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(return form without information with which to calculate a tax
liability, containing approximately 60 references to "Object Self
Incrimination" is not a tax return).
A taxpayer who fails to file a return bears the burden of
showing that: (1) His failure to file did not result from
"willful neglect"; and (2) he had reasonable cause for failure to
file the return. Sec. 6651(a)(1); United States v. Boyle, 469
U.S. 241, 245 (1985). United States v. Boyle, supra at 245-246,
defines willful neglect as "a conscious, intentional failure or
reckless indifference." Whether petitioner's filing of the
"tentative return" sufficiently rebuts the presumption of "a
conscious, intentional failure" is a question of fact on which
petitioner presented no evidence.
Petitioner must also show, by a preponderance of the
evidence, that he had reasonable cause to fail to file a return,
a question determined in the "instant circumstances". Id. at
246-247. Petitioner presented no evidence on this point beyond
submitting the "tentative return" as an exhibit, perhaps in an
attempt to allow us to draw an inference that his uncertainty
regarding the outcome of an ongoing criminal investigation
constituted reasonable cause not to file a return. Any argument
along that line must fail. Pending criminal investigations do
not excuse a failure to file a return, United States v. Sullivan,
274 U.S. 259 (1927); United States v. Malquist, 791 F.2d 1399
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