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Negligence includes a lack of due care or a failure to do
what a reasonable and ordinarily prudent person would do under
the circumstances. Zmuda v. Commissioner, 731 F.2d 1417, 1422
(9th Cir. 1984), affg. 79 T.C. 714 (1982); Neely v. Commissioner,
85 T.C. 934, 947 (1985). Failure to file a timely Federal income
tax return is evidence of negligence. Emmons v. Commissioner,
92 T.C. 342, 349 (1989), affd. 898 F.2d 50 (5th Cir. 1990).
Petitioner bears the burden of proving that respondent's
determination of negligence is erroneous. Rule 142(a); Bixby v.
Commissioner, 58 T.C. 757, 791-792 (1972).
Petitioners allege that they were not negligent because
they: (1) Were born outside the United States, (2) have never
taken any business courses as part of their education, and
(3) relied on their tax preparer. We are not persuaded that any
of these allegations disproves respondent's determination with
respect to these additions to tax. The foreign birthplace of a
taxpayer is not sufficient to constitute "reasonable cause". See
Jamieson v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1995-550. Although
petitioners did not take any business courses, their business
experience should have alerted them to the requirement of filing
a Federal income tax return. Mr. Ghadiri operated three print
shops during the years in question. In fact, he expanded his
business from two to three print shops during 1988. Mr. Ghadiri
received a doctoral degree in electrical engineering, and
Mrs. Ghadiri received a master's degree in both German and math.
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