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income under circumstances such as those here present. Had the
Forms 1099 reported the payments by the MBWC for airline tickets,
a deduction for the amount of the cost of the tickets which were
used for a business purpose of being transported to the shows
might have been proper for each wrestler. The record as a whole
shows that many, if not most, of the wrestlers considered that
they were paying for the airline tickets, since the cost of the
tickets was deducted from the gross receipts from the show before
the proration of their percentage of the gross receipts among the
various wrestlers who performed at the show. The record shows
that from time to time this fact was discussed by the wrestlers
in their locker rooms or during their trips. Under these facts,
it appears plausible that petitioner could have considered that
he paid for the airline tickets that were furnished him by MBWC
and was, therefore, entitled to deduct the cost of the tickets as
an expense. While persons accustomed to tax law understand the
concept that an item paid for a person but not included in that
person's income is not deductible, it is not uncommon for people
not familiar with tax law to fail to understand this concept.
This factor, combined with the confidence petitioner placed in
his return preparer, and her certainty that wrestlers paid their
own expenses, which must in some way have been intimated to
petitioner during the preparation of his return, negates fraud by
petitioner in claiming the deductions for air fares.
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