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Forms W-2), and as a partner (signing a partnership return as
"general partner").2
Wilberding considered petitioner to be his 50-percent
partner. Wilberding believed that Wayanne was dissolved in 1983
or 1984, at which time he and petitioner became partners in all
the various entities petitioner had created. At that time some
bank accounts were closed, and other bank accounts were set up
for various aspects of the business. For instance, a payroll
account under the name of "Wayanne, Inc." was changed to "Wayanne
Ltd." The name of the restaurant was changed to Iron Hill
Restaurant, Ltd.
In 1989 Wilberding and petitioner parted ways, and
Wilberding sued petitioner for an accounting. The dispute was
precipitated by a letter from the IRS saying that Wayanne was
being audited.3 Wilberding discovered his name was on purported
returns which he had not signed, and he asked petitioner for an
2 Petitioner testified in a previous trial that his sons
owned an interest in Iron Hill Investments, Inc., but sold their
interest in December 1988, when the children would have been 14
and 10 years of age.
3 It is unclear what years were under audit, whether
returns had been filed for those years and, if so, whether they
were corporate or partnership returns. It is clear that
petitioner told the IRS agent that he had a power of attorney for
the business. Petitioner had removed the records from the
restaurant premises, and met with the revenue agent, giving her
permission to take the records for copying. She later returned
them to Wilberding. Despite some tangential testimony about the
restaurant audit, those returns are not in evidence and appear to
have little or no relevance to this case.
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Last modified: May 25, 2011