- 21 -21
adequate records from which their tax liability may be
determined. Petzoldt v. Commissioner, 92 T.C. 661, 686 (1989).
Petitioners have failed to establish that they are entitled
to the additional deduction for attorney's fees. They presented
no documentary evidence such as canceled checks.9 Petitioners
failed to call DiCaro as a witness or any other person who could
corroborate their claimed payments to him. Also unexplained is
how petitioners managed to have every canceled check to
substantiate payments to four other attorneys but could not
produce a single canceled check for the claimed payments to
DiCaro. If Mr. Marcus' records were lost closing up his office,
why were the only legal fee checks misplaced the ones to DiCaro?
Why didn't petitioners get copies of the canceled checks from
their bank? Under these circumstances, Mr. Marcus'
uncorroborated testimony is not sufficient to substantiate the
deduction: "We know of no rule that uncontradicted testimony
must be accepted by a court finding the facts, particularly
where, as here, the testimony is given by interested parties."
Wood v. Commissioner, 338 F.2d 602, 605 (9th Cir. 1964), affg. 41
T.C. 593 (1964).
9 Petitioners attempted to enter into the record a "recreated
fee statement" from DiCaro's office to show that the fees had
been paid, but failed to authenticate the statement by having
anyone from DiCaro's office testify. Also, the recreated
statement only purports to show that payments were made, not by
whom payments were made.
Page: Previous 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 NextLast modified: May 25, 2011