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sole record of income for the corporate petitioner. The totals
of sales for each month were totaled at the bottom of the green
sheets for that month. The following column headings appeared on
the green sheets: Date, Register, Food Stamps, Rebates, Cash,
Paid Outs, Balance, Cash on Hand, Tax, Deposit, Savings, and
Count.5 One row of information appeared for each business day of
that month. The green sheets were prepared using the daily cash
register reconciliations from one to four cash registers.
However, no register tapes or cash register reconciliations were
provided to the accounting firm or submitted into evidence.
According to Mr. Sutton, the figures in the column entitled
"Register" represented total sales or gross receipts before
coupons were deducted.6 The entries under "Cash" represented the
sum of "Register" plus "Rebates". "Paid Outs" were subtracted
from "Cash" to arrive at "Balance". "Cash on Hand" represented
actual money, checks, and money equivalents such as vouchers and
5 There is no explanation in the record as to the last
column heading.
6 The full price of the grocery item was rung up on the
cash register, but then the coupon amount was deducted on the
cash register tape. Without the cash register tapes or the cash
register reconciliations, it is not possible to verify whether
the total sales or gross receipts figures listed on the green
sheets included or excluded coupon amounts. Since the Court did
not find Mr. Sutton to be a credible witness, the Court is
unwilling to accord much weight to his self-serving and wholly
unsupported testimony. With a retail grocery business involving
a lot of cash receipts and with Mr. Sutton's practice of dealing
in cash and failing to distinguish between his pockets and those
of his corporation's business, the absence of the cash register
tapes is particularly troublesome.
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