a population of decisions made by the Tax Court and the Internal Revenue Service in macro-case analysis in an attempt to identify and estimate the importance of the factors used by the judicial courts and the IRS to determine the existence of economic interest and how these factors differ in a variety of circumstances (different decision makers, different types of transactions, and different natural resources). Decision criteria of the models were also compared to the regulations. The Tax Court and the IRS were found to use different decision criteria to determine economic interest. The Tax Court decisions used only one of the variables contained in the regulations and made no distinction between depletion and capital gains transactions in the determination of the existence of economic interest. The rulings made by the IRS used another variable in addition to the two contained in the regulations and tended to alter decision criteria in depletion transactions compared to capital gains transactions. Only limited evidence supported differences in decision criteria for economic interest decisions between various natural resources.