- 11 - should have known that the return contained a substantial understatement. Hayman v. Commissioner, 992 F.2d at 1261. According to Hayman, a court should look at (1) The level of education and (2) the knowledge and experience in the family's business and financial affairs attained by the spouse claiming to be innocent; (3) whether the family's current standard of living was lavish compared to past levels of income and expenditures; and (4) the conduct of the culpable spouse in concealing the true state of the family's finances from the "innocent" spouse. Friedman v. Commissioner, supra at 531-532. We have made detailed findings of fact, many of which encompass the Hayman case factors, and no useful purpose is served by rehashing these facts in detail. But in our view, when the Hayman four factors are applied in our case, petitioner satisfies the requirement of subparagraph (C) that in signing the return she did not know, and had no reason to know, that there were substantial understatements. (1) Petitioner, while well educated, devoted most of her time to her interest in the arts--graphic arts and the theater-- and her work experience as a space salesman for a small, local newspaper did nothing to fit her for an understanding of business matters on anything like a sophisticated level. (2) Petitioner had no role whatever in the family's financial affairs beyond, at most, making cash payments forPage: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011