- 14 - On April 17, 1989, petitioner and Mr. Buck mailed the purported return to respondent. The purported return was not signed by either petitioner or Mr. Buck. Rather, the purported return contained the statement "Fifth Amendment" in the spaces provided for petitioner's and Mr. Buck's signatures. This Court has specifically held that the submission of an unsigned document purporting to be a return does not constitute the filing of a "return". Beard v. Commissioner, supra at 777- 778; Richardson v. Commissioner, 72 T.C. 818, 823 (1979); Joseph v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1996-77 (where Form 1040 contained the statement "5th" in the space provided for the taxpayer's signature, the Court held that such form was not a valid return and did not start the running of the statute of limitations); see Sloan v. Commissioner, 102 T.C. 137 (1994), affd. 53 F.3d 799 (7th Cir. 1995); see also sec. 6061; sec. 1.6061-1(a), Income Tax Regs. Thus, the purported return submitted by petitioner and Mr. Buck on April 19, 1989, did not constitute a return. As relevant herein, the term "deficiency" is defined by section 6211(a) as the excess of the amount of tax actually due over the amount shown as tax by the taxpayer upon the return, if the taxpayer made a return showing an amount of tax due. Sec. 6211(a)(1)(A). Because petitioner did not file a return before the notice of deficiency was issued, a deficiency existed in an amount equal to the entire tax due. See sec. 6211(b)(1); Olmstead v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1993-216 (where the taxpayerPage: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011