Percy Wilson Phillips (June 2, 1892 – May 15, 1969)[1] was a judge of the United States Board of Tax Appeals (later the United States Tax Court) from 1924 to 1931.
Born in Southampton, New York, Phillips attended Southampton High School and received his law degree from Cornell Law School in 1915.[2] He served in the United States Army during World War I, achieving the rank of first lieutenant of field artillery, and after the war receiving a promotion to captain of field artillery.[2] He then joined the law firm of Sackett, Chapman, Brown and Cross, in Manhattan, specializing in income tax and inheritance tax matters.[3]
In March 1925, Phillips was appointed to the Board by President Calvin Coolidge.[2] A 1925 report of his early activities with the board read as follows:
Phillips was reappointed for a 10-year term in June 1926,[2] but resigned in 1931 to form a new law firm with fellow board member James S.Y. Ivins and tax lawyer Richard Barker, called Ivins Phillips Barker.[2] He remained in practice for decades thereafter, and in 1956 successfully represented the H. J. Heinz Co. in a suit to recover tax overpayments from the mid 1940s.[4]
On August 15, 1920, Phillips married Margaret Richards Terrell, a nurse, of Riverhead, New York,[5] with whom he had three daughters and a son.[1] [2] He died in Washington, D.C., at the age of 76, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.[1]