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an evaluation of all the facts and circumstances in the case,
taken as a whole, which is determinative.
Petitioner did not carry on her writing activity in a
businesslike manner. Her resume lists bookkeeping and accounting
among her business experiences and skills, yet petitioner did not
maintain any type of records, books, or accounting method
relating to her writing activity. At trial she submitted copies
of hundreds of checks written in 1989, 1990, and 1991 (over 400
checks for 1989 alone). The various payees included Wal-Mart, K-
Mart, Shell, Exxon, Southern Bell, J.C. Penney, Citibank, and
various individuals. A majority of the checks fail to indicate
what was purchased or for what purpose the particular expenditure
was made. We find petitioner's "shoebox method" of recordkeeping
inconsistent with a business or an activity for profit,
particularly in light of her claim to past bookkeeping and
accounting experience.
Petitioner has little expertise or experience as a
professional writer. She testified that she ghostwrote for a
political candidate and has had "many of [her] works from about
[her] junior year of high school published in local and other
newspapers, unedited." However, petitioner did not state whether
she was remunerated for any of her written work or campaign
ghostwriting, and she did not submit into evidence any of her
purportedly published material, except for the items directly in
issue in this case. We are not required to accept petitioner's
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