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simply because he keeps incomplete records. The
absence of tax records cannot automatically deprive the
Commissioner of a rational foundation for the income
determination. As the Fifth Circuit recognized in Webb
v. C.I.R., 394 F.2d 366, 373 (5th Cir. 1968):
[T]he absence of adequate tax records does not
give the Commissioner carte blanche for imposing
Draconian absolutes .... [However,] such absence
does weaken any critique of the Commissioner's
methodology.
Arithmetic precision was originally and
exclusively in [the taxpayer's] hands, and he had
a statutory duty to provide it .... [H]aving
defaulted in his duty, he cannot frustrate the
Commissioner's reasonable attempts by compelling
investigation and recomputation under every means
of income determination. Nor should he be overly
chagrined at the Tax Court's reluctance to credit
every word of his negative wails.
See also Figueiredo v. Commissioner, 54 T.C. 1508 (1970), affd.
per order (9th Cir., Mar. 14, 1973); Estate of Mason v.
Commissioner, 64 T.C. 651 (1975), affd. 566 F.2d 2 (6th Cir.
1977); Bradford v. Commissioner, 796 F.2d 303 (9th Cir. 1986),
affg. T.C. Memo. 1984-601. Petitioners in this case have not
provided records or a more reasonable or accurate method of
reconstructing their income.
Petitioners attacked respondent’s reconstruction method by
arguing that duplication occurred and by testifying that the
reconstruction was in error based on petitioners’ recollections
that certain clients were charged lesser fees or no fees.
Petitioners, though they are tax professionals, failed to keep
adequate records and thus created this situation in which
respondent is unable to specifically verify or reconstruct the
fees charged to certain clients or to determine whether, in some
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