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avoid the negligence penalty, because petitioner failed to show
that his father had any expertise in tax matters. See Allen v.
Commissioner, 925 F.2d 348, 353-354 (9th Cir. 1991), affg. 92
T.C. 1 (1989).
Failure to keep adequate records is some evidence of
negligence. Marcello v. Commissioner, supra at 507; Magnon v.
Commissioner, 73 T.C. 980, 1008 (1980). Petitioner's records
were incomplete and in disarray. At trial, petitioner offered
cancelled checks with few of the corresponding receipts. These
records provided very little, if any, indication of how the
cancelled checks related to the Harwichport property. For
example, the cancelled checks payable to the oil companies did
not indicate the items purchased, the dates of purchase, or where
the transactions took place.
The testimony of petitioner and his father gave the distinct
impression that petitioner kept no contemporaneous records of his
expenses. Petitioner's testimony that he advertised no property
in the New York Times other than the Harwichport property was
incorrect. Petitioner deducted items such as clock repair and
then offered nothing at trial that related the clock to the
Harwichport property. We conclude that the understatement is
attributable to negligence.
We have addressed the items still in dispute that we can
discern from the record. However, the record and the briefs in
this case leave much to be desired. If items remain, we expect
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