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into my checking account." With respect to a deposit of $5,400
made on January 30, 1987, to the North Fork account, petitioner
testified that he could not remember whether it was a partial
repayment of the $14,000 that he testified he lent to Libutti or
a redeposit of a portion of the $5,800 that he had deposited on
May 15, 1986, and then withdrew: "The fact that it's deposited,
as such, is indicative that it is from Mr. Libutty [sic]."
Petitioner did not corroborate his testimony as to loan
repayments with written evidence of any loans. Moreover, he
provided no supporting testimony; he neither called Libutti or
John Ballis to testify nor showed that they were unavailable to
testify. If petitioner had made loans to them and received
repayments from them in 1986, they could have testified to that
effect. We infer from their failure to testify that their
testimony would have been negative to petitioner. McKay v.
Commissioner, 886 F.2d 1237, 1238 (9th Cir. 1989), affg. 89 T.C.
1063 (1987); Wichita Terminal Elevator Co. v. Commissioner,
6 T.C. 1158, 1165 (1946), affd. 162 F.2d 513 (10th Cir. 1947).
We accord no weight to petitioner's testimony that the 1986
deposits were either loan repayments or redeposits of
petitioner's own cash. Petitioner has failed to rebut the
presumption that the 1986 deposits represented items of gross
income. Therefore, we sustain respondent's determination of a
deficiency as it relates to such items.
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