When are deferred amounts includible in an employees gross income?
a. Constructive Receipt Doctrine — Unfunded Plans Cash basis taxpayers must include gains, profits, and income in gross income for the taxable year in which they are actually or constructively received. Under the constructive receipt doctrine, which is codified in 451(a), income although not actually reduced to a taxpayer’s possession is constructively received by him in the taxable year during which it is credited to his account, set apart for him, or otherwise made available so that he may draw upon it at any time, or so that he could have drawn upon it during the taxable year if notice of intention to withdraw had been given. However, income is not constructively received if the taxpayer’s control of its receipt is subject to substantial limitations or restrictions. See 1.451-2(a) of the regulations. Establishing constructive receipt requires a determination that the taxpayer had control of the receipt of the deferred amounts and that such control was not subject to substantial lim
