- 55 - Based on the underreported taxable income, as reflected above, the first element of the fraud addition to tax has been established as to both Elvin and YOC for each year in dispute. With regard to the allegation that Elvin's brain tumor precluded Elvin from forming the requisite fraudulent intent, both parties offered expert medical testimony. Unfortunately, none of the expert witnesses examined Elvin before June 23, 1987, the day the brain tumor was removed. Petitioners' first expert witness is a neurosurgeon. He examined Elvin two times, once in July of 1990 (3 years after the brain tumor was removed), and once in March of 1994 (shortly before trial herein). He testified that brain tumors in certain parts of the brain may cause behavioral abnormalities and that when the frontal lobe of the brain is intruded on or destroyed, there likely will be some degree of dementia, which is a decrease in intellectual function. Petitioners' first expert witness concluded that a brain tumor such as Elvin's may cause a change in personality, an inability to plan for the future, and a decrease in the ability to remember and to make rational judgments. He acknowledged that the use of drugs and alcohol may intensify the physical and mental changes caused by a brain tumor. In offering his opinion, he relied extensively on broad theories of expected behavioral changes associated with a brain tumor in the frontal lobe, and hePage: Previous 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 Next
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