Sobel v. Commissioner of Revenue Services

Summary

The court dismissed the Commissioner’s appeal as moot because the Commissioner challenged only one of two independent grounds supporting the taxpayer’s entitlement to a credit for income taxes paid to New York. The unchallenged alternative ground was that the taxpayer’s extensive trading activity qualified as a trade or business, so success on the challenged issue could not provide effective relief. The court therefore did not decide whether that alternative ground was legally correct.