## Facts

- Robert L. Bryant and Ellen H. Bryant (husband and wife) filed a joint federal income tax return for 1990.
- Ellen Bryant was a third-grade teacher at Tower Hill School.
- During the 1989–1990 school year, Tower Hill changed from handwritten report cards to computerized student reports.
- Beginning in January 1991, elementary teachers were required to prepare the reports using Macintosh-compatible technology.
- Tower Hill made Macintosh computers available on campus for faculty and student use: eight computers from January through August 1990, and about fifteen computers from September through December 1990.
- In February 1990, Ellen Bryant purchased a Macintosh computer for home use for approximately $3,233 so she could prepare the student reports at home.
- The Bryants claimed depreciation deductions (as unreimbursed employee business expenses) for the computer on their 1990 return.
- The Commissioner of Internal Revenue disallowed the depreciation deduction, asserting that the computer was not obtained and used for the employer’s convenience and as a condition of employment.
- Bryant contended that the limited availability of school computers, along with neighborhood and school-security concerns, made it impractical to stay late at school to complete the reports and that she could not finish the work on time without a home computer.
- Evidence showed that some other teachers completed the required reports using the school’s computers without buying their own machines.
- The Bryants petitioned the United States Tax Court to contest the deficiency.

## Issues

1. Whether the Bryants were entitled to depreciation deductions for Ellen Bryant’s home Macintosh computer used to prepare required student reports, when the school provided computers at work.
2. Whether the home computer was used for the convenience of the employer and required as a condition of employment, as required for an employee’s home use of a computer (listed property) to be deductible.

## Decision

- The Tax Court sustained the Commissioner’s determination and disallowed the claimed depreciation deduction.
- The court found the Bryants did not prove that Tower Hill required Ellen Bryant to have a computer at home or that home ownership and use of a computer was a condition of her employment.
- The court relied on the availability of Macintosh computers at the school and the fact that other teachers completed the same reporting requirement using the school’s computers.
- The court treated Bryant’s decision to purchase a computer for home use—based on convenience and safety concerns—as insufficient to meet the statutory tests for deducting employee home use of listed property.

## Legal Principles

- Deductions are a matter of legislative grace, and the taxpayer bears the burden of proving entitlement to any deduction claimed.
- Employee business expenses may be deductible under I.R.C. § 162 only if they are ordinary and necessary expenses of the employee’s trade or business.
- Depreciation is allowable only when the taxpayer shows the property is used in a qualifying business use and satisfies applicable limitations and conditions.
- Computers (for the year at issue) are treated as “listed property,” and an employee’s business use of listed property is subject to stricter limits, including heightened substantiation and special conditions for use in the home.
- For an employee to deduct expenses (including depreciation) for listed property used at home, the employee must show the use was for the employer’s convenience and required as a condition of employment; it is not enough that the expense makes the job easier or allows work to be done at home.
- When an employer provides facilities that allow the employee to perform the work (here, computers at the school), a duplicate arrangement at home generally indicates personal choice rather than an employer-imposed requirement.

## Conclusion

In *Bryant v. Commissioner*, the Tax Court denied depreciation for a teacher’s home Macintosh computer because the Bryants did not show that Tower Hill School required her to own or use a computer at home or that the home computer was maintained for the school’s convenience, particularly where the school provided Macintosh computers and other teachers completed the same reporting tasks using the school’s equipment.


Bryant v. Commissioner, 66 T.C.M. 1594, T.C. Memo 1993-597 (1993)