- 8 - without such expertise. Tippin v. Commissioner, 104 T.C. 518, 534 (1995). Petitioner in this case specialized in tax shelter planning and litigation and had over 20 years of experience. In addition, he had litigated tax shelter cases for the IRS and possessed extensive knowledge of tax shelters similar to those at issue in this case. Petitioner makes two arguments in support of his contention that he was reasonable in taking the deductions. First, petitioner argues that we should conclude he was not negligent, because he researched and wrote an opinion letter analyzing the transactions. Petitioner concluded in his opinion letter that the deductions relating to the transactions would be permissible under the Code. The transactions involved the circular transfer of funds among related entities (both domestic and foreign) for the sole purpose of generating tax deductions. In Wolverine, Ltd. v. Commissioner, supra, we concluded that the transactions lacked economic substance. At the time petitioner claimed the deductions, case law uniformly indicated that transactions lacking economic substance would not be respected for tax purposes. See, e.g., Gregory v. Helvering, 293 U.S. 465, 469 (1935); Bercy Indus., Inc. v. Commissioner, 640 F.2d 1058, 1062 (9th Cir. 1981), revg. 70 T.C. 29 (1978). Petitioner has failed to establish that he, as an experienced tax practitioner, was reasonable in claiming a distributive share of the deductionsPage: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Next
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