- 13 - testimony concerning whether a recovery would occur on the termination of petitioner’s relationship with Associated; and (3) respondent should bear the burden of proof with respect to the applicability of the tax benefit rule. We do not consider petitioners to be prejudiced by respondent’s limited and responsive reliance on the tax benefit rule. We note that petitioners have placed in evidence their tax returns from 1970 through 1988 (petitioners could not produce copies of their 1968 and 1969 returns) and the surety ledgers for the BUF accounts in issue, which permits as complete an evaluation as practical of the extent of any tax benefit resulting from the deductions claimed by petitioners. We also consider petitioners to have been aware of the relevance of the tax benefit rule to the instant case. In their opening brief, petitioners discuss whether the balances of petitioner’s BUF accounts must be included in income when the accounts are closed and attempt to distinguish Knight-Ridder Newspapers, Inc. v. United States, 743 F.2d 781, 799 (11th Cir. 1984), which noted that the previously deducted balance of a reserve account is to be included in income when the account ceases to be used. The portion of Knight-Ridder Newspapers that petitioners attempt to distinguish is based on an application of the tax benefit rule. We further fail to see the value of expert testimony on the matter of whether a recovery would occur on the refunding of the BUF account balances to petitioner. Finally, by relying on thePage: Previous 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Next
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